Hi,
We moved into our house about 18 months ago. We understand that the septic tank system was installed sometime in the 1970's. We had the tank emptied in February, when the toilet stopped flushing properly. The tank emptiers told us that it seemed as if the tank hadn't been emptied in YEARS.
The entire system is buried, with no inspection covers, so we had to dig down to find the lid of the tank. The tank is concrete, with two compartments, at about two thirds/one third. The separator does not go all the way to the top of the tank. The tank is round and only has one cover. A metal label in it says it is suitable for 4 people and 160 litres of water a day. The tank ONLY takes waste from the toilet (the bath and basin water go into a soakaway and the kitchen & washing machine water go into another soakaway).
Last week the toilet again stopped flushing properly. When we dug down again the lifted the cover the tank appeared to be full, with the contents going over the top of the separator.
We pumped some of the liquid out and tried to 'snake' the outlet pipe, but couldn't get through. We then dug slong the line of the outlet pipe and came across a large (1.75m x 1m approx) concrete tank with a lid on it. The tank contains partitions which allow the fluid to zig zag through it, and the gullies were filled with stones (and totally full of crud!) We took the stuff out of the box, and at the corner diagonally opposite to the inlet is a hole, down which the water goes. This then appears to lead to another layer of zig zag partitions. (We are only guessing at this, though, because we cannot see them and there appears to be no way to get to them - however, the outlet pipe leaves the box on the same side as the inlet pipe, but at the other end.
I have searched the internet for information about this box, but can't seem to find anything. Has anyone come across one of these before? If so, is there anyway we can clean out the bottom layer? (we tried the snake but couldn't get it through more than about three feet as there appear to be stones in the bottom layer as well).
If we do manage to clean it out is it still likely that the leech field (assuming there is one!) will have been too damaged to recover?
Any help and advice would be very gratefully received.
Thanks
Chris
We moved into our house about 18 months ago. We understand that the septic tank system was installed sometime in the 1970's. We had the tank emptied in February, when the toilet stopped flushing properly. The tank emptiers told us that it seemed as if the tank hadn't been emptied in YEARS.
The entire system is buried, with no inspection covers, so we had to dig down to find the lid of the tank. The tank is concrete, with two compartments, at about two thirds/one third. The separator does not go all the way to the top of the tank. The tank is round and only has one cover. A metal label in it says it is suitable for 4 people and 160 litres of water a day. The tank ONLY takes waste from the toilet (the bath and basin water go into a soakaway and the kitchen & washing machine water go into another soakaway).
Last week the toilet again stopped flushing properly. When we dug down again the lifted the cover the tank appeared to be full, with the contents going over the top of the separator.
We pumped some of the liquid out and tried to 'snake' the outlet pipe, but couldn't get through. We then dug slong the line of the outlet pipe and came across a large (1.75m x 1m approx) concrete tank with a lid on it. The tank contains partitions which allow the fluid to zig zag through it, and the gullies were filled with stones (and totally full of crud!) We took the stuff out of the box, and at the corner diagonally opposite to the inlet is a hole, down which the water goes. This then appears to lead to another layer of zig zag partitions. (We are only guessing at this, though, because we cannot see them and there appears to be no way to get to them - however, the outlet pipe leaves the box on the same side as the inlet pipe, but at the other end.
I have searched the internet for information about this box, but can't seem to find anything. Has anyone come across one of these before? If so, is there anyway we can clean out the bottom layer? (we tried the snake but couldn't get it through more than about three feet as there appear to be stones in the bottom layer as well).
If we do manage to clean it out is it still likely that the leech field (assuming there is one!) will have been too damaged to recover?
Any help and advice would be very gratefully received.
Thanks
Chris
