How Do You Know if Your Property Has a Septic Tank
Table of Contents
- What Is a Septic Tank?
- How Practise I Know If I Have a Septic Tank?
- Why It's Important to Know the Location of Your Septic Tank
- How to Locate a Septic Tank
- What to Do After You Find Your Septic Tank
Your new home might have won you lot over with its charming good looks and features, merely in that location is most likely more to your new property than meets the heart. Many of the features that help your home function efficiently and that allow y'all to live a comfortable, modernistic life are not always visible. One of those features is your dwelling's septic tank.
A septic system has the job of decision-making and managing your home'due south wastewater. If you have a septic tank, anything y'all flush or send down a bleed pipage will eventually end upward in the tank.
1 of the biggest questions we are asked is "How exercise I find my septic tank?" Somewhen, every septic tank volition make full and will need to be pumped. When your tank's lid is not easy to find – specially if you are not the original homeowner – yous might not accept a clue on how or where to find the lid. How deep is a septic tank hat? In near cases, all components of the septic tank are cached between four inches and four feet undercover.
If y'all are wondering if your new dwelling house in the Greater Syracuse area has a septic tank, at that place are a few ways to find out and to find the tank itself. First, though, it helps to sympathise what a septic tank and septic system do and why it is a good idea to know where yours is located.
How to Locate Your Septic Tank
The location of your septic tank is not a hush-hush. There's going to be a way for you to find information technology and notation its location for future reference, and here are a few of them.
ane. Utilise a Septic Tank Map
Beginning things first – consult a map. Often, using a map is the easiest pick. Almost counties retain records of the installation of septic tanks at all addresses. These maps should include diagrams showing the exact location of the tank on the property, and dimensions and then that yous can mensurate and find the exact spot. Don't forget that landmarks might alter throughout the years depending on when the tank was installed, so if there's a few more bushes or a tree nearby, don't count that spot out.
Tip: If you merely purchased a property, this map should be included with your abode inspection paperwork.
If you don't notice a map or other documentation explaining where your septic tank is, there are a few places to cheque to see if you tin get access to a map. One is your county health section. Canton health departments often maintain records of septic systems. Y'all can also check to see if in that location is a holding survey map available from your municipality or canton. A survey map might contain the location of a septic tank.
Some homes are so one-time that any records about them might be patchy or fifty-fifty not-existent. If you tin can't track down a map or blueprint of your holding and zilch seems to be on file about it at the county health department or in some other municipal part, information technology tin exist worth creating your ain map and documentation. That way, if y'all end up selling your dwelling at some point, you tin provide the side by side homeowner with everything they will need to find the tank and maintain their septic organisation.
2. Follow the Pipes to Find Your Septic Tank
If a map to your septic tank does non exist or you would like to create one for hereafter reference or future homeowners, yous still demand to rails down and locate the tank. One way to do that is to follow the sewer pipes that lead out from your home.
We're sure you know, your septic tank is installed along the sewer line that extends from your domicile and into the k. In the basement or crawl space of your home, you lot should exist able to notice a 4-inch sewer piping that will pb the manner to your septic system. If your basement is finished, the sewer pipe might be hidden away in a closet or another closed off area. Generally speaking, though, you are looking for a iv-inch diameter piping that exits your business firm through a basement wall.
Notation where the pipe leaves your house, and then head outside to detect the corresponding surface area in your thousand. Follow the pipe by sticking a thin metal probe (known as a soil probe) into the basis near the sewer line. Probe about every two feet. Virtually septic tanks are around 10-25 feet away from your home, and cannot be closer than five feet. Once yous feel the probe striking apartment concrete, fiberglass or polyethylene, yous will accept located your tank.
Some other manner to find the septic tank using the sewer pipage is to go through the pipage itself. Nosotros're not recommending that you endeavor to climb into the piping. Instead, utilise a drain ophidian, which you would ordinarily use to pause upwardly a clog in a toilet or bleed. Thread the snake into the sewer pipage, noting any twists and bends forth its journey. When the serpent stops, it has most likely reached the tank. Don't try to force the serpent to get any further because you exercise not want to impairment the inlet.
Notation how far you extended the snake every bit you describe it back, as well as any bends or curves. Once you know the altitude the ophidian traveled and the guess road it took, you tin venture exterior to look for the tank buried in the ground.
A more loftier-tech way to find your septic tank is to flush a transmitter down a toilet and let it guide yous to the tank. If you just want to bank check up on the condition of your tank, just don't need to detect it in the yard, you tin thread a pipage camera through the sewer pipe to become a look at what'south going on.
three. Inspect Your Yard
Septic tanks are installed to be equally inconspicuous as possible. After time has passed and the grass has grown, sometimes it'south hard to really encounter the visual clues that pointed out exactly where your septic tank was installed. But that does not mean there won't all the same be clues helping to straight you to the location of your septic tank. First things offset, yous want to rule out places where your septic tank won't be:
- Under the driveway or another paved surface.
- Right against the business firm (the tank needs to be at least five feet away).
- Next to your well (if you have 1).
- Near copse or areas with heavy plantings.
- Under a patio, deck or another structure.
Once you've ruled out where your tank is not going to be, it is time to start looking for clues as to its location. Go on your eyes open up as you walk your property and search for any unexplained high or low spots that might indicate a buried tank. For example, y'all might find a colina or mound on your property, which is often an indicator that a septic tank is nearby.
Some other thing to pay attending to when looking for a septic tank is the grass or other greenery in your one thousand. Depending on the status of your septic arrangement, the grass might be more verdant and faster-growing in the area near the tank. Or, if the tank was not buried properly, you might notice a "baldheaded patch," or an surface area where the grass is having a hard time growing.
iv. Talk to Your Neighbors
If your neighbors besides accept septic systems, they tin help you figure out where your tank is hiding. Enquire your neighbors where their septic tanks are in relation to their houses. Non but does talking to your neighbors almost septic systems requite you a way to figure out where yours is, just information technology tin can also serve as a friendly introduction to the residuum of your neighborhood.
5. Look for Your Septic Tank Chapeau
Finding your septic tank is just the start pace in the procedure. Once y'all've found your tank, the next affair to do is find the hat. You lot can employ your soil probe to locate information technology. Almost septic tanks are rectangular and will measure about 5 feet by 8 feet. Probe effectually the tank to locate the edges and mark the perimeter. If you do not feel the lid by probing, a shallow excavation with a shovel within the perimeter and about the middle (or broken into halves for a 2 compartment tank) should reveal the location of the chapeau or lids.
Even after you've discovered the location of your septic tank's chapeau(due south), we do not recommend opening it. The tank itself is probable to be full of unpleasant-smelling, if not dangerous, fumes. Be happy that you lot've found your tank, simply get out any maintenance or repair work on it to a team of professional person plumbers.
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What to Do Afterward You Find Your Septic Tank
Once you lot've located your tank, it's time to call in the professionals. Trust usa, opening up a septic tank is not something just anyone wants to do. Physical septic tank lids are very heavy and crave specific lifting tools to remove. Because of the contents, fumes can be toxic so delight mind our warning and exercise not attempt to open the tank yourself. An open septic tank can exist dangerous to anyone walking along your property, and if someone should fall in, it could actually be fatal due to the toxicity.
But earlier you call in a team of professional plumbers, at that place are a few things yous tin can exercise to make certain others do not have the same problem finding the tank and to make finding the tank in the hereafter easier.
ane. Mark Its Location
You most likely do not want to put upward a big sign in your thousand that reads "Septic Tank Here!," just you practise want to leave some kind of marker so that you tin find the tank and the lid hands when you need it. Ideally, the marker will be heavy enough that it does not blow away in the wind and cannot be moved easily past children playing in the grand. A few options include a patio paver, a potted plant or a decorative gnome or rock.
Along with placing a physical mark past the septic tank, you tin can create a map or diagram showing its location. Keep the map or diagram with your household documents for future reference.
two. Take Care of Your Septic Tank
Taking practiced care of your tank tin can save you thousands of dollars. It might toll a few hundred dollars every few years to maintain your system, but that's considerably less than the thousands of dollars it oft costs to repair or replace a broken tank or malfunctioning septic organisation.
Two means to care for your septic tank and system include not using your drain pipes or toilets like garbage cans and using less h2o overall. Don't affluent anything that isn't meant to exist flushed, such as a paper towels, facial tissues and true cat litter. In the kitchen, don't send solid foods, cooking oil or medications down the sink drain.
Yous can also cut your household's water use by installing low-flow faucets and high-efficiency toilets. Another option is to be smart about when yous use appliances that require a lot of h2o. For example, you want to avoid washing load afterwards load of laundry or running your clothes washer at the same fourth dimension as your dishwasher.
What Is a Septic Tank?
A septic tank is a crucial role of a dwelling house'southward septic system. In the U.S., almost 20% of homes use a septic system to manage their wastewater. Septic systems are most normally found in the Eastern U.S., with homes in rural areas of New England being the most likely to accept a septic system present. When houses are few and far between, it is oft more efficient and economical to use a septic arrangement to manage wastewater than it is to utilise a public sewer organization.
When a septic system is in place, wastewater leaves the dwelling house and travels along the master drain pipe to the septic tank. A septic tank is a container that is watertight and is normally made of a material such as concrete, polyethylene or fiberglass. Often, the tank is buried hush-hush.
The job of a septic tank is to hold onto the wastewater until whatever solids in the water dissever from it. The solids sink to the bottom of the tank while annihilation that is less dense than h2o, such as grease and oil, floats to the top. Somewhen, any remaining liquid, known as "effluent," exits the tank, where information technology drains into a leach field or drainfield. The soil in the leach field helps to filter the water and remove any bacteria, viruses and other contaminants from it.
The design of a septic tank prevents the solids or oils/grease from exiting the tank along with the h2o or effluent. Septic tanks installed in Onondaga Canton need to have inlet and outlet baffles, an effluent filter or sanitary tees installed to carve up the solids from the liquids.
How Exercise I Know If I Accept a Septic Tank?
How do you know if your home has a septic tank? There are usually a few ways to tell. One way to decide whether or not your habitation has a septic arrangement or is served by the public sewer arrangement is to look at your water nib. If y'all are using a septic system for wastewater direction, then you're likely to see a charge of $0 for wastewater or sewer services from the utility company.
Of course, if you accept a septic system, it is possible that you will not get a water bill at all. That is because, in many cases, people with septic systems too accept well h2o. If the h2o line that comes into your domicile has no meter attached to it, that is unremarkably a sign that y'all are using well h2o and not public utility water.
Your home'south location can also help you effigy out whether or non you lot have a septic system and tank or are using public sewer facilities. If you lot live in a fairly rural expanse, there is a high likelihood that your home is served by a septic system. If you nonetheless are not sure, you can talk to your neighbors. If they all have septic systems, then your domicile probable does every bit well.
In some cases, there might be visual signs you accept a septic tank. Frequently, when a septic tank is nowadays, at that place is as well a mound or small hill that is not a naturally occurring formation. It was created with the installation of the leach field and septic tank.
A surefire way to ostend whether or not your home has a septic system is to check your property records. It is likely that the building permit and blueprints for your home and property will contain information about the presence (or lack) of a septic tank.
Why It'south Important to Know the Location of Your Septic Tank
Why should you bother to figure out the location of your septic tank? There are a few significant reasons:
i. To Be Able to Care for Information technology Properly
The first reason why you want to detect your septic tank is that knowing its location allows y'all to maintain and care for it properly. The usual recommendation is not to build or place heavy items on top of the septic tank. For case, you lot don't want to park your machine or truck there, nor practice yous want visitors to your home to park their vehicles on tiptop of it. The weight of the cars might put too much pressure on the tank and cause it to collapse.
two. If Yous Want to Landscape or Remodel Your Property
If y'all plan on adding on to your business firm or promise to do some landscaping around your property, you lot need to know the location of your septic tank. You lot want to avoid planting anything with deep or long roots on peak of or in the vicinity of your tank. It's possible for roots to grow into the pipes of your septic organisation, leading to clogs. When you know where the tank is located, you can plan your mural blueprint so that merely shallow-rooted plants, like grass, are nearby.
Building a deck or other structure over the top of the location of your septic tank is also not recommended. For 1 thing, the weight of the construction could cause the tank to collapse. For another, it is difficult to get access to the tank if there is a permanent structure built on top of it.
3. If a Problem With Your Tank Occurs
Knowing where your tank is cached can also help you lot spot issues quickly when they come up. For example, you might wake up ane morning and discover that there is flooding or ponding h2o in the area effectually your septic tank — a sign that your system is overloaded, and too much water is beingness used at one time.
4. Ease of Getting It Fixed
Finally, when yous know where your septic tank is located, you lot can hands direct the plumber to it if there is a problem with the system — saving anybody time and money.
Telephone call a Professional Plumber
Septic arrangement maintenance is non typically a practise-it-yourself project. Whether your septic tank needs to be pumped or cleaned or you are looking to supervene upon the tank at your home in the Greater Syracuse expanse, y'all desire to telephone call on the services of a professional plumbing company. If you've tried to find your septic tank on your own and are non sure of its location, it might as well be time to telephone call in the help of a local plumber.
Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Greater Syracuse can find, maintain or replace your home's septic tank. Whether yous're currently experiencing plumbing problems or desire to be proactive nearly your home's plumbing needs, contact us today.
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Source: https://www.mrrooter.com/greater-syracuse/about-us/blog/2015/march/how-to-find-your-septic-tank/
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