The owning of a septic tank is a serious issue and its maintenance cannot be taken lightly. There are a dozen or more items that can go wrong with a septic system and a good portion of these can occur in the winter months. It is due to this that the time is now for inspecting and maintaining the system to the standards that will allow it to flow freely and trouble free this winter. There are around three to four areas that can cause some serious concern for a person that owns one of these systems. Let’s look at them now.
The first area of inspection should be that of the cover. There is a lot that can happen with a cover that can actually cause it to be damaged a great deal. If you are unable to inspect the cover due to being buried low into the ground, and then make sure that, you have it inspected the next time that the system is given overall maintenance. If this cover is not intact, it can allow contents to seep out or rain water to seep in. This brings up to the actual contents of the septic tank.
The amount of sludge that is in the tank at any given time, will greatly affect the performance of the tank. It is often advised that you have the tank pumped out before winter weather hits. This is especially true if you have a lot of material that goes in and it has been a while since the last pumping. In winter a tank has a tendency to not perform as well as it should, so make its job easier by not allowing it to build up too much content.
One fear is that if you do not place anything in the tank that it will freeze. There are two reasons why this is not the case. The first is the fact that many of the pipes are buried low into the ground. This helps them to not be affected by the cold weather. Another reason for this is due to the large amount of wastewater that is flushed through the system on a regular basis. This also helps to make sure that the water in the system does not freeze and cause any serious issues.
In areas that a person experiences a lot of snow, there is the problem of running a snow plow over the drain field and damaging several of the pipes that are associated with the operation of the system. A snowplow is one of the more destructive things to a septic system for a person that has issues with it in the winter months. If you have a lot of snow and clearing the drain field is essential consider a small hand snow mover to use in this area.
These are all but a few of the many things that can be done in helping to make sure that a person has the care that they need for their septic system in the middle of winter. The cost of repair or even replacement can be through the roof anytime but having to have it done in the winter months can almost double the overall cost.