For any home or public building today, there must be the proper hardware to clear out sewage, used water, or even water that seeps inside due to rain or the basement being below the water table. Over the years, plenty of devices and infrastructure have been designed and put in place to deal with sewage and excess buildups of water such as a sump pump for a basement or a septic tank for rural homes (where public utilities do not reach). Septic tank repair, buying a new sump pump, or using camera inspection of a troubled sewage system and more can be done to keep a home’s water and sewage flowing the way it should, and if a person neglects to repair a sump pump or get their septic tank pumped, major issues may arise. How can all this be taken care of?
Sump Pumps
For some homes, the basement may regularly get flooded due to rainwater, flash floods, or simply due to being under the local water table, and water will build up in the lowest points in the basement. Often, a basement will be built with all this in mind, and pipes and other compartments will channel water into containment areas that are then drained regularly with sump pumps, ensuring that the basement and home do not get flooded with water. Frequent flooding and a high water table are the main two reasons why sump pumps are installed, and anyone who lives in a home vulnerable to a high water table or flash floods will certainly want a good sump pump in place and repair or replace it whenever needed. The owner can contact local contractors who can regularly inspect it or repair or replace the sump pumps as needed, and this can be done regularly. A busted or missing sump pump will soon lead to a flooded basement and possible property damage, and new sump pumps can be installed to replace weaker and outdated old ones that are found in a home. Someone who purchases a used home in flood prone areas may want to get many different parts of the house inspected, and that will include sump pumps. No one wants to buy a home and then see it flooded after the first heavy rain.
A Septic System
Most American homes are connected to public water and sewage utilities, but some are not, and this means that about 25% of all American homes make use of a septic system instead, an independent unit that used hardware underground and local fields to clean up used water that flows from a property. First, the dirty water is collected into an underground septic tank, where it will sit for a few days while colonies of bacteria will break down the solid contents inside that water. Over time, the biggest solids will be broken down and form a sludge that gathers at the bottom of the tank, and this sludge will never leave the tank. Oils and fats build up at the top of the water while relatively cleaner water will be in the middle.
Once this is done, the water in the middle will flow through a filter at one end of the tank and have larger particles removed from it, and this newly filtered water will flow through a series of pipes that branch out. These pipes can be found in what is called a drainage field, and here, the water can flow out of nozzles in the water and seep through loose dirt and gravel that act as natural filters, where more bacteria will help remove more impurities as the water is returned to nature. Owners of these septic systems should take care that no vehicles drive across the field, because their weight will compress the dirt and gravel and make filtration difficult, if not impossible.
A septic system may need care to keep running. Every year or two, the septic tank should be dug up and crews will arrive with a truck to pump out the sludge built up inside, and this may happen when the tank is about one-third full of sludge. What is more, the filter to the pipes should be cleaned or replaced, but never simply removed for good.