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Septic tank questions ( arghhh ! )


ea93105

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There is Clorox without bleach and you can use the oxyclean powder as well... or baking soda after giving it a spray around first with vinegar. I also use the white scrubbie in the bathroom only since I found that the green ones leave a slight green tinge behind.

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14 hours ago, mudgirl said:

I'm not trying to change the way things work here. (The way things work here often is that they DON'T work) But if one is building their place from scratch, or putting in a new septic system,  which was the topic of this thread, is there some reason not to do it properly, to avoid future problems?  Just because Mexicans like to reduce a 4" toilet outlet to a 2" pipe to save $ on pipe, everyone should do it like that forever? Of course, anyone who likes having a basket of shitty toilet paper in the bathroom is welcome to use 2" pipe , just like they're welcome to stick a vent pipe out of the septic tank, which is the only reason a bad smell would come out of the septic tank, as opposed to having the vent pipes run up inside the walls, and vent on the rooftop.

I wouldn't presume to criticize your advice on computer problems; perhaps you could leave septic advice to those who actually understand how to set up a properly functioning system.

I think vent pipes were optional at the time this house was built, mine doesn't have one, nor does my neighbors house .

I will be adding one however.  Does anyone know if vent fumes sink or rise ?

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Ferret is correct about killing the bacteria.  Large amounts of clorox, chlorine, etc can kill the bacteria which is why I said you should periodically add a product like yeast or you can buy a commercial product for this purpose to reintroduce the bacteria in case it has been killed.  The bacteria will take care of the toilet paper.  You have no way of easily knowing if the bacteria is good so for a small amount of money you can be safe by putting in more.

Septic systems are different in the states from here.  Let me give you the process.  If you want a septic by law in most states if not all because EPA is involved you must perform a perk test.  There are people who are licensed to do this.  They dig a round hole  to a depth of around 2 feet and pour in usually a gallon or two of water.  In a time period of usually 24  hours they check to see how far the water has penetrated in the soil.  These results are given the state office responsible for the permit.  Based on the results they will tell you yes or no.  If no you can put in a chemical septic but I won't talk about this.  If yes the state office will tell you how many bedrooms you may have in the house you are building.  You put in the tank and run 4 inch pipe in a trench with gravel at the bottom.  The 4 inch pcv pipe will have holes in the bottom for the water to drain out of the pipe.  You cover the trench with dirt. The amount of pipe and the determination of number of bedrooms is based mainly on the size of the lot.    Usually the leach field or amount of pipe is around 300 feet. You run the trench's in parallel rolls usually unless you have a lot of area you can use.  If you have a water well the septic must be a distance from it.  I know one person who built a house with bedrooms in excess of what was allowed and now he can't sell the house.  He;ll probably have to knock some walls down or something.

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6 hours ago, ea93105 said:

I think vent pipes were optional at the time this house was built, mine doesn't have one, nor does my neighbors house .

I will be adding one however.  Does anyone know if vent fumes sink or rise ?

I don't know if optional would be the right word- I've never seen any Mexican house done with vent pipes, and there are many plumbers here who don't know what you're talking about if you mention it. They traditionally vent the septic. 

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Some builders do. My current house is 20 years old and has a stack. The house we built in San Pancho in 2004 also had a stack.

The stack not only vents but helps with flushing properly. And the force of the flush helps to move things along the pipe.

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Actually, the "perk test" is obsolete in most states, which have long used soil analysis as a more accurate indication of permeability and ability to treat the effluent. The proportion of sand, loam and clay, and their depths, are the main considerations, along with the depth of the high water table.

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