If you live in a rural area where the lot sizes are larger than in the city and the houses are spaced widely apart, it’s highly likely that your home is on a septic system, which treats wastewater just steps away from your home. Septic systems are fantastic, they’re extremely efficient and self-contained.
Often, you’ll see septic systems in rural areas where the houses are widely spaced apart because they’re more economical than a centralized sewer system, the kind that we see in cities. Septic systems are really quite simple, and they’re affordable to install and maintain.
Septic systems use natural processes to treat human waste and other wastewater from dishwashing, bathing, and handwashing. Septic systems are installed on the homeowner’s property, usually right in the homeowner’s backyard.
Due to their convenient location, septic systems help the environment because they make it so we don’t have to install miles of sewer lines in rural areas. Instead, the earth between rural homes and the city remains intact.
How Septic Systems Work
A septic system is made up of a septic tank and a drain field. The tank itself is a watertight box that’s built out of concrete or fiberglass. What happens is the wastewater travels through a sewer pipe from the house, towards the septic tank. The wastewater is treated naturally by holding it in the tank until the solids separate from the liquids.
The wastewater inside the tank separates into three layers: the greases and oils float to the top and former a scum-like layer, the solids settle on the bottom, and the middle layer is made up of somewhat clarified wastewater.
The top and bottom lawyers remain in the septic tank, while the clarified wastewater flows from the septic tank through a pipe and into a drain field. What is a drain field? It’s either a series of trenches, or it’s a bed lined with gravel and sand that’s buried about three feet underground.
Maintaining Your Septic System
If you live in a home located in a rural area, you’ll have to maintain your septic system. Otherwise, it will get too full and you don’t want that to happen. If your home was built with a septic system, you’ll need to pump the solids out of the tank periodically, but the frequency depends on a few factors, such as:
- How many people live in your home,
- How much wastewater your household generates, and
- The volume of solids that are in your tank, for example, you’ll have more solids if you run the garbage disposal frequently.
How long has it been since your septic tank was pumped? If you’re not sure, or if you believe that it’s time to have it checked out by a professional, contact A-1 Sewer & Septic Service Inc. to schedule a free estimate!
We proudly serve Kansas City and all of Shawnee and Johnson counties – call today!
