In message of Fri, 6 Oct 2006, shazzbat writes
The houses adjacent to my allotment are about to get mains drainage. Wessex
Water are apparently going to nick a 3 metre strip off the edge of my plot
to facilitate this :-((

You don't live in Longham by any chance?

Nope. We are in the Wessex water area though. A small Mendip village
which had been mined for years for calamine. If they tried to introduce
mains drainage here the whole village would cave in I think.

Bad luck about your allotment though ;o(

Rgds
Colette
--
Colette A. O'Brien

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 08:50:23 +0100, "Colette A. O'Brien"
wrote:

In message of Tue, 3 Oct 2006, Chris Hogg writes
I doubt if all your drains go to your septic tank. Septic tanks aren't
usually intended to take rainwater. You probably have a soakaway
somewhere that takes rainwater from the house roof etc., so find a
convenient downpipe from the roof and its associated drain and siphon
into that. Or find the soakaway and siphon into it directly.

I see, I assumed all drains went into the tank. I have no idea where the
rainwater from the roof goes.

I know our whole septic tank / soakaway system is not working properly
any more. The tank needs to be emptied twice a year which I know isn't
right, and also there is a problem with the drains nearer the house, I
think the pipes have sunk a bit and so things aren't moving along
properly. The tank does seem to fill up more quickly after a week or two
of heavy rain.

I wish we had mains drainage!

Regards
Colette

Septic tanks should only need emptying when the sludge in the bottom
builds up, which usually takes at least couple of years (although
sludge removal companies will tell you differently, of course. We get
ours pumped about every four or five years). The liquid level should
be constant, at the level of the overflow out to the soakaway area,
although soakaways can become choked over the years. But then I would
expect the tank simply to overflow. If this happens with yours, and
then you get it pumped, in effect it's working more like a cesspit.

Some links to septic tank info on the web:

http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/demon/septic.txt
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/...tic_Tanks.html
http://www.sdahq.org/environment/septic/
http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/lockwood.htm#lockwood

I haven't looked at them lately, so some of the links may have lapsed.



--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

In message of Fri, 6 Oct 2006, Chris Hogg writes
Septic tanks should only need emptying when the sludge in the bottom
builds up, which usually takes at least couple of years (although
sludge removal companies will tell you differently, of course. We get
ours pumped about every four or five years). The liquid level should
be constant, at the level of the overflow out to the soakaway area,
although soakaways can become choked over the years. But then I would
expect the tank simply to overflow. If this happens with yours, and
then you get it pumped, in effect it's working more like a cesspit.

I think that is what is happening - the soakaway is not working as it
should. We are not totally sure where it is positioned, but it is
possibly under a large holly tree.


Some links to septic tank info on the web:

http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/demon/septic.txt
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/...tic_Tanks.html
http://www.sdahq.org/environment/septic/
http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/lockwood.htm#lockwood

Thanks for these, I'll read up on it, but I suspect that digging a new
soakaway is going to be the only solution.

Regards
Colette
--
Colette A. O'Brien