Sunday, August 8, 2010

Learn something every day...

I'm a firm believer in ongoing learning and personally, I prefer to learn about as diverse a set of topics as possible. However, today I learned something that was relatively simple -- and expensive to learn.

We are fortunate to have a beach house that we use on occasion and sometimes share with friends. In Emerald Isle, NC (where the beach house is located), there is no city sewer, so every home has its own septic tank. Growing up on the farm in a farmhouse built in the 1920s, I was familiar with the role of a septic tank and even where ours was, but the finer details were lost on me.

Even had I been paying close attention then, it wouldn't have mattered. I found myself a couple of weeks ago with a toilet that just wouldn't flush...but after a while, it would flush once. I dreaded it being a costly plumbing and/or septic issue, but kept trying homeowner remedies.

Now I'm here at the beach house with family in town and the toilet is acting up again -- this time causing "gurgling" in all the drains in the downstairs. So I went to Lowe's and bought a cheap closet auger to snake the toilet (assuming/hoping that was the problem). Toilet snaked and flushed successfully! Once...but the second time failed.

So I researched this problem on the Internet and came away with three theories -- partial blockage in the drain line from the toilet, partial blockages in the main drain line to the septic tank, or that the septic tank was full and needed to be pumped. I called a local plumber with my theories and he came to take a look.

Before he even knocked on the door, he checked the septic tank. When he knocked and I answered, he said "I think I know what your problem is...Is this a new system?". I confirmed it was (1.5 years) and he asked if I'd checked the filter.

The filter?!?!?!? WTF?!?!?! Who knew there were filters in septic tanks????

According to Randy at Island Plumbing, septic tank manufacturers began adding greywater filters about 3 years ago and they need to be checked every 6-9 months. They sit in the t-connector that allows greywater to bubble up and drain to the distribution box, where it gets sent to the leach field. They are nothing more than a long thin plastic basket with a rubber gasket at the bottom to keep stuff from floating around it and, in fact, ours was all plugged up. He pulled it out, hosed it off, put it back and all is well.

So you learn something new every day. And if you learn it on Sundays, it's double time.