Septic Tank Problems

A look at a few common septic tank problems and how to handle them

If you are residing in a rural area, then your house is probably installed with a septic tank. Though its presence might not be that noticeable in your daily living, there could be times when you might experience some problems with your septic tank, especially odor issues.

Now, if you are experiencing some odor from the septic tank in your home, then it is most likely caused by: dry drains, vent stack problems or faulty seals and gaskets.

Having a dry drain is considered as the most common cause of a septic tank odor problem in rural homes. Almost all drains have a thing called a "trap" which is located somewhere on the pipe. This would be a U-shaped pipe segment that has been filled with water, preventing any gases which prevent gases to travel through.

If the water dries up, gases might leak into your house. This would most often occur in those places like guest bathrooms or in the other places wherein the drain is not that frequently used. A good effective solution to this is quite a simple one: just run water through the drain. By doing this, the trap would be refilled and the gases would be stopped from reaching your house. Remember that in order to avoid any dry drains in the future, you need to periodically use them so that they would not be drying up.

Now, if there are problems with your septic tank’s vent stack, then odor could also enter your house. The gases which are produced by the septic tank would be released through a pipe which extends through the roof of your house. This is what you call the vent stack.

If this vent stack becomes clogged with debris such as leaves and others, then the gases would not have the ability to travel through, forcing them to go back down to your house. For this, you would need to manually remove any debris that is causing the blockage. However, there are times when although the gases could pass through your vent stack, the gases might still be blown into your house again. You could fix this by raising the vent stack’s height.

The last cause for septic tank odor problems would be a broken seal or a broken gasket along a pipe. This usually happens around the toilet base and you would be able to know if this is the case by simply smelling around the area.

When this is the case with your septic, it might be best to contact a plumber or some other professional to properly repair the seal. This should be a fairly simple job which is not too expensive.