If you are not on city sewer service, the water that goes down your drains needs to go somewhere. Initially, the water will go into your septic tank. However, with toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, sinks and tubs all depositing water into your septic tank every day, the septic tank will fill up quickly.
To keep your septic tank from overflowing or backing up into the house, a septic system is designed to hold solid wastes in the septic tank, but to let waste water flow out of the tank into a drain field. The drain field then filters the water and allows bacteria to naturally break down any remaining solids, pathogenic organisms and viruses in the water so that by the time the water drains through the layers of earth in the field, it is clean and safe for the environment.
The last component, or drain field, is one of the most important. Septic drain fields are used to remove contaminants and impurities from the liquid that emerges from the septic tank. The drain field typically consists of an arrangement of trenches that contain perforated pipes and a porous material, often consisting of gravel, which is covered by a layer of soil to prevent animals and surface runoff from reaching the hydraulic for the volume of wastewater requiring disposal, distributed through these trenches. The size of the drain field just depends on how permeable the ground is. If the earth is composed primarily of hard, clay-like soils, the drain field will need to be much larger.
If you are experiencing slow moving drains, wet spots in your yard, or foul odors coming from sewers or drains give AA Plumbing and Drain Cleaning a call today!
