All you cesspool owners.

martindow

Changing from a cess pit to a septic tank would be a good solution but would only be possible if the OP has land for the leach field.

daniel80

snowscreamer wrote: »

We haven't noticed this with our cesspit yet (moved in this April). We'll see how it goes over the next few months! Been having it emptied once every 7 weeks. Tank is 2000 gallons / 9000 litres.

Hi Snoescreamer our cesspit is the same size as yours, like I said ours is emptied between 7 to 10 weeks. When you get heavy prolonged rain do you notice a difference in the emptying cycle.

daniel80

Davesnave wrote: »

Not necessarily.

If the inspection chambers are of the old, brick built type, they may have failed, allowing ground water into the system at quite prodigious rates when the water table is high.

I know this, because I'm about to replace one of mine which has this fault. It's not even that old, but the people who build these things are often not very skilled.

Modern, plastic inspection chambers shouldn't fail like this.

It's debatable whether septic tank systems are really suitable for many locations in the UK, especially after the last two winters. I can't comment on cesspits, but I'd imagine they have similar problems.

Hi Davresnave our is brick built are you having it relined or a new one put in. Can you advise me on any quotes you have had, just to give some kind of idea. Ours is brick built and hold 2000 gallons.

Davesnave

daniel80 wrote: »

Hi Davresnave our is brick built are you having it relined or a new one put in. Can you advise me on any quotes you have had, just to give some kind of idea. Ours is brick built and hold 2000 gallons.

I was writing about inspection chambers, not the tanks themselves.

Where I am, which is on a ridge, not in a valley, our water table rises high enough in wet winters to come through a crack in the bottom of one inspection chamber. This overloads the system.

I'm changing the inspection chamber myself, with a bit of help from a friend, as it's not a terribly difficult job.

snowscreamer

daniel80 wrote: »

Hi Snoescreamer our cesspit is the same size as yours, like I said ours is emptied between 7 to 10 weeks. When you get heavy prolonged rain do you notice a difference in the emptying cycle.

No, I don't think any rainwater is getting into our cesspit. Emptying cycle has been very consistent so far.

daniel80

Just an update, empty cycle is about 8 weeks but again after heavy prolonged rain it was 4 weeks. Any change on yours Snowscreamer. Also spoke to an old couple 3 houses away and he only has his emptied 4 time a year, 2 people and same size tank. He did say that he cheats a bit and puts some foul water onto the garden. Can any one confirm that a 2000 gallon tank emptied about every 7 weeks for 2 people is about right.

Hoploz

I have a septic system but my neighbour has cess pool. They are a couple and have it emptied every 6-8 weeks. They said they used to do it monthly when they had their family at home

daniel80

Thanks Hoploz that ties in with our emptying cycle.

arbrighton

We have a septic tank. Which is about 100 years old and therefore brick built. We are far far lower than the local sewage disposal plant so there is no other option unfortunately.

But it gets emptied approximately annually at £100 per go and that's been it so far- it was very full this time but we were late and we'd had 6 months of builders on site, sometimes probably 10 blokes extra!

We are, with permission, discharging our surface water into the river we live beside as we have no other options for that either with clay soil and close to a road junction meaning soakaways or french drains wouldn't be feasible. Dappy architect apparently asked if we could put all that surface water into the foul system *headdesk*

daniel80

Thanks Arbrighton, I would love to change to a septic tank but its impossible at our location. Must admit after having not to pay waste water bill it will be about £300-£400 a year more, but worth it for our location.