For homes with a septic tank that is not hooked up to city water and sewer, it is more important than ever to ensure that your drain field is working properly. Knowing what a drain field is, how to maintain it, and what it is can make a huge difference in the overall way that your drain field works for you.
What Is a Septic Tank Drain Field?
It is helpful first to know what a drain field is in order to know how to care for it. So, what are some things to know about a drain field? Septic tanks are large plastic or concrete tanks that are buried in the backyard of homes and that take all the waste from inside the home. Water from toilets, sinks, and laundry all goes out of the home and into the septic tank.
Bacteria in the tank digests and breaks down solid waste that comes from your toilets, and the water that is left drains out through leach lines into what is called a drain field. The drain field is where the water will go back into the water table.
How To Care For Your Drain Field
The first thing you need to do is to take time to make sure you are paying attention to your drain field. If you notice that your drain field smells like sewage, that it has standing water, or that it has any sort of backup, you may have issues with your septic tank. If that is the case, you do need to contact a professional to get your tank taken care of and possibly cleaned out.
Another thing you can do is make sure that you are not parking in your drain field. Though this is not common, parking or driving in your drain field can damage the leach lines and can make it hard for your septic tank to drain properly. Still another thing you can do to care for your drain field is to ensure that you have your septic tank serviced regularly and checked.
This will help you keep your drain field doing what it needs to and ensure that your septic tank, leach lines, and drain field are not going to back up. It can be hard to manage your drain field on your own, but with the help of a professional company, you can get it taken care of entirely.