septic tank advice

Hi tig

I'm not a builder but have a reasonable amount of knowledge about septic tanks. First of all it depends on whether you have a septic tank or a cesspit. Nowadays they tend to call the tanks that have the ability to break down the waste a septic tank and the ones that just store them a cesspit. Neither of these definitions is correct but for all practical purposes it doesn't matter.

What will matter from your point of view is how good your soakaway is. Obviously the grey water will fill the tank quicker but if you have a good soakaway it doesn't matter because the extra water will run from your tank into the soakaway. What type of soil you have and how high your water table is will be be of great importance.

If your soakaway works well then you can let the grey water go into your tank - I don't know whether this is legal. If you have clay soil and a high water table (as I do) then you will have a problem. With my tank, at this time of year the ground is so saturated that the water has nowhere to go so the tank stays full and the water backs up. Which means that not only the is backing up :eek: :eek: Another factor would be how far below the surface the top of your tank is. If it is not far from the surface then there may not be sufficient fall from your house to the tank to get a good flow (also depends how far the tank is from the house) and you definitely don't want to have too much unnecessary water going into it.

I hope this info may be of some use.

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shiney