Jim's Articles

Septic maintenance top services in Copperopolis, CA

Septic systems professional provider in Valley Springs, CA? Your septic tank may not always be top of mind when you’re considering home maintenance, but it’s an important part of your home and something not to be overlooked. Properly caring for your septic tank will extend its life and value, while helping to keep septic tank costs down. Follow these nine easy steps to septic tank care, and you’ll help maintain your septic tank even longer: Don’t throw rubbish down your toilet. It’s so tempting to flush rubbish down your toilet, but it’s very unhealthy for your septic tank system. When you flush items such as cat litter, facial tissue and paper towels, you can clog your septic tank. Use your litter bin for these items.

The most common cause of a failed system is overloading it. This can be caused by the consecutive use of high-volume activities such as laundry, showering, and running the dishwasher. Space out their usage as well as follow water conservation efforts year round. This is particularly important during heavy rain, which can quickly overwhelm a drainfield on its own. Also common are blockages, which can cause pipes to be clogged and the drainfield to overflow. To prevent this, avoid flushing anything besides the three Ps (pee, poop, and toilet paper). “Flushable” wipes and FOG (fats, oils, grease) clog pipes so should be thrown in the trash. Avoid the use of a garbage disposal which can improperly break down debris.

Periodic Septic Tank Maintenance is also essential to keep your system running. This is especially critical on advanced systems, with pumps, float, control panels & filters. We perform a very thorough maintenance and inspection on your system. During routine maintenance we open the entire system. All components,( i.e.- pumps, floats, filters splice boxes, P/D laterals, valve boxes and more) are checked, cleaned and flushed. Flushing of the P/D laterals is a very important part of the maintenance. Lateral pipes can get full of sludge / solids and not allow the effluent into the drain field trenches. In addition, flushing can remove early root mats growing into the lines through the trench. Read more details on find more info.

Excessive water use can cause a septic system to fail. To reduce the possibility of a failed septic system due to excessive water usage, following a few water saving guidelines will reduce the amount of water entering your septic system and reduce your water bills. Flush toilets only when necessary and don’t use them as wastebaskets. Install high-efficiency toilets. Check for leaky toilets and faucets — even a small leak can waste up to 200 gallons of water each day. Install water efficient shower heads and take shorter showers. If you have a dishwasher, only run it when it is full. Use proper load settings when doing laundry. Don’t leave the faucet running when brushing teeth or shaving.

Slower percolation rates due to poorly draining soil with clay, bedrock, high ground water, proximity to a creek, or other complications require larger leach fields. There are two methods of calculating the minimum absorption area for a leach field. Traditionally, you dig an eight foot deep test inspection hole in the area of the intended leach field to allow building inspector, or your local engineer, to physically examine the soil and determine its Long Term Acceptance Rate. Or you can have a local soil testing firm perform a percolation test to clock the speed of your soil’s capacity to absorb liquids.

Foothill Sanitary Septic and Foothill Portable Toilets has been serving California in the Calaveras, Tuolomne, Amador, San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties for many years. With locations in Copperopolis, Valley Springs and Arnold we are equipped to fulfill all of your septic or portable toilet needs in a timely manner to your complete satisfaction. We’re committed to providing you with the highest level of service, so you’ll always choose us for your septic pumping, maintenance and repair needs.

Orenco Systems has a Textile Filter System call Advantex®. This type of treatment system has advanced secondary waster water treatment using Orenco’s textile filter technology. The effluent is pumped to a filter chamber in periodic intervals that are configured within the controller to meet the owner’s typical usage. The effluent is uniformly sprayed over the filter media. The effluent out a AdvanTex® System is so clean and odorless that in some jurisdictions it can be used for drip irrigation. Once the water is treated it is sent to the drain field in doses. Advantex® Treatment Systems can be provided with Orenco’s Vericomm ® Control Panel. Vericomm® is a secure Web-based 24/7 monitoring system with automatic communication of all alarms and system status. Foothill Sanitary is a Certified Orenco Provider for AdvanTex® and Vericomm® Systems. Click on the video link on the left to see how the AdvanTex®Treatment System works. The pdf link will open up the Vericomm® Monitoring Brochure. Find even more information on Foothill Sanitary.