New to a septic system. There's only two of us. Had it pumped right before we moved in a year ago. House is 6 years old, so newer system.
When should we get it pumped or look at it to see if it need pumped? I'm guessing at least two more years. Am I in the ball park?
Steve, thanks for bringing up the topic. Hope you're enjoying life up on the hill in "rural" Portlandia.
Never did get a chance to visit with you when we were in Sherwood/Newberg and my wife got a job down here in extreme NE California so I wish you, the bees and your new place the best.
We picked up a place here for her with ~7 acres, well, and septic. Pumped before our purchase. Friends we rented from in Sherwood recommended we not use "Charmin" type TP as all "septic safe" paper is not the same. They recommended a simple test. A mason jar half full of H2O, a couple/three sheets of your preferred TP, wait 20 minutes, shake and your paper should be pretty well broken up. If not, one might want to change their brand of TP.
I'm hoping to get at least 5 years between pumpings here, as there are just the two of us and we're not water hogs. Neither of us uses harsh chemicals for cleaning, we use vinegar for the hard water stains in the john, regular dish soaps, that sort of thing. We don't bleach our clothes.
My worry right now is a possible saturation of the drain field as we have had a lot of moisture for the area, snow/rain more snow, more rain, thawing, then freezing and thawing again today. Our soils are pretty gooey right now. Just hoping it doesn't lead to problems.
As for burning the TP, I'm afraid my wife would kick me out if I suggested such. We're not using an outhouse like we did on trips to Baja!
Again, thanks for bringing up the topic as I have an idea from everyone's posts that I may be thinking along the right lines for when to call the pumper again.
Geno
