It's called "preventative maintenance" for a reason.

PM usually cost between 1% and 10% of the cost of the repair you are trying
to prevent. If you own insurance, this should be a no-brainer. If you're
concerned enough to ask about it now, buy yourself a little peace of mind
and be happy its not a DIY job.

Living alone, you probably don't need to do it very often and I doubt you
are flushing any tampons.



"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...
According to Doc :
I have a house that was built new in '88. I've never had the septic tank
pumped, never put any of these treatments in it. Never had any problems
with it to date. For the most part, after the ex vamoosed around '90,
I've
been the sole user.

Is pumping the tank periodically necessary? Is there any benefit to using
any type of septic tank treatment? I was under the impression that the
bacteria that's in there is supposed to be self sustaining.

To summarize responses: septic tanks need periodic pumping, however,
the "right" interval varies a lot from one installation to another.
In some, it could be decades. And in another, as short as a year.

Your best bet is to get it pumped once, and see how much head/sediment
there is, and compute the next time accordingly. The pumper will
often give a suggested interval.

Look yourself - how much "hard" foam is there on top? You've waited
too long if the pumper has to hack away at the foam layer to get
the hose through.

Our governments all say that "additives" are a waste of money,
and don't do anything useful.

Just don't put anything down it you shouldn't, pump it often
enough to keep the foam or sediment plugging the outflow, and
it'll be just fine.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.