Septic Pumping & Cleaning in Granada Hills, CA

Why pump the septic tank?

The septic system is made up of a couple of primary components: the septic tank and the drain field. When you flush the toilets or otherwise send waste and wastewater down the drains, they flow into the septic tank and naturally split into three layers: a top layer of scum, a middle layer of wastewater, and a bottom layer of solid waste.
Though the wastewater, or liquid effluent, flows out of the septic tank toward the drain field for treatment, a portion remains in the tank along with the solid waste and scum. Helpful bacteria and chemical processes break this waste down into space-saving sludge, but that only slows down the inevitable: a full tank.
It is crucial that the septic tank is emptied out before the sludge and scum get too close to the tank’s inlet and outlet pipes. If sludge gets into those pipes, you could end up dealing with slow drainage, clogs, sewage backups, leaks, and even a system failure.
Septic pumping involves using a specialized truck and equipment to vacuum out the majority of the waste in the tank. This is a simple yet crucial maintenance task and should be performed once every 3 to 5 years.

Is my septic tank full?

There’s no way to know for sure without peeking under the lid, but here are some tell-tale signs of an overfilled septic tank: