It’s December: we’ve made it past the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest days of the year for plumbers across Asheville and America. If you are like one of the two million plumbing customers in North Carolina who have a septic field outside their home, it’s possible this busy day at the bathroom has caused your system some septic damage too. It’s not only what you’re probably thinking, but also the abundance of pure animal grease dumped down the drain that adds to the tendency for the day after Turkey Day to be a nightmare for pipes across the nation. This additional ingredient can also be problematic for a city’s infrastructure, not just for a family’s home plumbing.
DRAIN FIELD ISSUES FROM GREASE BUILDUP
Overall, one of the biggest long-term factors in the health of a septic drain field is the management of grease. Usually, it takes a few decades for this kind of a problem to reach critical mass, before a drain field might, in the worst case scenario, need to be shifted to a new place on a customer’s land. You can imagine how holidays like Thanksgiving could acutely add to the buildup in a septic field. For this reason, just be sure to dispose of excess cooking grease, as well as leftovers, in the trash—not the sink! Your septic field has to deal with the gradual disposal of grease that is part of the normal cooking and waste cycle, so it’s best to practice responsible disposal on this and all days of the year. Considering that it would cost several thousand dollars to replace a drain field, it is not an eventuality you should wish to bring about any sooner than necessary.
BE SAFE, BE ALERT
As always, just be an alert homeowner and know what a healthy septic system looks like. Sewage should stay in the septic system. If you have a backup in the house, or see anything rising to the surface or smelling foul above your drain field, please don’t hesitate to call us at All About Plumbing & Septic for septic service in the Asheville, NC area.