Paphos Life

Help!!!! Dominic just discovered water pumping UP out of our cesspit (?) We only recently had it pumped but it is full and smelly water is gushing out of the top of one of the covers.

Not sure who or what we need - plummer/ cesspit guy to drain it again???

If you've only recently had it pumped out - it shouldn't need to be emptied again so soon.... it sounds like there's something else not right there. We were in our house for 12 years in Limassol which had a cesspit and it wasn't pumped at all during that time.

Sorry though, I can't tell you who you need to contact

Thanks...googling it at the moment!!

You probably have a blockage between the cess pit and the absorption pit. If you can see into the absorption pit where the pipe comes in you could try a hose to try and clear it.

Septic tanks normally have two chambers. The input of waste from the house goes into the first chamber where the sludge is collected and broken down biologically into a thick liquid which then overflows into the second chamber. Further biological breakdown takes place here and the resultant liquid, mostly water, overflows into the drain pipe to the soakaway, usually located some distance away from the septic tank. it sounds to me like either the soakaway is full of water and not functioning properly, or the pipe to the soakaway has become blocked, possibly with tree roots. In this situation, emptying the septic tank does not get rid of the 'root' cause of the problem!
It might be worth contacting Hydrojet to see if they can help.

This is the situation at the moment:

There are two drain covers in the septic tank region, that we know about. One was full of solids, the other liquids. We only knew the liquid cover existed today, when water started pumping out of a small crack in it's lid.

So one thing we obviously need is a new drain cover!

The other cover is fine. I opened that and it was full of poo again. However, wiggling a stick seemed to clear that, and now it is just full of liquid slush.

The other drains that lead into these two are fine.

I had a shower, because lets face it, I had to, and water (as opposed to poo) came out of the newly discovered drain again. However, the poo sludge drain didn't fill any further.

Unfortunately, the house plans are down at our shop, so I won't be able to look at them until tomorrow. Hopefully they will show another hatch that I can lift up.

Hopefully during the night the poo tank fairies will clear it all away.

We had a similar (though more gradual) problem. The levels under our covers seemed too close to the surface compared to our neighbours . After taking up much crazy paving and reinforced concrete we found that the builders had not connected the second chamber to the soak-away. The water (and sh*t) was seeping out into the groundwater. Hope your problem is easier to resolve.

There goes Dominic - talking a load of poo again

I have the Soak-Away type of sewage tank and that kept overflowing out of the Man Way, we would pump it out one week and a few weeks later it would be overflowing again. You can try throwing a bag of caustic soda down which you can buy at One Stop and this will dissolve any blockages like toilet paper. Our problem was the ground being clay and the liquor not draining away, we had to get a new one drilled down 30 metres to porous rock and connected to the existing soak hole which cost €2,500. This appears to have solved the problem.

Jim

Thanks everyone - there is no sign of effluent this morning so hoping it was a one off but need to look into where the soakaway is and what we need to do to prevent a relapse!!

Jim B wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:19 am I have the Soak-Away type of sewage tank and that kept overflowing out of the Man Way, we would pump it out one week and a few weeks later it would be overflowing again. You can try throwing a bag of caustic soda down which you can buy at One Stop and this will dissolve any blockages like toilet paper. Our problem was the ground being clay and the liquor not draining away, we had to get a new one drilled down 30 metres to porous rock and connected to the existing soak hole which cost €2,500. This appears to have solved the problem.

Jim

One thing I have noticed, while I have been stirring the sludge, is that at some point, somebody must have flushed wet wipes down the loo. I keep fishing these out. They are black, and must have been there at least a year, so I can only presume the previous owners used to flush these down the loo. They appear to be totally non-biodegradable.

Our soil is clay, however the tanks have been in place for years, so if there was a problem there we would have experienced it before, wouldn't we? It might just be that we overloaded it with water. Three showers in quick succession plus a washing machine and dishwasher on the go might have just given it too much fluid at once. He said hopefully.

We shall definitely give the caustic soda a go.

Dominic

When the Rig Operator drilled down it was only the last couple of metres that he hit bedrock, possibly yours is similar and the wet wipes are lining the bottom of the soak away and stopping the water draining away. The Caustic soda does dissolve the paper so worth a try; costs about €26 a bag. Wet Wipes are definitely a no, no down any toilet in any country.

Jim

Dominic wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:48 am

Jim B wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:19 am I have the Soak-Away type of sewage tank and that kept overflowing out of the Man Way, we would pump it out one week and a few weeks later it would be overflowing again. You can try throwing a bag of caustic soda down which you can buy at One Stop and this will dissolve any blockages like toilet paper. Our problem was the ground being clay and the liquor not draining away, we had to get a new one drilled down 30 metres to porous rock and connected to the existing soak hole which cost €2,500. This appears to have solved the problem.

Jim

One thing I have noticed, while I have been stirring the sludge, is that at some point, somebody must have flushed wet wipes down the loo. I keep fishing these out. They are black, and must have been there at least a year, so I can only presume the previous owners used to flush these down the loo. They appear to be totally non-biodegradable.

Our soil is clay, however the tanks have been in place for years, so if there was a problem there we would have experienced it before, wouldn't we? It might just be that we overloaded it with water. Three showers in quick succession plus a washing machine and dishwasher on the go might have just given it too much fluid at once. He said hopefully.

We shall definitely give the caustic soda a go.

From my experience the worst stuff I ever found were the remains of Fabric softener in drains and septic tank. It forms like a sludge which is unfortunately non-biodegradable. And you will not believe how much it forms just after 2 years in a four-person household. This happened in the 90th
and perhaps nowadays the softeners are more eco-sensitive. As soon as we stopped using softener there was no problem, so it was not the washing detergent. As the washing machine was outdoors on a separate circuit it was easy to figure out the situation.
Max

Taking it that it is a Septic Tank and not a Cess Pit it could be that the Bacteria has died off, certain things put down the waste can kill them. One Stop sells, certainly used to, a product called " Spurgo Biologico " which should start them up again

My previous post on this subject of problems with septic tanks has mysteriously disappeared.
Wonder why?
You don't need to buy a special product to produce suitable bacteria for use in a septic tank, as a good pot of organic natural yogurt will do all that is required, just tip it into the toilet and flush away! We have done this to our septic tank very occasionally over the last 17 years.
It only needed the solids chamber to be pumped out once or twice in all that time!

When did you post it? Nothing is showing as deleted.

I saw a post from Kili when I logged on early yesterday morning..... I looked at the thread again last night before I went to bed and also realised her original post had gone missing after I read her later comment.

Our system has started backing up today , water coming out of the covers . See photos . I think I will have to call for help .

We found Faganas very helpful. Try ringing Andreas on 99888121 as he speaks better English! Cost was 140 euros, but that was uphill to Lasa.

when ours happened it was because of over use of showers, washing machine etc. all at once that the soakaway couldn't cope with. Dominic did pull a load of Very old wet wipes out and we bought some 'stuff' from Paphos home market to put in the water side, this clears the soak away. Then I bought kefir milk from lidl and left it to ferment for a couple of days and put that down the toilet. No problems since.

It will depend if you have had your tank emptied at all/recently - we knew ours couldn't be because it needed emptying as we had only had it done quite recently.