Soakaway Cess Pit
 

We have a soakaway and it has been fine for years but the last month or so the ground around it has been "soggy". We have had quite a few visitors this summer which could account for it. Now someone told me that by breaking the seal to get it emptied you stop the soak away process and therefore it means you will have to get it emptied regularly. Visitors now all gone is it likely to "right itself"?

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

I've never heard of this. But, once you start emptying it, you certainly will need to have it emptied more regularly.

It really depends what you have. We have a large hole in the ground with soak-away. Over the years the soak-away has 'dried up' and now doesn't work at all. As a result, we have to have the thing emptied regularly. If you have a modern plastic tank with multiple chambers then it should be fixable.

Perhaps the best solution is to get a plumber in (or someone who deals with these on a regular basis) and have them make an assessment.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

We have a pozzy negro which is a large concrete cylinder filled with holes buried in the ground, is this the same as yours? Last year we had some problems with a blocked drain and had to have a plumber use a camera to find the problem, he checked the pozzy negro at the time and said it was quite full, he said the holes can become full/blocked when toliet paper does not breakdown as quickly ie when a lot more than usual is used or when you use the really quilted ones at which point the bottom holes cannot empty and the top ones to start having to do most of the draining, I wonder if this is why you have noticed soggy ground because it is not soaking away lower down? Maybe a camera to assess would be best before breaking into it.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

There are several issues here.
A cesspit is just that----a pit that holds the "stuff" which may or may not have exit holes that make an attempt at draining it over time. Eventually such an arrangement will fill up and need emptying and that is a normal sequence. The addition of a drainage "field" - a gravel or similar surround - will aid the seepage but will eventually clog-up and trigger the sequence I have mentioned. Either way the soggy ground will be immediately over the problem area.

The second point to note is that a fossa septica is a different structure designed - through the presence of several chambers - to allow the breakdown of the "stuff" and allow the semi-cleansed "liquid" to flow out and disperse, usually and also, via a drainage field. With this latter system, there will always be a green or slightly soggy patch where the discharge occurs. That's normal. If the fossa septica is not over-used, they can go years (if not forever) without needing emptying. They are usually made of fibreglass and are, I believe, now mandatory for all new installations. Even so, a poorly constructed drainage filed may cause a fossa septica to get blocked and thus require emptying.

From your post, I assume we're talking about a cesspit (or a blocked fossa septica as described above) in which case it's most likely the cesspit lid - whatever that may be made of - is where a full-up chamber is leaking, causing the surrounding ground to be soggy. You'll have to dig down to find the lid, remove it (it's possibly rasillones with a mortar seal), empty it and then re-cover it with a new lid/seal.


EDIT I should point out that the cesspit mentioned by flotsum is a "luxury" type !!!!!! Most of the old ones around here in the campo are merely holes dug in the ground into which the sewage pipes are run and which are then back-filled with rubble. If you've got one of those, then there's no alternative but to replace it with a glass fibre chambered one when it ceases to work.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

I think it is two chambers but made of concrete.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

OK and where is the leak? Is it directly over the chambers?

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

its nice to know I have one thing that is luxurious! I hope you manage to sort yours out.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Hi

Most cesspits around here are simply holes in the ground, four walls and a ceiling. the floor is gravel (if you´re lucky), and many (illegally built) have no access point. Indeed I have only just had an acess point built as I wanted to put another pipe into the cesspit.

My "tank" is about three metres square and two metres deep - a "thirty man year" tank. I use very little toilet paper, using the bidet instead, so when we built the access point, there was no paper visible.

I am also lucky in that it is about five metres to the water table; not far away, in winter, the water table is less than a metre deep.

One other cause can be a leaking swimming pool; those which self fill automatically can be a problem and it may be wise if Chiclanagirl has an autofill, to turn it off and check if the swimming pool level remains constant.

Davexf

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

No to the side and DXF no autofill swimming pool and no leak.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Is there an aroma similar to Bangkok drains ? There is from mine particularly when the washing machine is in use. I have no 'soggy' ground though.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Please don't scoff at my naivety, but when I moved into my new house some 11 years ago I never gave a single thought to the septic tank. Some months later I had a small blockage hear the kitchen sink which was easily fixed by a plumber. During the conversation with him he casually asked me "by the way where's your septic tank'. It was only at that moment I realised I must have one.......somewhere!
I've no idea where it is as when I was having the front terrace garden done (terrace part stone paved, the rest stones), the access cover to the pit must have been covered over. On reflection the person who did this should have noticed it I think.
I've seen the plans at the town hall and it's not shown anywhere and the building promoter only recalled it was somewhere at the front!
Fingers crossed I've never had a problem, but I keep thinking that at some point I should get someone in with a camera or something to trace & locate its position.
Yes, call me a bit stupid if not naive, but as a septic tank was a completely unknown concept to me and no one ever mentioned it to me I never gave it a thought!
Anyone used a company to find theirs? Or am the only one not to know where theirs is?

:o

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Do you have any land to the side or in front of your house that belongs to you? Ours is a long way from the house slightly to the side of the front gate, three houses round here have just put second ones in when putting in showers and toilets by the pools, these were also all put a long way from the main build outside the walled area of the terraces or where you would have a terrace. When we asked where ours was we were told to ' look for the best tree in the garden and search nearby!' we found it by the apricot tree!

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

that shows some in depth knowledge, comparing with Bangkok drains.

and yes I have smelt them, the few there are as many people just do everything in the monsoon ditches which feed in the river.
:eek:

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Washing machine water and other detergents (grey water) will kill the bacteria in your septic tank and consequently it will smell have to be emptied , we have a two chamber plastic septic tank at our cortijo and only "black water " goes in it, its never been emptied in 10 years and does not smell, grey water all goes down the barranco .

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

that is the problem with coming from the UK, in most instances electricity, water, gas, and any/all wastes generated are on mains services and you just don't have to worry about it. Unless you or a neighbour down the line have the bad habit of putting nappies down the pan.

Only a small part of Granada city has mains gas, when discussing with Spaniards they think it is a mad idea - thats what the butano is for !

but then when I bought my first house in 1973 the whole village had no mains gas, although the new houses being built on 3 estates were fitted for it. Took another 7 years before they installed mains gas.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Been here nearly eight years and our pozzi negro has never smelled nor required emptying. House has been up for getting on forty years now.
We have young children so lots of baths and showers and up until a few years ago everything went into to pozzi negro. I was getting a little concerned about the amount of water getting flushed into it, particularly after a couple of winters with lots of rain, so I re-routed everything except the toilet.

I dug a trench a couple of feet deep and about 50 feet long and lined the bottom with hardcore. Then I placed a large diameter (63/75mm) irrigation pipe along the length of the trench with the end capped off. I drilled holes (maybe 20mm diameter) all along the length of the pipe, then placed old roof tiles across the top to provide a cavity. Then I covered the whole thing in plastic sheeting and backfilled with topsoil to hide it. Now the bath, shower, sinks, and washing machine all get fed into this drain. So far there are no smells or blockages and everything seems to work well.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Sounds spot on.:thumbsup:

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Not in my experience.

All our grey water goes into the septic tank and no smells or problems in nearly 9 years.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

I agree - everything goes into my septic tank and I don´t put those bacterial "tea bags" in either. Ten years use and my visitors put their paper down there to.

Davexf

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

We have also diverted some of our grey water into the garden where it irrigates some of the fruit bushes. I also put enzymes in the toilets once every 3 months basically because I hope that it helps keeps smells out of the pipes as the old drains were concrete channels which had split and have been replaced partly with plastic pipes and also because when they put the camera down we were told there were a lot of bends slowing the flow of water down from the house to the pozzi, don't know if it helps or not but other than that everything goes down and I use normal cleaning stuff. I once stayed in a house in France which had really bad problems despite using special cleaners, no paper, regular emptying and enzymes so I was worried when we decided to live in the campo but so far the only problem has been a blocked pipe and that was a problem because there were no roding points.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

I use them regularly, but how can one tell they actually do any good? Does anyone have any 'scientific' or other evidence that they're actually effective.
Read also that Coca Cola is good also, but don't know if that's one of the myths surrounding the product!

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

WARRA load of old sh7t, lol


Sounds horrible.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

We never had any problems with ours but I was just getting concerned with the actual volume of water that was being flushed into it. I was worried that it wouldn't be able to soak away fast enough and that someone would get unlucky when trying to flush the toilet. Also our pozzi negro has no access point so we would have to break into it in order to empty it.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

That is one of my worries we have no access point. Would an ordinary plumber have a camera to take a look to see if we have anything blocking?

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

When we wanted one with a camera we found that the local ones with shops and a couple of vans had them but the small one man bands did not, also they were all busy. So we ended up phoning one in the nearest city and got a quote for the camera and an hours work because we knew we had a problem. Unfortunately when he turned up he became the problem because he had a huge jack hammer and just wanted to use it to smash open our pozzi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We insisted that he got his camera out, he then got his hose stuck in a 90 degree bend and got his club hammer out to smash the bathroom floor!!! So we wish we had waited and got the local man out who would have been more used to pozzi's than the boy from the city! Good Luck.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

That is terrible and quite frightening.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

we had the last laugh, the blow back when he cleared the obstruction was spectacular and he was covered! We are glad we had the camera as we are now more aware of potential problem points in the run off to the pozzi, where the bathroom floor had to be taken up we do now have a proper roding point we also know that the pozzi itself is fine and working well. Lesson learned was to stick to the local people but we panicked because we had a blockage and the toilet wasn't draining

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

quite understandable

and we now know where you got your name from
:hysterical:

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Purchase/shoot a Rabbit or Hare. Eat Rabbit/Hare put skin, head and guts in tank! That will do it. It did for me; for twenty years on my Farm.

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

Dead sheep or Dog does the same..

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

What about a wildebeast?

Re: Soakaway Cess Pit
 

amything made of flesh and blood will do..But be carefull................................Tommy & Irene






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