The Pumper's Wife

If you’re building in the country, something you might not know is when build a new house you also have  to install a wastewater system – or a place for all your wastewater to go.     In town, there is plumbing and city sewers to take care of all that, but if you build in the country you have to provide your own sewer system!     The most popular types of wastewater systems are septic systems.   Septic systems work in conjunction with Mother Nature.  The largest part of a septic system is the drain field (also known as a lateral field or leach field).  The drain field is the portion of your septic system that uses the soil to absorb ALL of the water that comes out of your house.  Every time you flush, do a load of laundry, take a shower, run the dishwasher, wash your hands, etc., the water drains out of the house and eventually ends up in the soil right outside.    But there’s actually a little more involved with wher...

Given the nature of my business, I "get" to talk about poo and toilet paper almost daily.  How lucky am I?Believe it or not, toilet paper causes most of the issues people have when dealing with septic back-ups.  Now hopefully, we won't have to deal with toilet paper shortages again.  But if we do, and you live on septic, grab the cheap stuff!  Leave the expensive paper for everyone else!   Why do I want you grabbing the cheap stuff?   Here's why....   All toilet papers claim to be “septic safe.”  This can be really confusing to the “new to septic” homeowner.  I’m sure all toilet papers will eventually break down once they get to the tank, but here’s the problem – if they are thicker, 3 ply, quilted toilet paper, they struggle to make it to the tank.   Why is that?   When you use cheap, single ply toilet paper, the minute it hits the water and gets even the slightest agitation, it will start breaking down into tiny pieces....