Thanks for answering Fanfare!! So I assume I can call up a septic guy and he can come out and open the hatch and check it? Yes the ex’s house is living on Borrowed time. I told him if he ever tries to sell it it will not pass code it will have to be dug up and replaced. it is too close to the house, that is a Michigan code thing. And the drain field is on the edge of a pine woods. And when I say a load of laundry I mean one washer load. okay maybe one more in the week. I am very frugal and a minimalist. 
I do not know why but the whole issue of a good septic system is obsession with me. The idea of a failure is too horrifying. Too many people think out of sight out of mind!!
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When I had mine pumped the guy figured it had not been pumped since it was installed sometime in the mid/late 90s, so around 20 years, and he figured I wouldn’t need to worry about it for at least several years if ever. Prior to me there were at least 1-3 people living here, now it’s just me.
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In answer to cost we are finally getting ours pumped tomorrow for $260 starting cost. It may go up… Our neighbors clogged up a couple of years ago and they made a mess and a half of the pipes going down to their lagoon before they figured it was the tank itself, and supposedly their tank was brimful of solids. Ours is draining slowly and the likelihood is that when we put too much water down it at once it causes more lightweight solids to block the baffle from the settling tank when it rises, causing it to back up for a while. I think grease is the culprit,we had just cleared a big wad of something icky from the kitchen drain before the whole house drains slowed down, but I am not sure what the foreign exchange student may have put in the commode either. They say those thick reusable Handi wipe things for infant cleaning are a killer.
DH took a day off work and exposed the two lids to the tank sections with the backhoe, the pumping people would have been happy to hand dig it (and charge for it) and we’ll probably put those risers in now. This tank was put in by the neighbors’ sister when she built the place just after they built theirs and she lived here part time which is probably why we are behind the neighbors in needing attention.
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Hope a pumping does the trick for you, Re!
Yes, those wipes that are ‘safe’ really aren’t, not even for city sewers (which really should be treated like an on-site system)
The time your husband spent clearing the tanks and the future riser lids will pay dividends in the long run. One other thing you may want to add if possible to do so is a filter at the tank outlet. It will collect any solids or greases that made it to the outlet and will prevent the pipe to your lagoon or field clogging.
I thought of something else. If you really don’t know where to find your cleanouts, try a metal detector. The lids have rebar handles on them so a metal detector should find them.
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Tree roots!
The tank was fine and dandy, but at some point the pipe coming from the house was damaged enough that we had a complete wooden tree root plug… ( well I don’t think that blob of ick we snaked from the kitchen helped).
The septic guy had an extension he put on the end of the regular hose and tried to run it up the pipe and it hit an obstacle, he pulled a vacuum using the trucks pump, got nowhere. Sounded just like a giant vacuum cleaner when he did it too.
DH ran a snake up from the tank and hit the same thing at half way between the house and the tank. They had a little chat and took a look at the tree 20 feet away and the fellow gave DH some advice on how best to expose the pipe and what he might find and what might happen, ie we had run water down the pipes and there was going to be a geyser of ick if we tried to cut the pipe, so DH popped a hole in it with the scoop teeth on the backhoe and we got that geyser, which went down the little trench DH had been advised to create and went back into the tank.
Obviously I was enthralled by all this,lol. Probably the pipe was damaged during or shortly after construction as it wasn’t straight and the tree root was a good inch thick. We have a screen, thank you Fanfayre, and I got to run the washer AND take a shower for the first time in weeks. First world convenience back at last!
(That tree is now slated for removal as well.)
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YAY!
Sad for the tree though- is there no way you could re-route the piping so the tree could stay? Since you have the equipment and sound very handy? (I like trees) Or cut the root, and fix the pipe so the tree can’t ‘root’ its way in again? Unless it’s a sick old ugly tree that you’ve been wanting to get rid of for a while- then all’s well that ends well
