A common way to discover your septic tank hasn’t been maintained

Poor design, poor installation, and poor maintenance are three common reasons why a septic tank system will fail

A lot of people don’t know their system has a problem until the gully trap lets them know in the worst possible way.

A gully trap is an over-flow system. If there’s a blockage somewhere, the overflow will often go out the gully trap and end up as a pool alongside your house.

A common reason for a blockage is lack of maintenance. Most systems require the accumulated solids to be pumped out by a specialist operator every 3-5 years. If you don’t do it, at some point the system will block and something you’ve just flushed will go wooshing out the gully trap instead.

If you don’t know where your septic tank is, you can visit your district council and look at the wastewater plan for your house.

Solids need to be removed from most septic systems by a specialist operator for disposal at least once every 10 years.