Septic Tank Cleaning

How Often a Tank Needs Pumping

The common guidance for a household tank is every three to five years. The right interval depends on the size of the tank, how many people live in the house, and whether the system takes a garbage disposal or a lot of laundry. A tank on a regular schedule costs less to own than one left until it fails, because a failure can take the drain field with it, and the drain field is the expensive part of a septic system to replace.

If you have just bought the property and nobody can tell you when the tank was last done, it is worth having it opened and looked at. We can tell you what condition it is in and when it will next need attention.

If it has reached the point of backing up indoors, call rather than book online. We are open 24 hours and that is exactly the sort of job we will move a truck for.

What We Actually Do

We locate and open the tank, pump it out with a vacuum tanker, and look at the condition of the tank and its baffles while it is empty. The septage is hauled away and disposed of properly. If we find something that needs attention, you will hear it from the crew on site rather than in a letter afterwards.

• Locating the tank. If the lid is buried or nobody knows where it is, we can locate it electronically rather than guessing.
• Full pump-out. Solids and liquid both. Skimming the liquid off the top empties the tank on paper and leaves the sludge sitting in it.
• A look at the tank. Baffles, inlet and outlet, and the general condition of the structure while it is accessible.
• Proper disposal. Septage is hauled and disposed of through the correct channels. If you need documentation of the disposal, ask when you book and we will tell you what we can provide.

Pumping empties the tank. What it does not do is repair a tank, clear a blocked line between the house and the tank, or bring back a drain field that has already failed. Those are separate problems with separate fixes, and a pump-out on its own will not hold if one of them is what you actually have.

If the Problem Is Not the Tank

Sometimes a tank gets pumped and the trouble comes straight back, because the tank was never the problem. We have the equipment to find out which it is, and we would rather tell you that than sell you another pump-out.

A blocked line between the house and the tank

Roots, grease and sludge build up in the run from the house. A camera inspection shows where the blockage is and what is causing it, and high-pressure jetting cuts it back to full pipe diameter.

A leach bed that has stopped accepting water

When the drain field, or leach field, is saturated, pumping the tank buys a few weeks at best. That is the field rather than the tank, and replacing or repairing a field is work for a septic system installer. We will tell you plainly if that is what you are looking at, and a locate and camera inspection give whoever does that work an accurate picture of what is in the ground before anyone digs.

Roots growing into the system

Where roots keep returning, RootX treats the regrowth rather than just cutting it out and waiting for it to come back.

Commercial and Municipal Tanks

The same crews and tankers that handle a house handle larger scopes. Holding tanks, grease interceptors and small treatment systems all come out with the same equipment, and any property that is not on a public sewer needs the same service on a bigger scale.

Where the work is recurring, a scheduled service agreement is usually easier than one-off calls, and it keeps the tank from being the thing nobody thought about until it backed up. Larger sites often pair a pump-out with jetting or grease trap service while a truck is already on site.

What to Expect From Darr's

We have been pumping septic tanks out of Clyde since 1960, with our own vacuum tankers and our own crews. Pumping, locating, camera work and jetting are all in house, so whatever the tank turns out to need, it is the same company doing it.

• Residential, commercial and municipal tanks, from one contractor
• Pump-outs paired with locating, camera inspection or jetting as the job needs
• What the crew found, told to you on site rather than in a letter afterwards
• Open 24 hours, 7 days, across 23 Ohio counties