Bathroom drains in the basement are often converted into basement drains since it is very near the septic system. This is one reason why the basement is the most important room in the house with regards to plumbing requirements and maintenance. It is the lowest part of your home, making it the closest to where sewage is disposed.
Your home’s sanitary and hygienic state depends on how efficiently wastewater is dumped into your home’s septic system. But first, what is wastewater?Where does it come from and why is it necessary to get rid of?
About Wastewater and Drainage
Wastewater is basically all the water that we have used, most specially the waste materials that get drained down the toilet. Technically, the water we use to wash our hands, wash the dishes and bathe with is called “greywater” as they go down the drain. Nonetheless, all the wastes and dirty water produced in one’s home come together into the main drain pipe to form the sewage. Wastewater is also known as sewage.
Knowing that sewage or wastewater contains all the waste produced in one’s home, including human waste, is enough reason why people should make sure sewage is freely moved away from the house into the septic system or city treatment bed. Wastewater is teeming with hazardous chemicals and pathogenic organism, and its fumes alone can make people nauseous and sick.
To guarantee that sewage is disposed of efficiently, homeowners should put into place the following simple, yet effective practices:
1. They should not flush solid objects into the toilet to make sure it doesn’t clog and doesn’t prevent sewage from draining into the septic system. People for some reason find it irresistible flushing down all sorts of garbage into the toilet such as sanitary napkins, baby diapers, Q-tips, condoms, and so on.
2. They should perform preventive drain plumbing maintenance to make sure each drain pipe, most especially the main line, is working properly. Plumbers and contractors offer preventive maintenance programs to catch any problems before they become real problems.
3. They should pump their septic systems occasionally or as advised, to make sure wastewater inside the septic tank are being treated and draining off properly.
About the Septic System
Not many people know about the septic system because it is buried underground. It is where a home’s wastes are dumped and left to rot until nature takes its natural course of treating it and disposing it into the surrounding soil area.
While most modern rural areas have a centralized sewage system, some communities make use of individual septic systems that are buried under a home’s backyard. Drain pipes lead into the septic tank where sewage is kept. Over time, the sewage separates into solids and liquids. As the liquid gets drained off through trenches and drain pipes into the surrounding soil, the solids are broken down by bacteria. Some sludge or scum, however, cannot be broken down, and so they remain inside the tank until pumped. This is why regular maintenance of the septic system is necessary.
