Amortizing poo

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
Just had the 500 gallon septic tank pumped out. $425. This is up $50 from three years ago. Poo inflation. You just don’t get as much poo pumped for your dollar anymore.

This means I could develop a spreadsheet to track how much an individual poo costs. I’d have to ask Karen her poo schedule however, and that would be something she might expect from her silly engineer husband which means, I will refrain.

Considering her birthday just passed I could also tell her I bought her some poo pumping to go with her other birthday gifts, but she’s never seen a septic system back up, so her appreciation of my actions and undying love for her would probably go unrecognized as being quite as wonderful as it truly is.

The good news is, I was guessing from average poo numbers to determine how long two people could go. Literally. Apparently the average numbers online are pretty accurate.

We could have gone another six months looking at the first chamber but the ground is mud when it’s wet and a big truck just tears things up, so early summer to late summer is the best time for poo pumping. Deep ruts from a truck backing up to your poo covers kinda points the way to the poo, which probably isn’t the sort of thing most landscaping architects would recommend as where to draw people’s eyes to. Not that green septic tank covers don’t look silly out here where the ground is always brown, anyway.

Judging by the separation in the first chamber and lack of much top sludge floating he said the bacteria content and action looks good and the concrete tanks only show a little “corrosion” from chemicals and things. (We try to avoid anything bad for the septic system going down drains.) Lots of life left on the tank and plenty thick with no cracks or other signs of impending doom or collapse. (Oh that would be naaaaasty.) He said many families out here put way too many chemicals down the drain and they see about 90% of tanks out here needing bacterial help.

Nice weather too. Hot out there.

All in all, an excellent day for pumping poo, according to our septic system guy.

Pretty sure our poo guy is the son of the poo company owner. Growth industry. Wonder if he’ll inherit it? More poo every day in ‘Merica.

One of the poo hoses on the truck was repaired with some sort of amazing tape up near the fitting where it flexes. I don’t want to know what the day was like when it blew a leak. Nope nope nope. Mayday mayday mayday. Just nuke the truck and the hose from orbit. It’s the only way to handle that mess.

I’d have to work a lot of hours in IT to make what he made in 30 minutes. Triple or more that amount of time teaching in airplanes.

I still think he can still keep the job. Well worth every penny. If you need a good poo guy, I’ll pass along the info. Everyone needs a good poo guy.
 
Last time I had it done, it was about $375 for 1,500 gallons. That was about 4 years ago.
 
Nate... you okay buddy? You usually don't post this sorta stuff unless it's the wee hours of the morning and you're coming off of a binge of red bull, ham radio, and dealing with over complicated IT tech support issues.... [friendly_poke]
 
denverpilot said:
Just had the 500 gallon septic tank pumped out. $425. This is up $50 from three years ago. Poo inflation. You just don’t get as much poo pumped for your dollar anymore.
Click to expand...

Back of the envelop calculation:

3 yr x 365 d/yr = 1095 d

1 dump/day/person x 1095 d = 1095 dumps/person. YMMV.

2 people in household (I think) x 1095 dumps/person= 2190 dumps

$425/2190 dumps = 19 cents/dump. Cost of water to flush and paper not included.
 
Van Johnston said:
Back of the envelop calculation:

3 yr x 365 d/yr = 1095 d

1 dump/day/person x 1095 d = 1095 dumps/person. YMMV.

2 people in household (I think) x 1095 dumps/person= 2190 dumps

$425/2190 dumps = 19 cents/dump. Cost of water to flush and paper not included.
Click to expand...

:) :) :)

Water would be “free” until the well pump breaks or the well has an even more expensive problem or god-forbid, needs to be re-drilled, considering mine is about 900’ to the bottom. Not including the 220V at whatever amps each time the pressure drops from a flush and the pressure tank needs to be refilled.

Could assume a twenty year pump life I suppose. Probably run theee grand to replace a pump, all-in, with no other problems with the well itself. Last I heard drilling a new one out here would run from $10,000 to $15,000 assuming the first drill attempt hit water.

Paper, we go for the comfy stuff that’ll still break down feasibly in a septic system. Nothing worse than bad TP! I would have to go look that one up on Amazon to see what it runs when purchased in bulk and placed in storage in the guest room closet. :)

New policy. Guests must leave a quarter on the back of the toilet. :) :) :) Hahahaha.
 
Van Johnston said:
Back of the envelop calculation:

3 yr x 365 d/yr = 1095 d

1 dump/day/person x 1095 d = 1095 dumps/person. YMMV.

2 people in household (I think) x 1095 dumps/person= 2190 dumps

$425/2190 dumps = 19 cents/dump. Cost of water to flush and paper not included.
Click to expand...
That’s just flushing money down the toilet
 
AggieMike88 said:
Nate... you okay buddy? You usually don't post this sorta stuff unless it's the wee hours of the morning and you're coming off of a binge of red bull, ham radio, and dealing with over complicated IT tech support issues.... [friendly_poke]
Click to expand...

I’m great. Just had to work from home and entertaining myself typing while the poo man did his poo thing.

I need to go flying something fierce though.
 
We had a guy in NC that would not only pump out our septic tank, he would don a bunch of gear and climb down into it to manually scrape it down all for $200. He was in his 70s and said he's always done it that way.
 
Rushie said:
We had a guy in NC that would not only pump out our septic tank, he would don a bunch of gear and climb down into it to manually scrape it down all for $200. He was in his 70s and said he's always done it that way.
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Oh man. Yuck. LOL.

Our guy gets almost all the solids out of the first chamber and then mostly clears the second chamber but leaves a little effluent in there too, IF the system looks like it’s operating well.

He says it’s dumb to clear them completely if the bacteria is “right” and the top of the tank (where they erode the worst on concrete tanks) looks good, because it may throw the system completely out of whack and then they see problems with the bacteria. Usually when the system backs up and people didn’t know it had stopped working well.

On the 90% of systems that are having some sort of bacteria problems he’ll pump them almost all the way empty and add bacteria and try to educate the family that something about what they’re putting down the drain needs to stop. Usually large quantities of household chemicals, as well as have the household add more bacteria helping agents to try to keep up with their bad behavior, because they really won’t change it. :)
 
@denverpilot , you must have a small tank. I only had mine pumped three times in 25 years. I didn’t really need the last one, but it was a condition of sale. I think my tank was 1250 gallons. I had my well pump replaced once in the those 25 years. It was over $1000, and that was about 15 years ago.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Glad for proof you're not 'full of it'.
Click to expand...

LOL. I was once. No kidding. Have the PRNC on my medical form to prove it too. Hahaha. About two decades ago.

Dental surgery for wisdom teeth led to infection and dry sockets...

Which led to massive antibiotics...

Which led to intestinal infection...

Which led to even more crazy antibiotics after an ER visit...

Which led to not going at all...

Which led to a CT scan...

Which led to nothing being found other than the Doc saying I was full of it... (hahaha)...

Which led to not going for an incredibly uncomfortable period of time measured in weeks not days... as the system worked its way back to normal...

And never ever ever wanting to go that long without going EVER again...

Which led to a lot more salads and roughage in my life.

Which led to telling everyone I was once truly “full of it”.

Most uncomfortable ailment I’ve ever had. When you’re down to eating only liquids and probiotics because there’s literally no more room for anything to pass through you and you’ll just barf up food a few hours later, it’s not fun.

Lost a lot of weight though. Not exactly a typical doctor approved diet plan. Soup for a week and most of that not staying down, will certainly lower your calorie intake.

That last week out of many that took, I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything. Wasn’t pretty.

I recommend not eating hot dogs when you know you’re going to barf them back up. Worst mistake of that entire month. “Oh things will be moving by now...” yeah, not so much.
 
denverpilot said:
Paper, we go for the comfy stuff that’ll still break down feasibly in a septic system. Nothing worse than bad TP!
Click to expand...

Nothing worse than TP of any kind in the septic system.

Back when I was a low time pilot looking for work, my best friend installed septic systems and we replaced systems as well. Just about every system we replaced was totally clogged with toilet paper of all kinds. Also lack of having a regular septic sucking service did them in as well.

On my systems nothing goes down the toilet except what comes out of humans. Paper goes into the trash.

One of my systems is black water and kitchen sink only. The gray water goes into a separate tank and is used to water the trees and the very little grass that grows.
 
I used to pump about 10,000 gallons a month on the farm. I don't miss that at all. I still eat bacon lol.
 
Everskyward said:
@denverpilot , you must have a small tank. I only had mine pumped three times in 25 years. I didn’t really need the last one, but it was a condition of sale. I think my tank was 1250 gallons. I had my well pump replaced once in the those 25 years. It was over $1000, and that was about 15 years ago.
Click to expand...

500 gallons per side, technically a 1000 gallon tank but the split makes it 500 per. It’s a little undersized for the house if we had it full of humans.

There’s a good chance we could have gone another year, I’m just not willing to find out the hard way. It may have been four since we did it. I’m looking for the records. Pretty sure we did it the spring following our move out here and that was five years ago. So yeah, probably four now that I think about it.

With only the two of us, and the system working well, we’d probably be able to go five years without any problems. But we really didn’t know if the system was working well other than a simple “looks fine” last time. I asked more questions this time about what our guy was specifically looking for, not being a poo specialist myself. Ha.

We’re also a little “mean” to it on laundry day. We tend to do that all on one day a week and that’s a lot of water going down and diluting things with standard washing machine and not a low water use one. If the tank were really full it would have a tendency to be “flooded” a bit and maybe wash too much stuff into the second chamber on those days.

So I’d rather pump it out more often than deal with problems in the second chamber and leach field.

I’m also not big on opening it up and checking the solid level myself. Hahaha. Let’s be honest here. Playing with a long stick in the poo tank isn’t my idea of fun as a chore. Hahaha. $100/year for pumping? Done! Even if I could have let it go one more. Hahahaha.
 
Zeldman said:
Nothing worse than TP of any kind in the septic system.

Back when I was a low time pilot looking for work, my best friend installed septic systems and we replaced systems as well. Just about every system we replaced was totally clogged with toilet paper of all kinds. Also lack of having a regular septic sucking service did them in as well.

On my systems nothing goes down the toilet except what comes out of humans. Paper goes into the trash.

One of my systems is black water and kitchen sink only. The gray water goes into a separate tank and is used to water the trees and the very little grass that grows.
Click to expand...



Yeah. We can’t quite bring ourselves to do no paper. Again, pumping is cheap and there’s limits to my rural life desires. Hahahaha.

We saw no evidence of paper or paper byproducts making it into the second chamber at all, so that’s great. If it wants to stay in the first chamber, I’m fine with pumping more often.

We do have little signs in all the bathroom that ONLY paper can go down. Certain other products we request folks throw in the provided trash cans. That’s fine.

Of course my mom, being a smart ass, read the “paper only” sign in a little frame hanging on the guest bathroom wall above the toilet, took it down, took it out of the frame, and wrote on it in pen, “What about the poo?! Where do I put that?!”

And then hung it back on the wall and waited to see when we would notice the change. Hahahah.

I come by my smartassery quite naturally. And mom is less of a smartass than dad was. Hahaha.

Damn it mom. LOL. We kept it though because it’s funny.

I’d like a grey water system but can’t see spending money to have one installed. Plus there’s no grass we’d really want to water out here.

For those that put little sections of bluegrass up near their houses for dust mitigation and looks, a greywater system would be great augmented with their well water only when they didn’t make enough greywater.
 
That was the episode where the woman arrives (the one they are singing to) and hears everybody singing. There are a half a dozen songs in that.
 
denverpilot said:
Of course my mom, being a smart ass, read the “paper only” sign in a little frame hanging on the guest bathroom wall above the toilet, took it down, took it out of the frame, and wrote on it in pen, “What about the poo?! Where do I put that?!”
Click to expand...

:lol::lol::lol::lol:


denverpilot said:
For those that put little sections of bluegrass up near their houses for dust mitigation and looks, a greywater system would be great augmented with their well water only when they didn’t make enough greywater.
Click to expand...

And that is the problem I am having. The original plan was to use the grey water for the automatic sprinkler system, but we are not making enough grey water for that. Also the rain gutters on the house are supposed to help with water, but measurable rain is something we have not seen for a long time. I am reminded that I live in the desert...
 
denverpilot said:
I’d have to work a lot of hours in IT to make what he made in 30 minutes. Triple or more that amount of time teaching in airplanes.
Click to expand...

There ya go...........Turd Hurders make a good living without a college education.
Only goes to show you how wrong our stupid politicians are when they insist that everyone needs, and deserves a college education.
 
denverpilot said:
We can’t quite bring ourselves to do no paper.
Click to expand...
There is paper, and there is paper.

Marine holding tanks are fun because you get to live inches away until you get to a pump out - and there is no drain field. And the pumps at the typical marina ain't nothing like what your guy has on his truck...

Anyhow, the key is to buy the cheap stuff. The big buck extra soft lotion coated stuff? NFW - Ain't gonna pump out. The test for the paper is to throw a couple squares in a glass of water overnight - if it disintegrates when you swirl it in the morning, then it is going to disintegrate in the tank and pump out without problems - good to go. If it's intact - you got trouble, right here in River City...
 
denverpilot said:
With only the two of us, and the system working well, we’d probably be able to go five years without any problems. But we really didn’t know if the system was working well other than a simple “looks fine” last time. I asked more questions this time about what our guy was specifically looking for, not being a poo specialist myself. Ha.
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Yeah, the second time I got it pumped, I think I went in excess of 10 years. The guy said it was good I was getting it serviced at that time.

The most expensive thing about the septic was that it failed the borescope inspection before sale. There was a slight dip in the pipe that lead from my house to the tank. Of course I had never had any problems due to the dip. :rolleyes:

When they dug it up, they figured that the tank had not been set low enough when it was first installed. The people installing it had bent the pipe up slightly to match the hole in the tank. They fixed it by chipping out a bit of concrete to lower the hole a bit so that it had the correct fall between the house and the tank opening.
 
I would like to point out that dumping a bit of poo only means that you are producing poo. You may still be full.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
There is paper, and there is paper.

Marine holding tanks are fun because you get to live inches away until you get to a pump out - and there is no drain field. And the pumps at the typical marina ain't nothing like what your guy has on his truck...

Anyhow, the key is to buy the cheap stuff. The big buck extra soft lotion coated stuff? NFW - Ain't gonna pump out. The test for the paper is to throw a couple squares in a glass of water overnight - if it disintegrates when you swirl it in the morning, then it is going to disintegrate in the tank and pump out without problems - good to go. If it's intact - you got trouble, right here in River City...
Click to expand...

Yep. We try to balance the cheapness with the quality and comfort. Haha. Just like the RV trailer when we had it. Haha.
 
Interesting.

The house I just moved from was on septic. I was there for 8 yrs and at one point it got all the way up to 4" of sludge and they threatened to need to pump. I put yeast in every toilet one week, and then ran the tub for 1 hour the next week, repeat.

Next inspection the sludge had subsided to 3". Out of danger.

Thereafter I never got a sludge report greater than 2". and I went down to week 1 yeast, week 3 water.

I really had my **** together!

Not sure if it's a different type of system or what, but 8 yrs and no poo pumper.
 
Ravioli said:
Interesting.

The house I just moved from was on septic. I was there for 8 yrs and at one point it got all the way up to 4" of sludge and they threatened to need to pump. I put yeast in every toilet one week, and then ran the tub for 1 hour the next week, repeat.

Next inspection the sludge had subsided to 3". Out of danger.

Thereafter I never got a sludge report greater than 2". and I went down to week 1 yeast, week 3 water.

I really had my **** together!

Not sure if it's a different type of system or what, but 8 yrs and no poo pumper.
Click to expand...

Pump it every 5 years, cheap insurance. A new system runs $25k plus around here. You have scum on top and solids below, the solids don't go away, it just keeps piling up until the liquid carries it past the baffles into the leach field and plugs everything up. Like I said, pumping is cheap insurance.
 
Van Johnston said:
Back of the envelop calculation:

3 yr x 365 d/yr = 1095 d

1 dump/day/person x 1095 d = 1095 dumps/person. YMMV.

2 people in household (I think) x 1095 dumps/person= 2190 dumps

$425/2190 dumps = 19 cents/dump. Cost of water to flush and paper not included.
Click to expand...

Also got to include toilet reserves, those things are only good for so many flushes.

Sometimes it makes more sense to go to your friends rental house and poo there, or just poo at work, better to get paid to dump than have to pay for it.
 
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