Cesspool

[John Rumm]

Anyone got a ballpark figure for the cost of having a cesspool pumped out?

[Steve Firth]

Last time I had it done, £100+VAT. The charge is based on visit (fixed cost) plus a charge by volume so if it's a big cesspool it will cost more.

[The Natural Philosopher]

[Dave Liquorice]

If you really mean a cesspool it must be pretty big if you don't have it done every few weeks.

Cess Pool or Cess Pit - tank that takes foul waste water has no outlet.

Septic Tank - tank that takes foul waste water, normally compartmentalised, some anerobic decomposition takes place, has an outlet to a drainage field.

Ball park for a normal domestic sized septic tank, as others have said, around =A3100.

[R]

Reduce your costs

[John Rumm]

Strictly speaking it is a cesspool (probably 4 x 5 x >8' brick built chamber in the ground) which also has an outlet. The outlet then runs off our property an apparently into the next door farm's Klargester. So its main purpose in life seems to be to accumulate sludge, and allow some decomposition to occur. Previous owners apparently only rarely had it emptied, but I have a feeling with more of us living here it out to be done more regularly. I shall have to go have a prod with a drain rod and see what the sludge level is.

[Roger Chapman]

snip

That sounds like a single chamber septic tank.

[Bill Taylor]

That's a septic tank, and it sounds like a good system, assuming that the output does go to a proper disposal system (and you keep up a good relationship with the farmer).

Apparently sludge builds up at 0.2l perp person per day or less once the anaerobic digestion is working properly. So with your 4.5 cu.m. tank half full and a 4 person household, that works out to a 7-8 year desluding interval. (+/- quite a lot as there could be lots of variables.)

Bill

[John Rumm]

I suspect getting it emptied from time to time ought to help that aspect... ;-)

Ah, that is useful to know. There are five of us here now, but previous owners were down to three. Its probably not been emptied for a good few years. Having said that - the dimensions I gave above may be erring on the small side, and I am not sure how deep it actually is.

One slight odd bit of design is the input is surprisingly close to the output - it comes in about a foot or so from the corner on the long side, and the output is about the same distance away from the same corner on the short side.

[Man at B&Q]

MBQ