Helmer Septic is Here to Talk All Things Septic (Transcript)

Tim: Hello everybody and welcome to Surviving the Pride. I am your host, Him.

Jourdyn: And I'm Jordan, and you might be.

Tim: Asking what is Surviving the Pride? Well Jordan, I would tell you Surviving the Pride is all about marketing, explaining all aspects of marketing to help a business grow, importance of having a website, SEO, social media and we're also going to be talking about starting a business as well.

Jourdyn: Yeah, so in addition to that, we're also going to give you guys some helpful hints, tips and tricks about current and upcoming trends within whatever industry our guest business is from and give you guys a bit of general information. In regards to that, I just want.

Tim: To give a brief rundown on some of the segments that we have planned for him during this podcast. One of them is titled technically the Hot Seat. Usually within this segment we kind of just introduce the guests, we put them in the hot seat, asking them questions about customer experiences and how to deal with the branding that they have currently been doing with social media and if they have anything that else that they would like to describe or say about their business. And then also near the end of it, we're going to be playing a little game with them, just called word association. Typically with that, each round entails for our guests to give us a phrase or words that first come to their mind based on our randomly generated word selection. Aaron from Helmerceptic is here with Jordan I today to speak about all things septic tanks and all the information that everyone should know about maintaining and inspections of it. Before we go ahead and get started, Aaron, would you like to go ahead and introduce yourself?

Aaron: Hi, I'm Aaron Helmer. I own Helmer Septic here in Illinois.

Tim: Awesome. It's good to have you here with us today. Today we are obviously going to be.

Tim: Talking about your company, Homer Septic and.

Tim: Just all things septic tanks related for people who may not know exactly what a septic tank is or the function of it and how it is important to have. So go ahead, do you want to go ahead and just briefly, just give a little backstory what a septic tank is?

Aaron: Yeah. So what a septic tank is or a septic system is it's your own little private sewage treatment plant that you would have in major cities, but it's small enough to fit in your own backyard and be able to produce to clean the waste coming out of a house, to let it go back into the water supply, let it evaporate onto the ground in your backyard. So you have your own little treatment unit that treats all the sewage, breaks down the toilet paper, the bodily waste, everything like that. And it treats it and it disperses out into the ground and they get more complicated. They get less complicated after that. But it's generally what it is it's a septic tank where all your waste goes and it gets treated and goes back out into the ground.

Tim: Awesome. So with that, with the septic tank, are there different kinds of septic tanks that are available or is it just like one standard? Everyone gets the same type of deal.

Aaron: So septic tanks are based so there's multiple different kinds of septic tanks. So back in the day, what we had was just one normal barrel sized septic tank. And then that was always sized based off how many bedrooms the home is. So if you have a four bedroom home, they calculate that probably five or six people are be living there. That's going to probably be a 1500 gallon tank that you'd have in the ground that gives it enough float time, enough water to be able to enter the septic tank, get broken down, be treated before it goes back out to the septic field as treated. Effluent and then dispose of the different kind of septic tanks that they have now are aeration septic tanks that's a new one that's been around for 2030 ish some years. That injects air into the septic tank. The air creates the bacteria to be aerobic and it produces bacteria to eat the solid and waste at a much higher rate to be able to clean the water cleaner when it comes out. The cleaner the water, the faster the evaporation, the longer your septic system lasts. Especially with really hard areas where people are trying to build now on big beds of clay and other things. Those are very common to have installed now.

Tim: Okay. I know when I had a house and stuff, the alarm for it actually went off. So getting the septic tanks inspected and having it maintained is very important to do on a regular basis, correct?

Aaron: Correct. So if you don't have it pumped or maintained, what happens is the sludge, the waste particles build up in your septic tank and eventually the levels get too high inside the septic tank. The septic are always filled with water, so they're always at like 80% full of the septic tanks and that's their working operating level. But the sludge layer is measured and how much sludge is accumulating at the bottom of the septic tank. Once there is more than 20% sludge inside the septic tank, you want to have it pumped out. If that septic tank ends up being 100% full of sludge inside the septic tank, or 50% or what have you, there's a lot more particles and sludge breakdown that ends up going out to the septic field and starts breaking down inside the septic field or not breaking down at all. Once that happens, you're looking at a new septic field or a lot of costly repairs to fix that issue. So a little bit of maintenance goes a very long way.

Tim: Yeah, that would be a pretty penny to get all that fixed. If you don't get it regularly maintenance.

Jourdyn: Right. So just to build off of the regular maintenance and the inspections that usually go into that, what are some of the signs of a failing septic system? So what are some common signs that you typically see?

Aaron: All right, so failing septic systems. What you're going to find here is either the septic system fails out into the yard, you'll have water servicing in the backyard. You'll have big wet spots, odors in the backyard, really tall grass where the septic field is at, or really high lines in the backyard that you could see where something's getting very overly saturated. So that's one area in the yard. The other area, if the septic system is too deep and the water can't penetrate out of the ground, what ends up happening is that your toilets will start not wanting to flush. Water will start backing up out of your toilet or out of your shower, out of your bathtub. Because if it can't escape out into the yard, the field can no longer take it. It either has to come out of the ground or come out somewhere else. And a lot of times it ends up coming right out of people's showers, and then you're kind of just stuck with it until you have something else designed and installed. Until the meantime.

Tim: Did you say coming out of people's showers?

Aaron: Yeah, it happens all the time.

Jourdyn: Wow.

Aaron: Or backs up out of your forger in your basement, and you come home from vacation and there is a foot of water inside your basement of all sewage water.

Tim: Oh, my god. That would be awful.

Jourdyn: That was my worst nightmare, actually, to just come home and all you're just waiting in water.

Tim: So just to piggyback off of that, let's just say the basement were to flood and everything. Would that be a somewhat relative, easy fix? Or would you need like a whole new septic tank?

Aaron: So it backs up for a couple of reasons. So it could go either order. So if your septic field has failed and the water can't escape out of the top of the ground to create a failure outside and it starts creating a failure inside the house, it's a longer process to get something designed, installed, and out into the yard, it takes a little bit more longer process. Other things that happen where it backs up into your house is, let's say, like you said, your alarm went off before. A lot of septic tanks have a lift pump on them that pumps the water when it comes out of your house, goes to the septic tank, and then there's a lift station, pumps the water uphill somewhere. A lot of times that lift pump goes out, the water can't go anywhere, backs up into your house, floods out your basement. That's more of an easier fix. That's a 1 hour fix versus a three month fix.

Tim: Okay, I didn't know that.

Jourdyn: So it would be I'm assuming it's definitely going to be a lot more important for people and homeowners to get on these issues a lot more promptly rather than to kind of wait it out and have a whole bunch of damage and repairs being put in their septic system.

Aaron: Correct. So a lot of people, they treat a septic system like if there's no problem with it, I shouldn't do anything with it. And that's kind of like not getting an oil change because you don't have any problems with your car. You still get the oil change done every so often, right? What, 3000 miles? It used to be. Now it's like, what, 5000 miles? You get an oil change done every so many months. All my cars are like 10,000 miles oil changes. So I don't even know what the right area to do oil changes. But that's how you kind of have to look at it. If you do routine maintenance, things aren't going to be as big of a problem. But if you bury your head in the sand for 20 years and then all of a sudden you need a new septic system even though your house is only 20 years old, yeah, that's going to be a huge issue. And that would have been resolved if you didn't have 20 year old sewage waste going out to your septic tank every day or your septic field.

Jourdyn: Wow, that's crazy. Never thought of a septic tank. I like the analogy you use that puts a lot of stuff into perspective.

Aaron: A little bit of maintenance goes a long way with anything that you do.

Jourdyn: That's crazy though. Well, can you just explain some of the various available services that most septic companies or specifically helmerceptic has for homeowners?

Aaron: All right, so your average maintenance that you're going to have is your routine pumping. You're probably going to do routine pumping once every two to three years, depending on your household. Some households require it more often, some households require it less often. But good rule of thumb is every two to three years that you have it pumped out, that's your one thing. Your other routine maintenance is going to be make sure that your lift station is working properly when they do the pump outs for that. That's always a good sign. But also the homeowner is always able to kind of make sure that everything's running properly on their house, too. The other septic tanks that I had mentioned before are the Aeration septic tanks. Those should always be inspected every six months to make sure they are working correctly, that there's no issues with them. That none of the motors, the airlines, the diffusers, none of that is being clogged. A lot of times these houses have they get field size reduction so they don't get built as big as a septic system because they have this Aeration tank. But if you don't maintain it and it stops working and then ten years down the line, you say, oh, my septic, it's not working anymore. Why is it? Well, because that one eye object stopped working. So with Aeration tanks, you always want to have those inspected and maintained every six months to make sure your septic system works good. Other things that we do besides that is just field evaluations when it comes to routine maintenance to make sure if you do a little bit of maintenance, there's not that much to do with the maintenance, but as long as you do those three things, depending on what your septic system has, it's fantastic.

Tim: So I do have a question just going off of that, because you did mention their Aeration tanks. What would you say is, like, the key difference between that type of septic tank versus just the normal standard tank that people can get?

Aaron: So a regular septic tank that you would get it does not have any infused air into it. So the septic system is probably in an area where there's better, faster draining soils so the water goes through the septic tank. It has enough time to get clarified once it goes out to the septic field, there's much faster soils that, let's say, if you're in an area that has a lot of sand and stone like sandy fill in your backyard, a septic system is going to drain much faster. In other areas that we work in, we have areas where if you dig down six inches, you have nothing but blue clay. Well, you're going to want to have an aeration septic system so the water can be absorbed faster because the sewage waste, if it just came from a regular septic tank, wouldn't have enough time to dispose in that blue clay.

Jourdyn: Interesting. Well, can you highlight the importance of hiring a licensed septic tank service provider rather than somebody just kind of finding some rinky **** person with two stars on Google?

Aaron: All right, so you'd want to hire somebody when it comes to a septic tank pumping, most people are probably going to be licensed to pump out septics if they have a big septic tank pump truck. When it comes to the installation part of a septic system, when you're installing these, there are a lot of fly by night people that will try to rob you blind, take a whole bunch of money, install a makeshift septic that they find off menards into your backyard. And if you don't do it right, per codes, per county regulations, following environmental health practices, you potentially will drain your septic system. The contents of your septic too close to wells, too close to neighboring wells, too close to the wetlands, too close to bodies of water, would end up poisoning and sickening people. Nobody wants to find out that their septic tank was installed incorrectly 25ft away from somebody's well, and they've been ingesting E. Coli for far too long. So that's one thing to make sure you hire professional and get permits and try never to do this stuff without permits because you'll run in nothing but headaches and potentially sicken all of your neighbors and other people and contaminate their wells.

Tim: You are hearing from you now and everything. You're obviously very experienced in this. How long have you been doing like, septic tank work and installations of it?

Aaron: So I've been in the septic business here for 20 years now, let's say. And then my father, he's been doing it longer than I have. He's probably been doing this for about 40 years now. So I kind of grew up in a septic tank.

Tim: Okay. Just like your business as a whole, is that something like you and your dad started or your dad started it and you kind of just took over type deal?

Aaron: So my dad got started in the septic business. He mostly dug foundations when they were building new houses. And then somebody got him roped into if you're digging the house, how do you put the septic in? So we just kept on running with that 2007 when we stopped building so many new houses, when the recession was coming around, we got out of digging houses and just kept on running and installing septics. Because not everybody needs to build that new house, but everybody needs to ****. So it's a recession for business.

Tim: Yeah, I know. Before I moved down to North Carolina, I was doing real estate and I did a lot of new construction. And you are right, that was one of the main questions people always ask was about the septic tank. How does the whole thing even work? Where does it go type deal. So, yeah, I'm right there behind you on that one. I was barely asked a lot with new construction homes.

Aaron: Yeah.

Tim: Shifting gears back into how you were saying into contaminating the well water and everything, or did it just go how would it go into effect? Obviously that's a safety hazard and stuff for the septic tanks and just people in general. Would there anything be like toxic gases or like Cavens as well? Or is that a thing for septic tanks?

Aaron: So I don't know about toxic gases. That all depends how many taco nights you have. I guess. The Cavens that we end up having are septic tanks are usually made out of concrete. A septic tank made out of concrete probably has a lifespan of 30 to 60 years on it before the septic tank starts breaking down from the gases inside the septic tank. So the septic tank releases gases when all the biological breakdown is happening inside the septic tank. And that eats at some of the concrete walls inside the septic tank. Once the walls get deteriorated enough or the lid gets deteriorated enough, the top of the septic tank actually collapses in. This happens a lot during the springtime when we start getting a bunch of rain, the snow starts melting when the ground is very wet, and saturated it's a lot heavier, which causes a lot of the cave ins from weaker septic tanks. So that's one thing to watch out. The toxic gases. They're not going to harm you if you smell them, but it eats away at concrete over time. They used to make septic tanks out of steel. Those would only have about a ten to 15 year lifespan. They switched to concrete. A lot of people are switching to plastic, which has their pros and negatives might last longer. But if you're in an area where there's a lot of clay, plastic septic tanks aren't really that ideal yet. They have to get a little bit stronger before we start implementing them too much all around.

Tim: Wow. So I know you said spring. You see a lot of cave ins. We are in spring now. Have you received a lot of calls about that so far yet?

Aaron: Oh, yeah. I've received a lot of phone calls from septic tanks just falling in. People cutting their grass for the first time on their lawnmowers, getting swallowed up by a random, mysterious hole in their backyard that they never knew about. Landscapers doing new mulch and spring cleanups. People would have their septic tanks buried under some mulch while somebody drives over it with a little dingo bobcat and it falls right in. I probably pull out ten lawnmowers a year out of people's backyards, out of a septic tank hole. You got to pull them back out.

Tim: That's insane.

Jourdyn: Wow.

Aaron: Yeah. ****** situation.

Tim: So speaking of the environmental impact and everything, and just the safety and the maintenance and everything like that, what are some tips that you would like to share with people about their septic tanks and just safely maintaining it as an overall whole?

Aaron: All right, so get it pumped out every two to three years. Fantastic. Check with your when your house was built, there was a septic tank file added. Most houses were never designed to handle a garbage disposal in their house. Most people have one. They added it in after all inspections were done. Most septic systems are not able to break down the waste from a garbage disposal. And that is one thing that does plague a lot of septic systems. It takes a long time for bacteria to eat down food waste and everything else that your body hasn't already consumed and sent off to the septic tank system. So that causes a lot of issues as well. Coffee grounds, things like that should never go out into a septic system. And there's a lot of products people are using out there that should never go out to a septic system. You'd be surprised on how many weird things you find inside somebody's septic tank and they didn't know that it wasn't flushable.

Tim: Now, when you say so many weird products, I'm kind of curious, what are some of those weird products like you don't recommend?

Aaron: Well, we found I went to a house once they flushed, there was probably about 200, maybe 100 to 200 electric toothbrushes in their kids. Electric toothbrushes. Their daughter did not like brushing their teeth and would keep on flushing them down the toilet. They thought, he's funny and just kind of laughed. I was extremely mad because my hose would get stuck on every single toothbrush I would pump out. And then that's just damaging the inside of my truck. So that drove me.

Tim: Toothbrushes, toothbrush, toothbrush.

Aaron: Their toilet must have been fantastic because my kids flush like, three things of toilet paper down the toilet and it gets clogged. So good for them. Whatever kind of toilet they had, I should be an advertisement for them. Another thing, a lot of feminine products end up in septic tanks. That's not good. They're not flushable. People even flush, like, the weird applicators down. Like it's plastic that has no business doing inside of a septic tank. There's garbages next to toilets for that reason. What else do we find weird inside septic tanks? Male products. You'll find condoms inside of a septic tank. That's always very awkward to tell people not to flush condoms. Especially when the husband says he doesn't use condoms.

Jourdyn: Tea time with Helmerceptic.

Aaron: Yeah, you'll find a lot of weird stuff down there and have to make a lot of awkward observations to homeowners, I bet.

Jourdyn: That is so strange. But it brought me joy to hear at the same time because it's like, what the heck? Toothbrushes.

Aaron: I got one of a good way. So the Aeration tanks I was mentioning before, right? It's a septic tank. Injects air into it, the air breaks on the bacteria. Well, brand new house was having problems. The alarm was going off, so we got called to go out there. House has only been there for about six months. No idea what's going on. Homeowner lady comes meets us out there. Husband meets us out there. The county meets us out there, and the designer meets us all outside. To figure out why this alarm is going on, there must be an issue. We open up the septic tank lid. Well, the three boys all had the house for themselves over the weekend when the alarm went off. They must have had a real big party. There was probably about 100 balloons inside that septic. They weren't balloons, but you know what I'm going at here? All blown up from the Aeration in there. When you opened it all up, there was just a sea of balloons inside the septic tank.

Tim: Oh, my gosh.

Aaron: Oh, man. She was so upset that we were all out there and then that was the reason we got called out there. I've never seen a homeowner so mad before in my life.

Tim: She had every right to be.

Jourdyn: Blame her. I do not blame her. Oh, my gosh.

Tim: Wow.

Aaron: Yeah.

Jourdyn: I'm speechless. All I can say is wow.

Tim: It's very important to get those inspected and maintained.

Jourdyn: Everybody, this is why we need to make sure that everyone makes sure they get their septic tank checked on. This is important stuff, people. You don't want to shower in sewage.

Aaron: No, you don't. It's really not healthy for you.

Jourdyn: Well, we just want to thank you so much for just being a part of the podcast, for giving us basically a brief overview of all things septic tanks, like what it is, the signs, some of the services that you guys provide. And so, yeah, thank you for just emphasizing the importance of making sure that we get these things checked on.

Aaron: Absolutely.

Tim: Thank you. Yeah. And if you guys are near Carrie Ill noise or just the surrounding areas of it, definitely give Aaron at Helmerceptic a call, because he definitely knows what he's talking about.

Jourdyn: Most definitely.

Aaron: I know my ****.

Tim: Yeah, he does. Well, Aaron, thank you so much. It was a pleasure speaking with you. I hope we will see you again soon to continue diving into just different septic tanks as a whole and just generalized information.

Aaron: Thank you.

Tim: Thank you.

Jourdyn: And with that.

Tim: Is today's installment of Surviving the Pride with Aaron from Helmer Septic.

Tim: I hope everybody got some bit of.

Tim: Information about septic tanks and the importance of getting them maintained and inspected, and most importantly, not what to flush down your toilet. Tune in next time for a brand new installment of Surviving the Pride. Our.