Common Septic System Questions and Answers

Learn More About Your Septic System with Us

Raska Sewer Service has 19 years of experience to help you with all your septic needs. We are family and locally owned. Our professionals are licensed and bonded to give you the best service at a fair price. We can answer all your questions about your septic system and how it operates. For example: what happens when you flush your toilet? Here are a few different answers depending on what system you have.

Waste Water with City Sewer Systems

If you own a house with a toilet connected to city water and sewer, you can expect your toilet water to drain into a four-inch pipe after leaving your house. This pipe could be orange berg, cast iron, or PVC, depending on how long ago the pipe was installed. The pipe is connected to a larger city sewer pipe, usually adjacent to a road, connecting to the city water. It runs downhill by gravity or is pumped into a waste treatment plant or a large holding tank to be treated or hauled off to a waste treatment facility.

Waste Water with a Septic System with a Drain Field

If your toilet is not connected to a city sewer, the wastewater drains from your house through pipes and dumps into a septic tank. This pipe could be orange berg, cast iron, or PVC, depending on when the pipe was installed. This pipe dumps wastewater in the tank until the water level reaches the height of the outgoing pipe at the opposite side of the septic tank. Water runs down the pipe into a drain field, septic field, or leach field (they are all the same thing).

Newer Septic systems contain a filter located at the outgoing side of a septic tank below your septic cover to prevent large particles from clogging your drain field. We recommend regular filter cleanings. Just spray your filter with water from a garden hose to remove debris and buildup each fall before putting your garden hoses away for the winter. This will ensure a properly working septic system throughout the winter months. If water is overflowing from your septic cover, you likely have a plugged pipe or a plugged filter from the outgoing side of the tank. Call us for our filter cleaning services!

If you find wet or soggy ground around a drain field, the drain field is not working properly. We can often fix the problem without a new installation or repairs, and it's much easier and affordable than a drain field replacement.

Waste Water with a Septic System with a Mound System

As with the drain field, wastewater runs through pipes into a septic tank where the water rises until the level reaches the height of the outgoing pipe at the opposite end of the tank. With a mound system, the water then runs down into an additional tank containing a lift pump station. A lift pump station is a pump that propels water uphill to a mound system so that water can percolate or seep into the ground.

You should have a weep hole in lift station or pump pipe allowing excess water to drain out of your pipe. If you do not have a weep hole in winter, your pipes will freeze between your lift station (pump chamber tank) and the mound system.

To care for your mound system, pump the tank containing your septic pump and lift station every three years to keep solid waste from harming your pump's operation.

a clogged pipe for a toilet ready to be cleaned up

How to Know if Your Drain Needs Cleaning

If your toilet is flushing slower than usual, your first step is to use a plunger. If that does not have the desired effect, check the toilet's drain vent on the roof of your home to make sure air is getting to the vent to allow gravity to dump the water. These are often blocked by bird nests, leaves, acorns, snow, and ice.

If that does not work, we may either access your toilet drain by taking off the toilet to get our roto-rooter drain snake inside or we may access your cleanout if the problem is between the sewer and septic system. The cleanout is typically a four-inch drain in your basement. Our roto-rooting service will remove roots and other blockages from your drain.

If roots are the problem for your pipe, know that they will return and clog your pipe again every year or two. That is why we also offer pipe treating services with our select root killer formula. Cutting roots make them easier to kill than uncut roots, and our special treatment will keep roots from returning for a longer period of time.

Frozen Drain and Septic Pipes

Raska Sewer Service septic tank cleaning vehicle

What to Expect for Your Septic Tank Cleaning

We ask that you have your septic cover or lid dug up if it is underground or unlocked if it aboveground. Also please have your garden hose available to service and clean your septic system filter. Depending on the size of your tank, it will take about a half hour to pump and remove solids from inside your tank. Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources oversees county septic systems to ensure your system is up to code and is serviced, pumped, and inspected every three years. Have your county septic card available so our technician can sign and date the card to document that he has been there so you can send it to the county. If you do not have a card, we can supply you with a copy from the county's website.

septic tank cleaning for a residential house

How to Know if Your Septic Pump is Working Properly

If you see wastewater backing up in your house or overflowing from your septic tank covers, you have a problem with your system. Contact a knowledgeable pumper or septic pump installer immediately. Do not try to diagnose the situation yourself as it can be dangerous and your lack of experience around septic pumps and lift stations may cause you harm.

The problem could be due to a bad pump or a plugged sewer line. We will check your lift station to see if the circuit breaker was not tripped or shut off. If the circuit breaker is on and there is water in the septic tank, the pump should be operating properly. If electricity is getting to the pump but the pump is not running, call us to properly diagnose and correct the problem.

a green portable toilet set up in a wide green field

Portable Restroom Rentals

We provide weekend, weekly, or monthly portable toilet rentals. We can pump your rental toilets as often as you'd like: weekly, biweekly, or once a month. We can deliver portable toilets to most of Polk County and northern St. Croix County. We offer ADA compliant toilets that are wheelchair accessible as well a variety of handwash sinks. We also have construction grade portable toilet rentals for work sites.

Our portable toilets are perfect for: