With household cleaners, detergents and anti-bacterial soaps being what they are today, homeowners are finding out just how expensive septic tank repair can be the hard way. Slow, backed-up septic systems are causing a concern that in recent years has been on the rise throughout the world. What was once thought to be a relatively maintenance free component to a home, has proven to be financially disastrous to many homeowners, especially in these uncertain economic times.

The housing boom of recent past caused many consumers to enter into area of homeownership. While we have all heard about the foreclosure and mortgage debacle that has gone on, many of us are unaware of the financial hardships falling upon homeowners that did not default on their homes, but were significant impacted by the resulting collapse of the banking infrastructure. With investment accounts and retirement plans a fraction of what they were, homeowners did not need to be dealt another blow in the pocket books, and that is exactly what we are seeing with septic tank failure.

Naturally, a demand for less expensive alternatives to septic tank replacement and repair surfaced and as the market usually does, a number of companies surfaced as well offering a solution at a price homeowners can afford. Problem is, many homeowners do not know enough about how a septic tank functions to understand just what is needed to treat it. An epidemic of Scams is breaking out throughout the industry, with both expensive liquid shocks and monthly liquid treatments being sold to consumers had hundreds of dollars, knowing full well that the normal day to day activity of the home will render these liquid treatments completely ineffective.

To break this down to the most basic level is to say that septic tanks are designed to house the waste from your home. It is housed there until the naturally occurring bacteria and enzymes are able to digest this waste into liquid form. This liquid is then dispersed into your drain field. At any given time in a septic tank, you have waste at the bottom of the tank, you have a scum layer on the top of the tank, and in the middle you have the liquid to be dispersed as mentioned above. As a septic system malfunctions the waste at the bottom and scum at the top grow bigger until it begins to clog the pipes and drains in your home.

When you treat or “shock” your septic system, you are hoping to deliver fast acting bacteria to clean out the pipes then attack the waste and scum or bio-mat at the top of the tank. Once you restore the bacteria levels, destroyed from household cleaners, detergents and soaps, it is only a matter of time until the system begins to function again. However liquid treatments; compared far more effective granular ones, slide past most of the bacteria in the pipes. It sits in the septic tank, where it begins to work, however one too many flushes of the toilet, a long shower or the worst offender of all, a load of laundry is done and all of that liquid is swept out through the system and dispersed in your drain field without ever having the time to go to work. While the products themselves would work, if absolutely no additional water was used in your home for a month or so, that is just not practical for most homeowners who live and must use their home daily.

By choosing a granular septic tank treatment and shock, a homeowner can count on the bacteria and enzymes settling throughout their pipes and settling to the bottom of the septic tank where it can penetrate, digest and restore your septic system. In addition, granular septic treatments tend to be less expensive, keeping the scammers focused on selling the liquid alternative.

There is no doubt that homeowners NEED TO TREAT their septic system, but they should certainly beware of liquid shocks and treatments as they are nothing more than a waste of time and money.

Article originally published at Source by Clinton Diggs