Are you a new owner of a septic tank or onsite wastewater treatment system? HC Plumbing are the Wastewater Service Specialists you should add to your contacts list!

When making the tree change from living in town to living in rural areas, many think of all of the benefits of their new rural life.

The space, the fresh air… but there’s one shorefire way to ruin your fresh country air, and that is by failing to maintain your onsite sewerage treatment system. 

Often, even when you are only a stone’s throw from town, you will find that rural properties don’t have the same access to town sewer that town folk have, meaning you will have to familiarise yourself with the service & maintenance obligations, and the signs to look out for when something might be amiss with your septic tank. 

HC Plumbing are the local experts in onsite sewerage treatment. Whether you have a traditional septic tank or any other form of onsite sewerage treatment plant, if you are responsible for treating the things that go down your loo, then we are the experts who service it, maintain it, install it and fix it!

With that in mind we have pulled together some useful information that will make owning and maintaining your septic/house sewerage treatment plant a little bit simpler.

Why do you need to service your septic tank / house sewerage treatment plant? 

Your septic or sewerage treatment plant is responsible for ensuring the safe treatment, and disposal of your wastewater. Black water (as water containing raw sewerage is termed) contains any number of potentially dangerous bacteria. It is therefore very important to ensure that your system is working in the way in which it is designed in order to thoroughly treat your wastewater before it is released back into your environment. 



Many different issues can cause your sewerage treatment plant not to work optimally. Some systems require that you use septic safe cleaning products (meaning you will likely have to change your dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent and cleaning agents), you will also have to be extra careful not to put anything not designed to go down a drain into your system (no wipes, oil, tissues etc.).

Failure to correctly service and maintain your sewage treatment system can result in:

• Sickness and ill health
• Foul smell 
• Mud and wet earth that contains raw sewerage and fecal matter posing a danger to yourself, your family and pets
• Fines and reprimands from local council

We have pulled together a blog post with signs that your system might need to be replaced - but they are also very relevant signs that there is something untoward happening with your system. You can read about the signs to look out for here. 

How often does a septic tank / house sewerage treatment plant need to be serviced? 

Servicing for each system is different and is dictated by the manufacturer. It will generally be either quarterly or annually. If your system is a house sewerage treatment plant (a little bit more complex than a septic tank as it treats your water to a quality suitable to allow it to be pumped out via sprinklers above ground) it will likely need servicing quarterly as there is a more complex balance required in order to ensure that the quality of the water that is pumped out into your garden is maintained at a safe level. If you have a traditional septic tank (a holding tank that your water leeches underground from) then, you will require less regular servicing as this is not compulsory, however strongly advised annually to maintain longevity of the systems operation.

Ensuring that servicing is completed as per your plant manufacturer's instructions is very important, as local councils will monitor that your plant is being serviced as it was designed (every time a licensed wastewater service agent services your plant they have to provide the service report to your local council). In the event the council is not receiving your regular service reports, there may be penalties for failing to maintain your system. 

How much does it cost to service your septic / sewerage treatment plant? 

With HC Plumbing the price generally varies depending on the complexity of the servicing of your plant and the remoteness of your property. The general range is $80 - $120 per service (quarterly or annually as required) and no GST is chargeable on sewerage treatment plant servicing. In order to maintain our competitive pricing, we group together all services in your region, so that you are not having to pay individual travel costs to your property. We then set you up on our regular service run, sending you a text message the week prior to your service to ensure that you are happy for us to attend and requesting that you let us know if for any reason (i.e. you’ve sold the property) you no longer need us to attend.

For an individual quote for the regular servicing and maintenance of your system please give us a call on 0439 648 390.