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I'm also in New England. If you have a properly designed leach field to disperse the liquids, the tank is sized properly, and you avoid putting oils and non-biodegradable items down the drain, it could easily last 20 years or more.
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Hmmm. The house was built in 1962 and we got connected to the town sewer system about twenty years later.
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We're on mains sewage, but about a year after we moved in it blocked, and overflowed. Lifted the cover and yes, the stench was hideous. I tried to rod it, but ended up calling in an expert who did the job very nicely. Turns out the cover was about 2m above the pipe, so the whole 1m x 1m x 2 m column was full... destroyed my last hazmat suit jet washing the patio, and it took 3 or four long hot showers before I couldn't smell it any more. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: took 3 or four long hot showers before I couldn't smell it any more
It clings does it not? Takes about a day to get the stench out of your lungs! Foul work.
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I think the worst bit was that you could taste it without it going anywhere near your mouth ... I now check that cover every couple of months so I don't have to do that again.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Quite, it is a very lingering odour.
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Not sure a working septic tank should need emptying - you don't suppose he is just taking the piss?
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When my parents had a septic system installed, they were told that a properly installed septic system, sized for the population in the house, should never need to be emptied. The tank should be large enough to allow the contents to fully dissolve before being discharged.
Then, the drainage lines should be configured to allow the contents to dissolve into the ground.
If the ground isn't porous enough, the lines can become clogged and cause a backup.
I've been in my current residence since 1999, but the system was installed in 1973; based on the size of the hardwood trees surrounding it and the ground not being disturbed, the tank has never been emptied.
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That tank is either tiny, or you poop more than your fare share.
I've lived all my life out in the country, we're all on septic tanks, and nobody around here ever has to get their tank emptied more than once every 20 years or so, for the average 4-person household.
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Interesting. I remember growing up in Alaska, that my dad would, every year, take a 1/4 stick of dynamite (it was legal to buy in a hardware store then), put it on a string and pop it off in the septic tank near the bottom. We lived in that house for almost 30 years and never needed a septic sucker guy to come and clean it out ever.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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stoneyowl2 wrote: I remember growing up in Alaska, that my dad would, every year, take a 1/4 stick of dynamite (it was legal to buy in a hardware store then), put it on a string and pop it off in the septic tank near the bottom.
I think I read the most American sentence ever. 
* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.
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Apart from relocating the contents over the garden, what is that supposed to achieve? 
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Precisely this. They call it 'fertilizing' over there.
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My dad told me that it knocked the 'stuff' off the walls of the septic tank so the water could percolate through to the leach field of gravel
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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Ah, OK, I see. It unblocks the soakaway. Must be an old style septic tank, ie a hole fullof rocks.
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I think it was a wooden log 'crate' about 6 feet to a side, buried in the back yard. When we went on city sewer, it was required that it be destroyed and filled in so it would not cause a big hole later.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Anyone prepared to come round my house and suck 2 years worth of my turds out of a hole in the ground is worth an inestimable amount of money.
We come here every day and deal with your sh*t, now please send me money 
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Are you calling COdeProject a hole in the ground?
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I remember a story of a British construction company who won a contract to build a new school in the middle east. As it was not connected to mains sewerage lines, they installed a large septic tank and calculated, given the estimated school population, it would not need emptying for about five years.
After about a year, they received emergency calls, saying that the toilets were overflowing and they where knee deep in excrement. They sent out a team and discovered that, apart from waste, the tank was filled with hundreds of thousands of pebbles. It was explained to them that in desert countries it is traditional to clean onesself by scraping the ringpiece with smooth stones.
"No - this is a modern building" said the designers - "You must teach the pupils to use toilet paper!"
After emptying the tank they went on their way, expecting not to hear back for five years.
A year later they were called back to more knee deep crap, only to find the tank full of pebbles, neatly wrapped in toilet paper!
=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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Jesus christ, some people eh?
Where do they get the pebbles from? Do they carry around a stash of them! 
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Is a veiled threat when your girlfriend hints at a wedding?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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It'll be an obvious threat if your wife finds out you got a girlfriend 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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at least you get to finger the ring....
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When a criminal marries, does his bride get a veil or a hood?
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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If your girlfriend's a cow, I'd consider that a vealed threat.
/ravi
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