Crappy situation

[Hoosierdood]

I got home from work yesterday and my kids informed me that our "pipes" are making a funny noise. I asked them what that meant and my son ran upstairs and flushed the toilet. All of a sudden, the downstairs toilet started gurgling and making a ruckus. Then the tub and sink started gurgling. Great.

Now the downstairs toilet is full of raw sewage, and the tub has about 2" of in it. We bought the house 2.5 years ago and the septic tank was empty at the time. I guess the tank is too small for 6 people. Having someone come out tomorrow to pump it. Meanwhile, we are trying to conserve water. I told the family "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down."

 

[hoosierdoc]

Oh, that stinks. Pee outside!

 

[SEIndSAM]

Hoosierdood just wanted to brag about his fancy indoor plumbing......Tell the kids to crap in the outhouse like their great-grandpa did.........

 

[Hoosierdood]

Oh, that stinks. Pee outside!

I'm pretty sure my boys already do.

 

[Bigtanker]

I'm pretty sure my boys already do.

The grass is always greener when you water with your weiner outside.

 

[awames76]

i feel the pain.

our tank backed up 16 months ago, lucky for us it was nice out and we have a port a potty [ we have a corn maze in the fall] so we had some place to go. after 2 days of digging and cutting the concrete floor on the porch i found the tank, house built in 1950. kitchen added on in the 60's and they covered the tank, found it and there were no holes in it. it was pored in place with no access. so got a concrete saw and made a hole in the middle so i got both sided. then had it pumped for the first time in 66 yrs. we have a family of 6 now.

 

[AGarbers]

Sorry to hear that. We had to have a new septic in 2013 which turned into a new lift station that hit bedrock, so $17,000 later our poop is pumped up hill to my new food plot in the woods...

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Are you sure it's the septic tank and not a drain line that's plugged up? A few years ago, we had a minor flood when a branch drain line plugged up (right after my wife went on a refrigerator clean out exercise).

 

[Hoosierdood]

Are you sure it's the septic tank and not a drain line that's plugged up? A few years ago, we had a minor flood when a branch drain line plugged up (right after my wife went on a refrigerator clean out exercise).

I had thought about that. Right now it's a guessing game. Call it a crap-shoot. The house was built in the 1940s, and I have no idea how old the septic is. I would venture a guess that it wasn't designed for 6 people. The most likely senario after 2.5 years living there is a full septic tank. Either way, won't hurt to have it pumped. If the problem persists, I will look at other possibilities.

 

[Gluemanz28]

At least it didn't happen in cold weather with a house full of guest.

My pump went out of the lift station a couple years ago. Got the dreaded gurgling sound and backing up.

Mrs Glue then informed me that the alarm went off a couple days earlier and she wasn't sure why it was making a noise that would not stop so she unplugged it.

I spent Black Friday shopping for a sewage pump. Pumped the tank, threw on some coveralls and in I went to replace the pump.

That was Mike Rowe dirty job worthy

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I had thought about that. Right now it's a guessing game. Call it a crap-shoot. The house was built in the 1940s, and I have no idea how old the septic is. I would venture a guess that it wasn't designed for 6 people. The most likely senario after 2.5 years living there is a full septic tank. Either way, won't hurt to have it pumped. If the problem persists, I will look at other possibilities.

I don't guess there's a clean out you can open up? With everything backed up, opening that clean out would be another crappy situation . But if you do, you might be able to run a snake down it and see if one of the kids has flushed a teddy bear or something.

 

[Jtrain]

We just had a similar situation at our house, turns out we've got the tiniest septic tank I've ever seen. Guy that pumped it out said we were lucky to have made it two yrs

 

[Bigtanker]

At least it didn't happen in cold weather with a house full of guest.

My pump went out of the lift station a couple years ago. Got the dreaded gurgling sound and backing up.

Mrs Glue then informed me that the alarm went off a couple days earlier and she wasn't sure why it was making a noise that would not stop so she unplugged it.

I spent Black Friday shopping for a sewage pump. Pumped the tank, threw on some coveralls and in I went to replace the pump.

That was Mike Rowe dirty job worthy

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Gluemanz28]

Pics or it didn't happen.

If I had pics I would have already burnt them

 

[dprimm]

If I had pics I would have already burnt them

To a Gold CD?

 

[PapaScout]

We had something similar several years ago. Our house was built in 1976 and the mainline from the house to the sewer collapsed. I had a plumber come out and run a camera down the toilet on the main floor and found the collapse. Worth the couple hundred bucks to find the problem.

I called some friends with shovels and we got to work. Two days later I had a new mainline in place and could poop to my little heart's content.

 

[Mgderf]

It wouldn't make your drains back up, but sometimes the gurgling sounds are symptomatic of something else.
On several occasions I've been called to address slow drains, "and oh, by the way, the drains gurgle too."
Upon inspection I've found birds have nested inside the vent stack.
If your drains can't breathe, they won't drain properly.

 

[HoughMade]

I had thought about that. Right now it's a guessing game. Call it a crap-shoot. The house was built in the 1940s, and I have no idea how old the septic is. I would venture a guess that it wasn't designed for 6 people. The most likely senario after 2.5 years living there is a full septic tank. Either way, won't hurt to have it pumped. If the problem persists, I will look at other possibilities.

If the septic system is original to the house, chances are the tank in undersized...but also, the leach field used to be constructed with individual clay tiles about 18" long- real easy for roots and debris to get in a clog them. I helped my Dad dig up and replace the leach field when I was a teenager- house of similar age. Hope it's just a clog in the line of a full tank.

A buddy of mine ha his gray water (shower and sink drains, washing machine) go to a dry well and only sends black water into the septic. Best estimate is that he will never have to get the tank pumped. Actually, that should be the case with any well-designed system in decently draining soil.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

If the septic system is original to the house, chances are the tank in undersized...but also, the leach field used to be constructed with individual clay tiles about 18" long- real easy for roots and debris to get in a clog them. I helped my Dad dig up and replace the leach field when I was a teenager- house of similar age. Hope it's just a clog in the line of a full tank.

A buddy of mine ha his gray water (shower and sink drains, washing machine) go to a dry well and only sends black water into the septic. Best estimate is that he will never have to get the tank pumped. Actually, that should be the case with any well-designed system in decently draining soil.

I don't think you can legally do that anymore. I know people that have done this before as well.

 

[ws6guy]

I wish I could run the gray water separate, my wife loves to do a ton of laundry in a 1 or 2 day span. She gets very upset if I tell how to wash clothes My softener discharge is ran to the sump pit though.

A couple of years ago I kept noticing that my basement would smell like poop from time to time. This went on for a couple of months until one day the wife was washing a ton of clothes and I happened to be in the utility room and noticed soapy water in the sump pit. The light bulb finally went on as to why the basement was smelly. Some one used thin wall PVC from the house to the tank and it collapsed and cracked so I was getting waste water coming the sump pit. They didn't even use pea gravel or anything to lay the pipe in. It now has schedule 40 PVC in a pea gravel bed. It looked like the pipe was already replaced another time so hopefully the line from the tank to the field isn't thin wall too.