Has anyone had a bad experience with a backed up septic system?
By clutterbug
@clutterbug (1051)
United States
June 7, 2009 4:54pm CST
We're having our septic system emptied out tomorrow for the first time ever, and I plan on keeping the windows closed during the process. But has anyone gone through this, and how long might the process take? We've lived in this house for 13 years. Any advice will be appreciated.
3 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
8 Jun 09
We had a backup in our rental nextdoor and had to have someone come and pump out the septic tank. A big truck came with a big hose and it wasn't smelly as I recall. I think he was here for about an hour. There are products on the market that help your septic system to do it's job but if this is the first time you've had to have it emptied in 13 years, it sounds like it's doing fine.
@clutterbug (1051)
• United States
8 Jun 09
Hi spalladino, Thank you for responding to my post; as of now our septic is empty - hooray! I am relieved that all went well, and it only took him about 25 min. He said that since it's just me and hubby living here that it wasn't so bad. Now I will go make some iced tea, cheers! And thanks again.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
8 Jun 09
I'm glad everything went well. 
I remembered after I posted that the reason the guy was here as long as he was was because he checked our septic, too, and gave us the thumbs up...plus he knew my husband so they had to talk guy talk for awhile. 
I remembered after I posted that the reason the guy was here as long as he was was because he checked our septic, too, and gave us the thumbs up...plus he knew my husband so they had to talk guy talk for awhile. 
@savypat (20216)
• United States
8 Jun 09
We had a similar experience just before Christmas, we have been here 18 years, ours took about 3 hours. it was cold so no windows were open. I have since been told that toilet paper is part of the problem, some companies are putting more glue into the paper, I wrote to Kimberly Clark and they assured me that their tissue is 100 per cent wood pulp. Of course you know that you will have to restore the bacteria once your tank is empty and continue to use rid X or something like that on a monthly basis. I now only use tissue marked safe for septic systems now. Good luck
@clutterbug (1051)
• United States
8 Jun 09
Good afternoon savypat, Thank you for writing back - the septic man came and went after about 25 min. and all went well. I am relieved that it's over. You are right about the toilet paper build-up, my mom had hers emptied (the house I grew up in), and would you believe it hadn't ever been emptied in 30 yrs! She said that it was full up, and paper was a big problem. Perhaps she should have entered that 30 yrs in the Guiness Record Book, eh? Anyway, thanks for your interesting comment. Cheers!
@calcium12 (13)
• Canada
7 Jun 09
i have had some minor problems but nothing major we just noticed a smell which was disguistiing
