Don't Try To Solve A Septic Backup On Your Own

If you've previously owned homes with city sewer hookups, you might be used to trying to solve minor clogs and backups on your own. While professional drain cleaning is a better bet even with municipal sewer lines, the potential consequences of failing to get to the bottom of the problem are often much less severe.

With a septic system, you can't simply write off your actions' results as a problem for your city's sewer engineers. If your attempts to clear a clog or backup fail, you must deal with the impact on your home's septic system. Before you pull out the plunger and try to solve a septic system on your own, consider these three reasons why an emergency call to a septic services company might save you money.

1. You Don't Know Why Your System Is Backing Up 

A sewage line backup is always a nasty problem. Sewer has an undeniable ick-factor and can pose some very real biological hazards. Unfortunately, sewage backups in a septic system can have many potential culprits. Unlike a city sewer hookup, your sewer pipes don't have the final say in waste disposal. Instead, that honor belongs to your leaching field.

A clog anywhere from your main drain line out to your septic tank and leaching field can cause water to back up into your home. You may be dealing with a failing septic field, an overloaded septic tank, or something more straightforward like a collapsed or clogged sewer line. A professional can use an inspection camera to discover the problem, allowing them to devise an appropriate action plan.

2. You Can Make Things Much Worse

A well-maintained septic system is like a conveyor belt that delivers wastewater to its final resting place in your drainfield. Along the way, wastewater will stop in your septic tank to deposit fats and solids before continuing. The bacteria in the tank help to manage solid levels, and their efforts save you from needing to pump your tank more often than every few years.

However, many cleaning products are not safe for these little biological helpers. Using the wrong chemical cleaning product can badly upset the balance in your septic tank, forcing you to pump the tank or suffer even more severe clogs. Professional-quality snakes and hydro jetting equipment are safer options that can break up clogs without destroying your tank's microfauna.

3. You Might Not Have Much Time

Several septic system problems can result in clogs that will worsen with frightening speed. For example, a failing leaching field will slow the rate at that effluent can drain into the surrounding soil, eventually causing a traffic jam that will back up into your home. An overfilled septic tank can also cause your drains to progress from being a little slow to suddenly backing up with sewage.

Waiting to see how do-it-yourself solutions work out can mean turning a minor nuisance into a disaster. The sooner you contact a professional septic services company to check on your system, the more likely you'll be to avoid a sewage backup that can damage your home and threaten your health.

Speak to emergency septic services today to learn more.