Septic Nightmares
So yeah, a blizzard blew through earlier this week. We didn't get the worst of it, only 20 inches or so, but that wasn't the big event of the week. Oh no. That was today.
See, today, while doing the first load of laundry (re: routine), water started spilling out from the top of the toilet into the bathroom. This left us with a lot of water to clean up.
That's about a quarter inch to a half inch of water to slowly mop up to a bucket and then drain down the sink. We had called the plumber, and as an experiment while waiting, just after we finished cleaning the floor, we flushed an upstairs toilet. Water flowed up over the toilet again. We had to clean up all that water.
Again.
Oh, and this all started at 10:30 this morning.
Plumber calls back, explains that from what we explained, it's not plumbing, it's the drains, so he's called his drain guy and will be on the way.
Drain guy calls, saying he'll be there in a half hour.
... WHAT?? We just had another inch or so of snow this morning and it's STILL SNOWING!! So I grab my coat and run outside to start clearing the driveway, because we remember our hill, right?
I'm running up and down the hill in the snow (thankfully light flurries that aren't sticking like they were earlier, but still) and I clean the hill, the top, front walkway, and steps, all the while sweating up a storm as I try and finish this as fast as possible. I skip doing the back walkways, since that leads to the well (won't be an issue, this is drainage) and the bulkhead (guy will come through the house, no need, I'm exhausted.)
I finish, come in, and it's 12:30 and I'm starving. (Duh, workout and I had breakfast at 6am).
Image is at school oblivious to all this.
JUST as the microwave goes off for my lunch, the drain guy arrives.
*headdesk*
Mom says she'll handle lunch while Da and I get the drain guy to come in, down the the sopping wet basement and explain everything. I crawl upstairs a while later to find Mom has done nothing and I have to finish getting lunch.
Grrrr. *sigh*
We hear all sorts of noises and clanks and groans from the basement, and Da is staying with the drain guy to act as info-sponge to regurgitate it all back to Mom and me when he randomly comes up to either run hot water or flush a toilet.
Drain guy starts snaking our pipes, because there's clearly a blockage somewhere, but he can't find it.
Which means it's the SEPTIC TANK. So he calls his septic guy.
*further headdesk*
See, there's this one section of our yard. Don't know how well you can see that black bog in the middle of the pic, but:
For years and years (a decade at least) we've had this happen every winter. The ground is so damp and wet that snow treats it like water or a lake. We call it a bog, and it's a natural little part of our yard that creates a small basin that water doesn't drain from. You can smell the standing water from it every summer. It terrifies us that this might be where the septic tank is and that means we've had a bad septic tank for years and years and not known it.
(It's not like the previous owner told us where the septic tank is.)
Cue lots of panic. And reassuring. And more panic. And more reassuring.
Finally the septic guy arrives just as Image gets home to discover this mess. Image and I hightail it out of there to get the food shopping done for the week (God knows how long this was going to take) and get at least an hour of peace and Not Dealing time.
We return to find out all they've been doing is snaking the pipes to see what the hell's been going on, and trying to find the septic tank.
Thankfully, this is nowhere near the bog.
Eventually, the septic tank is found.
Alternate View:
And by finding it, they poke their little camera snake through a blockage that was just before the septic tank.
They can't see the septic tank very well, but the drain guy and the septic guy have ensured that we have enough flow to last for a few months, and come spring, the tank NEEDS to be cleaned/flushed. They still spend another hour doing clean up and stuff, but finally, we can get back to two batches of laundry, the dishwasher, a bath, and oh yeah, cleaning the septic water that's backed up into the bathroom. Bleach works on that right?
We've only gone from 10:30 am til sunset dealing with this. That's not stressful, no not at all. >:( Laundry is still going, so is the dishwasher, but *yeesh* are we glad the day is over.
See, today, while doing the first load of laundry (re: routine), water started spilling out from the top of the toilet into the bathroom. This left us with a lot of water to clean up.
That's about a quarter inch to a half inch of water to slowly mop up to a bucket and then drain down the sink. We had called the plumber, and as an experiment while waiting, just after we finished cleaning the floor, we flushed an upstairs toilet. Water flowed up over the toilet again. We had to clean up all that water.
Again.
Oh, and this all started at 10:30 this morning.
Plumber calls back, explains that from what we explained, it's not plumbing, it's the drains, so he's called his drain guy and will be on the way.
Drain guy calls, saying he'll be there in a half hour.
... WHAT?? We just had another inch or so of snow this morning and it's STILL SNOWING!! So I grab my coat and run outside to start clearing the driveway, because we remember our hill, right?
I'm running up and down the hill in the snow (thankfully light flurries that aren't sticking like they were earlier, but still) and I clean the hill, the top, front walkway, and steps, all the while sweating up a storm as I try and finish this as fast as possible. I skip doing the back walkways, since that leads to the well (won't be an issue, this is drainage) and the bulkhead (guy will come through the house, no need, I'm exhausted.)
I finish, come in, and it's 12:30 and I'm starving. (Duh, workout and I had breakfast at 6am).
Image is at school oblivious to all this.
JUST as the microwave goes off for my lunch, the drain guy arrives.
*headdesk*
Mom says she'll handle lunch while Da and I get the drain guy to come in, down the the sopping wet basement and explain everything. I crawl upstairs a while later to find Mom has done nothing and I have to finish getting lunch.
Grrrr. *sigh*
We hear all sorts of noises and clanks and groans from the basement, and Da is staying with the drain guy to act as info-sponge to regurgitate it all back to Mom and me when he randomly comes up to either run hot water or flush a toilet.
Drain guy starts snaking our pipes, because there's clearly a blockage somewhere, but he can't find it.
Which means it's the SEPTIC TANK. So he calls his septic guy.
*further headdesk*
See, there's this one section of our yard. Don't know how well you can see that black bog in the middle of the pic, but:
For years and years (a decade at least) we've had this happen every winter. The ground is so damp and wet that snow treats it like water or a lake. We call it a bog, and it's a natural little part of our yard that creates a small basin that water doesn't drain from. You can smell the standing water from it every summer. It terrifies us that this might be where the septic tank is and that means we've had a bad septic tank for years and years and not known it.
(It's not like the previous owner told us where the septic tank is.)
Cue lots of panic. And reassuring. And more panic. And more reassuring.
Finally the septic guy arrives just as Image gets home to discover this mess. Image and I hightail it out of there to get the food shopping done for the week (God knows how long this was going to take) and get at least an hour of peace and Not Dealing time.
We return to find out all they've been doing is snaking the pipes to see what the hell's been going on, and trying to find the septic tank.
Thankfully, this is nowhere near the bog.
Eventually, the septic tank is found.
Alternate View:
And by finding it, they poke their little camera snake through a blockage that was just before the septic tank.
They can't see the septic tank very well, but the drain guy and the septic guy have ensured that we have enough flow to last for a few months, and come spring, the tank NEEDS to be cleaned/flushed. They still spend another hour doing clean up and stuff, but finally, we can get back to two batches of laundry, the dishwasher, a bath, and oh yeah, cleaning the septic water that's backed up into the bathroom. Bleach works on that right?
We've only gone from 10:30 am til sunset dealing with this. That's not stressful, no not at all. >:( Laundry is still going, so is the dishwasher, but *yeesh* are we glad the day is over.