Common septic clogs, what to do (and what not to do).

If you live on septic, you've probably had a moment when something in the house didn't quite drain right. Maybe the toilet bubbled when the washing machine ran. Maybe a sink got slow overnight. Maybe you walked across the yard and caught a smell that wasn't there yesterday.

Some of those moments are easy fixes. Some of them are a sign the system is about to ruin your week. Here's how to tell the difference.

The signs of a real clog.

One slow fixture is usually a local problem. Multiple slow fixtures, especially low ones like a tub or first-floor toilet, usually means the clog is past the fixtures, in the main line or the tank.

• Multiple drains slow at once.
• Toilet bubbles when you run the washer, dishwasher, or shower.
• Sewage smell in the yard, especially over the leach field.
• Wet spots or unusually green grass over the field in dry weather.
• Gurgling sound from drains when nothing else is running.

Any combination of those, call us. The longer a backed-up system runs, the more damage it does, to your house, to the field, and to your wallet.

What you can try first.

If it's one fixture and the rest of the house is fine, this is usually a local clog you can clear:

• A plunger first. Not the cheap red one, the toilet kind with the flange, used with steady, even strokes. Most clogs in a single fixture clear in 30 seconds.
• A drain snake on bathroom sinks or showers, for hair and soap scum.
• Hot water + dish soap for grease in the kitchen sink. Pour a generous squirt of dish soap, let it sit a minute, then chase with a kettle of hot (not boiling) water.

What NOT to do.

This is the part that gets people in trouble.

Don't pour chemical drain cleaner into a septic system.

Drano, Liquid Plumr, and the lye-based stuff are designed for city sewer systems. In a septic tank, they kill the bacteria that make the whole system work. You'll clear today's clog and create next month's tank failure.

Don't keep flushing.

If a toilet is backing up, more flushes don't push the problem through, they just add to the volume that comes back at you. Stop, plunge once, and if it doesn't clear, stop using water in the house until you figure out where the problem is.

Don't dig in the yard yourself.

If you suspect a problem at the tank or the line, don't take a shovel to it. Septic tanks have specific access locations, leach fields have a specific layout, and the lines are exactly where you'd expect, until they aren't. Better to have us locate before you dig.

Don't ignore the smell.

A smell that hangs around over the field, or that shows up in the house after a heavy water-use day, is the system telling you it's overloaded or backing up. Catch it early and we can usually fix it with a pump. Wait six months and it might be a leach field replacement.

What's actually clogging your system.

Almost everything that clogs septic systems falls into one of four buckets:

1. Grease, fat, and oil from the kitchen. Solidifies in the tank's outlet baffle.
2. "Flushable" wipes, paper towels, feminine products, dental floss. None of these break down. We pull them out of every tank we pump.
3. Roots in older clay or cast-iron lines, especially under a yard with trees.
4. Solids overload, the tank simply hasn't been pumped recently enough, and the solids are pushing through into the line or the field.