Septic nightmare

We had the septic back up into the house, made a horrbile mess. Called a guy to pump it out, he did. Lines clogged. Called a plumber who was a snake himself and charged me for 2 hrs to snake one line and reset the toilet. That cured it for a day.

Now we have a basement that has a sewage ejection pump to get to the septic. If you flush downstairs and it pumps, it makes the toilets and showers upstairs bubble.

We snaked a bit of the one shower upstairs ourselves and pulled a small hairclog. Snaked the other upstairs toilet, no clog. The drains up stairs seem to be running fine, just the indication with the downstairs plumbing.

So, we pulle dthe cap on the tank again, and it is full, but not to overflowing, about 1 foot from top.

I'm thinking maybe the lines need jetting? or could our leach lines be an issue? or please if anyone can suggest anything we could check before calling these guys back out.

How long between thefirst pump out and the next was it?

If the tank overflowed, it could have washed crud into your leach lines. Unless you live one place where there were some really excessive rain storms, sounds like you need some major repairs. Note, I'm not a pro, so that that with a grain of salt.

Deb

A close examination of the tank and what it is doing is in order and will tell you alot. If the tank is holding liquid above the outlet baffle, you could have a major problem with your drainage field and no amount of snaking is going to fix it. An over full tank that allows solids to enter the leach lines can cause premature failure of the entire field. Since you have the cover off the tank, you should be able to tell if the inlet or outlet baffles are clogged, if sewage is entering the tank when a fixture is used, and if the liquid level is above the outlet fbaffle.

If you believe that you still have a clog in the drainage line, it is most certainly in the main line and requires a large power auger. Augering the shower and the toilet line with a small hand auger will do nothing.

Does all the plumbing run through the ejector or just fixtures in the basement? Gurgling of fixtures when others are draining is usually indicative of a partially clogged drainage line.

Deb
The Pipewench

septic

Depending on where you are measuring the one foot from, that could be the normal water level. But the only way to diagnose your problem is to watch the reaction of the water level in the tank to any incoming water. If it stays constant then the tank is probably operating properly and the trouble is in the pipe into the tank, often right at the inlet baffle where the pipe enters.