2nd toilet overflows when it shouldn't

[mreece]

Hi,

I have a split-entry house with a full bath upstairs and a half bath and laundry downstairs. Lately--it's happened twice now!--I've noticed that when the washing machine is draining and the upstairs toilet is flushed at the same time, the downstairs toilet overflows all over the floor.

Obviously this is rather annoying (because the person upstairs cannot usually hear the washer running downstairs) and messy.

Can someone tell me where to begin fixing this, and/or what the problem might be.

Thanks in advance,
Mark

 

[Terry]

Sounds like a main line backup.

Toilets run into a 3" or larger line. You can have up to three toilets on a 3" line.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[mreece]

I should also mention that I am in the country and on private water (well) and sewer.

What is the next step, assuming it is a main line backup?

Thanks!

 

[Gary Swart]

Have a professional auger the drainline. Don't mess with chemicals or DIY snakes. Chemicals don't work and DIY snakes are too puny.

 

[Plumber1]

More than likely the problem started with she septic tank or the field bed.

 

[mreece]

Following up ...

I've had the septic guys in and we/they found that that tank is full and not draining as fast as it should be. (They pumped it out and ran a snake through the main line into the house and found no obstruction.) So, it seems as if there must be an obstruction between the tank and bed. That is my next step--to find a snake and run it the opposite way (tank to bed).

If that isn't fruitful, then I will probably dig up the pipe from the tank where it enters the bed and get the septic guys to vacuum the bed itself.

I am now thinking (again, I'm not a professional) that part of the bigger problem may be that there isn't enough bacteria in the system to make for proper sewage break-down. Only two people live in the house, but with all the showers and clothes-washing, etc., there is more water than sewage. It seems as if this water is causing the bigger "stuff" to float and potentially clog the septic system. Just a thought ... is that a possibility?

When this is all straightened out, does it hurt/help to flush some enzymes down the toilet now and then?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[hj]

tank

If the effluent is not flowing into the seepage bed properly, they you are probably out of luck. The most common cause of that is not the pipe to the bed, but the pipes in the bed itself, when the openings in the pipe or the porosity of the bedding and/or soil has been clogged with material that escaped the tank. In the majority of cases the seepage field has to be replaced.

 

[Mikey]

Baffles in the septic tank are supposed to stop the floaters. I think you're going to be spending some $ on the septic tank and/or leach field. How old is the house? What kind of soil do you have? How high is the water table?

I assume you tested the washing machine / toilet interaction after the tank was pumped and everything worked fine?

 

[Billsnogo]

I have been told that the baffles eventually break away when a septic system gets old and allows waste to clog up the pipes in the leach field. I have a feeling you may need a new tank to prevent this from reoccuring, but would talk to the septic folks first.

bill (don't listen to him, he don't know what he is talking about)

 

[Plumber1]

a lot of tanks don't have baffles. They may have an elbow with a leg looking down below the water at the tanks outlet to keep solids from drifting into the field bed.

A lot of people assume that the field works forever without ever pumping the tank. Like H J said, after a few years, sediment starts truckling into the bed.
It's just like black mud.

Some ground conditions also can become saturated in the spring or after a heavy rain and cause everything to go backwards, sometimes leaving the sewer line to the house to collect solids that can eventually cause an obstructed sewer.

So the moral of the story is to pump that tank out every 3 or 4 years.

 

[Smith333]

Our septic has backed up twice over a 10 year period. Each time we had it pumped and the line between the tank and the field snaked, and that solved the problem. The pump guy had a manual snake (not sure of the name, but it was made out of a solid strip of thin steel)that he guided past the baffle with a long PVC pipe with a 45 at the other end. Very simple, yet effective. Our system is 30 years old and we have had it pumped every year since the first backup.