The most obvious septic system failures are easy to spot.

  • Check for pooling water or muddy soil around your septic system or in your basement.
  • Greener grass in the area of the septic system
  • Sluggish drainage in the home
  • Plumbing backups when you flush the toilet or do laundry
  • Water coming up through the lower house level floor drains
  • Gurgling sounds in the toilet or drains
  • Odors – Outdoors or in the home

These problems are most noticeable when you use a lot of water, like on laundry day. That’s why it’s imperative that you space your laundry loads and conserve water! Short showers, never leaving water run down a drain while washing dishes, full wash loads only (or adjusting the water level for a small load), and never doing back to back loads of laundry will all help conserve water, and therefore the amount of wastewater going into the system. There are several sources of water going into the system.