It's been raining excessively for the last few days and ourr yard and surrounding area has lots of standing water and minor flooding. I woke up this morning to a glugging toilet. My husband tried to flush it and it won't drain. Is all the rain causing the problem and if so what do we need to do. A little history, this is a new septic system, we just built our house and moved in around Dec. 07, so I don't think the septic tank needs to be emptied yet. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

You are correct. You don't need a septic pump yet. And, it is the minor flooding that is causing it.

Did the installer do a perc/ soil test on your yard before installing the septic? Is your area prone to rains like you have experienced lately? Did they install an elevated drain field, aka septic mound, or is it a standard drain field below the surface of the ground?

If it's a mound, your pump may have a problem. If it is a standard drain field, there is probably not much you can do about it without installing a mound.

If this is the type of rain that only happens once every several years, I would just "ride it out" for this time. Unless, it gets to the point that they won't flush at all.

It maybe should have been a mound from the beginning. You may want to check with local septic companies, and your building permit department to see what others in your area are doing. Ask your neighbors if they are having problems too.

Good Luck,
Al

We don't normally get rain like this, it's a freak occurrence. We have a drain field/leach bed that is under the ground. And we did have a perk test, and the drainage was OK.

My grandparents live next door and I grew up here and they haven't ever had a problem like this that I can remember. Thanks for your advice, I think we will ride it out and see what happens.

CD28144...

Are you having a problem draining any of the other fixtures in the house? Is this toilet the lowest fixture in the home... you know, is it in the basement? Is the lowest fixture having trouble draining (if toilet is not lowest)?

If this is isolated to one toilet or one bathroom then may just be a coincidence with the excessive rain and toilet or drain line may need to be unclogged...

I'm off to work now. If other fixtures working fine, issue is at toilet. If other fixtures involved then may very well be what Al is presenting.

MARK

We had a septic man come and check our problem to be safe. He said that our septic system filled up with ground water and it would be a waste of money to pump it right now, since we have quite a bit more rain in the forecast over the next week that as soon as it dries some we should be back to normal. We got over 8 inches of rain in the last 24 hours and normally we barely get 8 inches of rain a month so hopefully we won't run into this problem with any regularity. Thanks for everyone's answers!

You are welcome. Glad we could help! Is the rain from the remnants of Fay? We were the original target here in Tampa area. We didn't get any rain until after the storm passed and then we got about 4" over the next 3 days following. What a weird storm!

I'm sure that once the exceptional amount of rain passes, that so will your septic issue!
Al

Yes, it's the remnants of Fay, according to the local news station we got 12 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. We have a rain gauge, but it tops out at 8 inches and it was full to capacity so I believe it.
The toilets were flushing this morning so I am hopeful the issue will resolve itself by the weekend.

Wow, that's a lot of rain! No wonder you're having difficulty with drains. There is just nowhere for the water to go. At least you don't have anything major with your septic. That could have been expensive. Take care.
Al