Water / Sewer Backup W/ Well & Septic

[insurance1822]

Has anybody ever seen this happen? I meen short of a well pump mysteriously running in reverse, I can't see the exposure?

If the septic clogs, the homeowner would probably know right away when the toilets don't flush & stop using them so again..where's the exposure?

 

[pfg1]

Yep, seen it. Septic backed up into my friends basement.
Granted, they should have pumped their tank and never did... created an absolute mess when it backed up. They thought their plumbing had a leak initially until the smell set in. Its something that you think wouldn't happen often, but I bet it does quite a bit. But I agree...you should know relatively soon when it does. Their problem was they rarely went into their basement, so they had been operating their house as normal for a day or so after the backup started (they thought). They had an inch or so of sewage in their basement...carpet, drywall, etc. It was bad.

 

[insurance1822]

^But I thought it would only backup whatever sewerage they were flushing? So for example it clogs today at 9:00 a.m. & every time they flush the toilet it just backs up until the basement. Well, to accumulate 1" in a basement I would think they'd need to continue this for like a year?

What would cause it to backup more then the amount they're attempting to flush? AKA are there mini soldiers in the tank pumping it into the home w/ little pumps? I just don't understand it

 

[pfg1]

In most cases, all the drain/waste water runs out of the home the same way...whether from toilets, sinks, showers, dishwasher, laundry, etc. So any water in any fashion can cause it to back up.

 

[mplsmm]

Before I was in insurance, we had a crazy freak storm. I lived in a very rural area, 100 people maybe. Everyone flooded, none of us had insurance. I had a few inches of floodwater, sucked, but doable. So I am on my basement stairs watching and all of a sudden 2 feet came in like instantly. But it had almost stopped raining. Next thing you know there are guys around in waders, they came in and were nice enough to unplug everything in the basement. They said they had to get back to work and 10 min later, the water drained instantly. But the smell and an inch of filth was left. I was the first house near the county sewage plant. So we think the storm overwhelmed them and their generators and it poured into my house. City refused blame, we couldn't sue them but State Farm paid out the 10k. So my house was the only one that collected, but if the city sewage hadn't come in, I wouldn't have gotten anything. My sump pump was working fine, it just couldn't keep up. Years later I heard that there was a back up generator that someone physically had to flip on if the power went out at the plant. So the guys must have been walking to flip it when they came by. Hence it kicked on and sucked it back out.