Emergency Septic Service in the Triangle, Any Time
Celebrating 30 Years of Service; Est. 1996
Septic backup: what counts as an emergency
A septic backup means wastewater has nowhere to go, so it comes back up the lowest drain in the house first. That is usually a floor drain, a tub or a basement toilet. Once it starts it keeps coming as long as water is running.
Not every septic problem is an emergency. A slow drain or a wet patch in the yard can wait for office hours, Monday to Friday, 7 AM to 5 PM. The list below cannot wait.
Call right now if you see any of these
Emergency septic service is available 24/7 for:
- Sewage coming up in a drain, tub or toilet inside the house.
- An alarm sounding on a pump system.
- Sewage on the surface of the yard, or pooling around the tank or drainfield.
- A tank lid that has collapsed, cracked open or sunk into the ground.
Call (919) 481-6929 and tell us what is happening and where the tank is. We will not quote you an arrival time we cannot keep.
What to do before we arrive
While you wait:
- Stop using water. No flushing, showers or dishes.
- Do not run the washer. It sends a lot of water to the tank at once.
- Keep kids and pets off any wet or soft ground in the yard.
- Stay off a sunken lid or area. Do not open the tank.
- Silence the alarm if there is one, but note which alarm and which light.
- Write down when it started and which drains are backing up.
- Move anything valuable away from the lowest drain.
- Tell us about recent heavy rain or a recent pump-out.
24/7 septic service: what we do when we arrive
On most calls we pump the tank first to relieve the system. That also gives us a clear look inside. Then we find the cause: the effluent filter, the outlet tee and baffles, a blocked line, root blockage removal, a failed pump or control panel, the distribution box, or the drainfield itself.
We tell you plainly what we found, and whether it can be fixed that day or needs a scheduled repair. Longer repairs are covered under septic repairs and drainfield repair and replacement. A county repair permit may be needed for drainfield work, and we tell you what applies.
The best way to avoid an emergency call is regular septic tank pumping. For a typical household with a 1,000 gallon tank, that means every three to five years, sooner with a garbage disposal.
We go out from our Durham base to Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Johnston, Harnett, Franklin, Granville, Person and Lee counties. Emergency work sits under our residential septic service. Find your town page: septic service in Clayton, septic service in Chapel Hill, septic repair in Apex, septic pumping in Cary, septic service in Durham and septic service in Raleigh.
Septic backup questions
What people ask us when they call in the middle of the night.
Is a septic backup an emergency?
Sewage inside the house is. So is sewage on the surface of the yard. Stop using water and call (919) 481-6929 any time, day or night.
Can I keep using water until you arrive?
No. Every flush and every load of laundry adds to what is already backing up. Hold off until we have pumped the tank.
Will pumping fix the backup?
If the tank was full, pumping relieves it right away. If the cause is the filter, a blocked line, the box or the field, it can come back, which is why we find the cause before we leave.
Why is my pump alarm going off?
On a pump system the alarm means the pump chamber is filling faster than the pump moves it. A failed pump, a tripped breaker or a stuck float can all do that. Silence it, note it and call us. We handle pump and control panel repair and replacement.
What does an emergency call cost?
We do not quote a number over the phone without knowing the job. The price moves with tank size, access, lid depth, whether there is a riser, and how long since the last pump-out. Senior, veteran, neighborhood and multi-tank discounts are available.