What To Do Now
Sewage is backing up into my house — what do I do?
The first ten minutes matter more than anything else. Here is exactly what to do in them.
Stop all water use immediately — no flushing, laundry, dishwasher or showers, because every gallon makes it worse. Keep people and pets away from the affected area, do not plunge or use drain chemicals, photograph the damage before cleanup for your insurer, and call for an emergency pump-out.
Published August 31, 2026 · Last updated August 31, 2026 · By 615 Septic Tank Pumping
Do these things first
1. Stop all water use. Right now.
No flushing. No laundry. No dishwasher. No showers. This is the single most important thing you can do, and it is the one people get wrong — the instinct is to keep flushing to see whether it clears. Every gallon you send into a system that has nowhere to put it pushes more sewage into your house.
2. Keep people and pets away.
Sewage carries bacteria and pathogens. Close off the affected room. Do not let children or animals near it.
3. Do not plunge it or pour anything down it.
If the tank is full or the field has stopped accepting, there is no blockage at the fixture to clear. Plunging achieves nothing and drain chemicals make the cleanup more hazardous for whoever handles it.
4. Photograph everything before you clean up.
If sewage has reached living space, flooring or belongings, document it now — wide shots and close-ups, with something for scale. You cannot re-create this evidence after cleanup, and you may need it.
5. Call.
(615) 234-9048. Tell us what is happening, where, and roughly when it started.
What to have ready when you call
- Roughly when the tank was last pumped, if you know
- Whether it affects one fixture or several
- Whether anything is visible outdoors — wet ground, effluent, odour over the tank or field
- Whether it started after heavy rain or after heavy household use
- Whether there is an alarm, and whether it is sounding
Those five answers usually tell us what we are dealing with before we arrive.
What is probably causing it
A genuinely full tank. Common where pumping has been overdue for years. Straightforwardly fixed by pumping.
A blocked effluent filter. Very common, cheap, and frequently missed. The filter sits in the outlet baffle catching solids, and when it clogs it backs the whole system up toward the house. Worth checking first because it costs almost nothing to resolve.
A failed outlet baffle. The scum layer leaves the tank directly, and the field pays for it. Replacement is $150 to $600.
A blocked inlet line. Mimics a full tank exactly, and is not fixed by pumping the tank.
A saturated drain field. If this follows heavy rain and your property sits in bottomland — the Whites Creek bottoms, Bells Bend — the field may be competing with a high water table. Pumping relieves it temporarily; it is not the fix.
What it costs
An out-of-hours emergency pump-out runs $425 to $700, against $300 to $525 for a scheduled visit. The difference is that emergency work displaces routed jobs. We quote the band on the phone before dispatching.
After the immediate crisis
Once the system is relieved, the important question is whether this recurs. A pump-out buys time; it is not always the answer. Ask for the cause to be diagnosed at the same visit — baffles, filter, inlet line, field — so you know whether you are looking at a solved problem or a scheduled repeat.
If the backup reached living space, check your policy. Standard homeowners policies frequently exclude septic backup unless a specific endorsement was added, though coverage for resulting damage differs from coverage for the system itself. Keep the written service record; you will need it either way.
Bottom line
Stop the water, keep people out, photograph it, call. Everything else can wait ten minutes. (615) 234-9048 — a person answers outside office hours.
Want this looked at properly?
Two steps and we come back with a firm price. Or call (615) 234-9048 — a person answers.
Prefer to talk? Call (615) 234-9048 — a person answers.