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Red Green Red Green is offline
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Default HOUSE WASTE TRAP IS ALWAYS CLOGGED---HELP !!!

(Ron in NY) wrote in
:

Hi All,

I have been living in the same house for over 30 years. I am
about 50 miles
north of NYC in rural Putnam County, where there are no sewer systems.
We have our own septic system. I have no problems with the septic
system itself, as I have the 900 gallon tank pumped out every 2 or 3
years. However, the house trap gets partially clogged with what
appears to be soap, and if I don't scrape it off of the inside of the
trap, my toilet downstairs starts to flush slowly. It only builds up
on the house side of the trap--the septic tank side of the trap never
gets any buildup. Every 2 or 3 months, I unscrew the house side cap,
and instead of a 3 1/2" hole, I have about a 2" hole. There is usually
a build up of what appears to be soap about 1" thick on the inside
walls of the trap. I take a screwdriver, and scrape it off, flush the
downstairs toilet a few times, and it all goes into the septic tank,
and the downstairs toilet is good for a few more months again.

When this problem started (about 8-10 years ago), we switched
from powdered
soap to liquid soap in both the washing machine and dishwasher. I
figured that the powdered soap was not dissolving completely, and that
was the cause of the problem---evidently, it wasn't, as the problem
still exists. It's a white mushy coating, like congealed soap. I told
my wife to cut down on the amount of soap in both the washing machine
and the dishwasher, but it still happens. Back then both of my kids
were still in the house. As of about 5 years ago, they are both out of
the house on their own, so the frequency of usage on the washing
machine and dishwasher has gon down considerably, but the buildup is
still the same. Is it possible that the buildup is some organic
compound ???

Any ideas how I can cure the problem ???


RON

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Guess you really NEED to know what it is before you can figure out how to
fix it.

Take a sample to a septic company, plumber, local extension serice are a
few thoughts.

Fo instance, any chance it's grease. That can turn white and mushy. THen
it can get hard as a rock in clumps. I can only guess just like you.