It could be worse, really, it COULD be.
I did a load of laundry yesterday. Not thinking a thing of it. Then got to work and coworker telling tales of her septic line freezing and the water backing up and flooding her house...
Panic.
It was a LONG 10 hours.
I get home, rush into the hall... no, it's not wet... but wait, the bathroom floor *was* wet... hm. Toilet overflowed? 'Kay, musta flushed just before I left??
An hour later I go into my bedroom which also has a bath. Smells like fabric softener. Bathtub and shower both have 4" of standing dirty wash water.
I've had that shower drain freeze in the past, it's on the exposed end of the house, not near any heat ducts etc. When I tried to plunge the toilet in t'other bath, water came up through the sink. On closer inspection, that tub had water in it too.
I *hoped* that by the time I woke up today the sun would have warmed the house/pipes/whatever enough to let things drain. No such luck.
SO. It could be ever-so-much-worse, it could be sewage, not wash-water. BUT, I don't know what to *do*. I can't shower or use the sink etc. (I suppose I can bucket-bath and throw it outside--it'll just about freeze in the air before it hit's ground... )
I can siphon out *that* water I suppose, but that doesn't do the pipes any good... how do you unthaw septic?
The problem is it simply hasn't been above zero in at least 5 days. NOT EVER in those 5 days. And it's been more like -15 to -20 standing air at night. And there's like 3 feet of snowpack. I've *never* had frozen pipes before, except that one back shower, and it is drained about an hour after the sun comes up usually...
PLEASE tell me there's a way to resolve this on my own... short of waiting until June...
I did a load of laundry yesterday. Not thinking a thing of it. Then got to work and coworker telling tales of her septic line freezing and the water backing up and flooding her house...
Panic.
It was a LONG 10 hours.
I get home, rush into the hall... no, it's not wet... but wait, the bathroom floor *was* wet... hm. Toilet overflowed? 'Kay, musta flushed just before I left??

An hour later I go into my bedroom which also has a bath. Smells like fabric softener. Bathtub and shower both have 4" of standing dirty wash water.

I've had that shower drain freeze in the past, it's on the exposed end of the house, not near any heat ducts etc. When I tried to plunge the toilet in t'other bath, water came up through the sink. On closer inspection, that tub had water in it too.

I *hoped* that by the time I woke up today the sun would have warmed the house/pipes/whatever enough to let things drain. No such luck.
SO. It could be ever-so-much-worse, it could be sewage, not wash-water. BUT, I don't know what to *do*. I can't shower or use the sink etc. (I suppose I can bucket-bath and throw it outside--it'll just about freeze in the air before it hit's ground... )
I can siphon out *that* water I suppose, but that doesn't do the pipes any good... how do you unthaw septic?

The problem is it simply hasn't been above zero in at least 5 days. NOT EVER in those 5 days. And it's been more like -15 to -20 standing air at night. And there's like 3 feet of snowpack. I've *never* had frozen pipes before, except that one back shower, and it is drained about an hour after the sun comes up usually...
PLEASE tell me there's a way to resolve this on my own... short of waiting until June...
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