The Emergency

There are lots of symptoms that may indicate that you need emergency septic tank cleaning or emptying. Signs like unpleasant odours, backed-up or blocked drains or solid waste (such as food waste) being found in the drain field can all be the first indications that there is a problem with the sewage system.

There are many types of emergencies that may need to be addressed urgently. If a tank hasn’t been emptied on schedule or has been subject to increased flow and it reaches capacity, excess waste has nowhere to go and may overflow through access covers, inspection points or into surrounding land. Waste water may also back up into the home’s plumbing system, whether because the tank is full or due to a blockage. Non-biodegradable waste can obstruct pipes, and soakaways may become clogged with solids or silt. If the system is damaged by tree root ingress, ground movement, frost or vehicles driving over the tank, it may crack or collapse, particularly if it is old.

Even if you have your tank emptied regularly, external conditions can cause it to require emptying and, if you are not proactively aware of the risk, the problem can quickly worsen. Prolonged heavy rain or rising groundwater can saturate the surrounding soil, leading to poor drainage from the tank. This can also allow water to infiltrate the tank and reduce capacity, which may lead to the consequences of a full tank as described above.

You should contact a professional septic tank emptying service at your earliest opportunity if you notice signs of any of these problems, even if it does not yet represent an emergency, as there may be an opportunity to prevent further damage (and the need for expensive repairs). It may also be possible to limit the environmental harm of a sewage tank leak and address the risks to human health that raw sewage poses.

Your Phone Call

When you call Universal Tankers to discuss your problem, we will ask some key questions to learn more about the issue you are facing and respond efficiently. We will usually need information about:

• Your property's exact location and type (whether residential, commercial or agricultural).
• The symptoms you have noticed.
• Details about the tank’s access and whether there are any obstructions, which could include everything from parked cars to overgrown vegetation.
• Any previous issues you are aware of.

With this information, we can determine the best course of action, the right vehicle to send, and an estimate of when we will be able to respond - in many cases, this will be the same day and sometimes within a few hours of your call. With depots all over England and Scotland, and our custom Univore vehicle that is designed to maximise our capabilities even in remote locations, our teams are never far away.

Arrival and Assessment

Once our team arrives on-site at the time agreed upon, our first step is to carry out a visual inspection. We will check:

• The tank’s condition and fill level.
• Whether the soakaway or drainage field is blocked or saturated.
• Any signs of structural damage, such as cracks or root ingress.
• Pipework conditions around the tank and into the property.

Health and safety is important, so if the area is flooded or access is hazardous, we may cordon off the site while they prepare equipment. These assessments can also enable us to diagnose the problem and advise you of how we intend to fix it, along with how much it is likely to cost. We aim to make emergency septic tank emptying cost-effective, but if the system needs repairs or access is limited, this can increase the related expenses.

Emergency Septic Tank Emptying

For most emergency visits, the immediate solution is to empty the tank using a vacuum tanker. This process involves opening the access cover to insert the suction hose, and drawing out all contents of the tank, including the base layer of sludge, the wastewater and the surface scum. This will then be taken to a registered sewage treatment plant to be disposed of safely and legally. Universal Tankers' modern fleet of septic tank emptying vehicles can service tanks of all capacities and we aim to offer an efficient service to minimise disruption.

In some cases, emptying septic tanks resolves the symptoms and, if there are no other issues, our work is done. However, in some cases, septic tank problems indicate a deeper problem that we need to investigate and fix to prevent a similar problem from arising again.

Clearing Blockages and Making Repairs

Emptying a tank often reveals underlying problems like blockages or broken pipes that will need to be repaired. If a tank has collapsed, more significant repairs may be needed before it can be used. Some of the common repairs that may be required include:

• Jetting or rodding pipes to remove solid blockages or fat build-up.
• Repairing broken or dislodged inlet or outlet pipes.
• Sealing leaks or dealing with displaced covers or junction boxes.

If the problem cannot be fixed immediately - for example, because the drainage field is failing or saturated and therefore cannot be accessed - we may install a temporary solution and advise you on arranging a full repair at a later date.

We prioritise great communication and, before we leave, we will make sure to discuss the problems we have identified and the fixes we have applied. Our experts will offer expert tips for septic tank cleaning and maintenance to help you avoid similar problems in the future, and can arrange a regular emptying schedule that will suit your needs and the capacity of your tank if necessary. In general, we would recommend the following best practices:

• Keep to an annual emptying schedule - or more often for large households.
• Avoid flushing wipes, sanitary products or kitchen fats down the drain.
• Only use septic-safe cleaning products and do not use products with caustic chemicals.
• Keep heavy vehicles away from the areas above your tank or soakaway.
• Arrange regular inspections and septic tank maintenance if your tank is older or has a history of problems.

Emergency call-outs can often be prevented with proactive septic tank care, but when an emergency occurs, it is important to contact experienced drainage engineers as soon as possible to prevent the situation from getting worse.