Last April, we had to buy a new washing machine and installed it in our basement, where our old one had been. Our washer pumps upwards into the sewer line. With the 1st load of clothes, all the water that was pumped into the sewer line backed up into our basement. Our plumber said that we probably had a clog or needed the septic pumped. He used his machine to go thru the lines to check for clogs, and since there were none, we had the septic pumped.

Everything was fine until Christmas Day. We had a large amount of people here, when all of a sudden, our whole house filled up with the smell of sewer. Our plumber said that it could be that our washer was pumping the water much faster than our old one, thus causing the problem. We temporarily fixed the washer so that would drain outside thus bypassing the sewer line altogether, but this didn't help. The problem seems to always come from the shower/bathtub. We only have one, and anytime anyone showers or takes a bath, our whole basement fills with the gases & it eventually rises to the upstairs (thru our heat vents). It last for hours.

Flushing a toilet, using the dishwasher, or running water in a sink never creates the problem, only the shower, and the smell always starts downstairs 1st. Even if we open the outside back door and close all doors leading upstairs, the smell eventually comes upwards. Our septic man says that he has run across this every once in a blue moon, but it usually fixes itself. He said that the bacteria in the septic was cleaned out and that thru the winter months it takes longer to build back up, thus the smell. We've tried all of the over the counter products to put in the septic to reduce the problem, to no avail. How long could it possibly take to build up the bacteria again. It's been almost a year.

I can't take it anymore, but nobody seems to have a clue what we should do next. I'm seriously tired of walking into a home that always smells like my sewage. HELP!!!