I bought a house built in 1975 and the septic system is original to the house a couple of months ago. Last night I had my first back up in the basement from the septic. The septic guys came out this morning and noticed a root growing in front of my inlet valve. They hit is loose the the water from the house came flying out. When I had the house inspected, and I am new to the septic tank world, so maybe it was my ignorance, but the inspector noticed the root at the inlet valve, but told me it wasn't any issue as he flushed over 150 gallons out of the house to do his stress test on the system and there were no clogs and the drain field was fine. My questions are: The septic guys from this morning want to replace the inlet up to the house. After looking in the basement, it looks to be cast iron running out of the house. The septic guys want to charge me about $2000 for the repair. Is it worth it? They showed me what they did by knocking the root out of the way for the house to drain. Couldn't I just save money and do that? Or with the age of the system, these clogs might cause other serious problems down the road for the septic as a whole. $2000 is a lot of money and I have called to other companies and they have told me different things to do, so i was seeing if someone who has some experience, that isn't trying to sell ice to an Eskimo give me some insight. Thanks.

Can anyone here that has an Aerobic system, be it a from the start of it's life Aerobic one. Or a traditional anerobic that was changed over to Aerobic system, can you describe a few things. 1- What does the "Stuff" in the tank in the Aerobic "Look" like? 2- I have read that an Aerobic system has a different "Smell" Can anyone describe this Different Smell? Thanks