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When every drain slows together the restriction is downstream of the house, which points at the tank or the line to it rather than at any one fixture. A single slow drain is a plumbing problem; all of them is a septic one.

Air being pulled through the trap because the line cannot vent or is partly blocked. It usually appears weeks before a backup and is the cheapest point to catch it.

Effluent surfacing, a dry trap, or a failed baffle letting gas back up the line. A smell outdoors near the tank is a different problem from a smell indoors and they are diagnosed differently.

The tank or the line is full and the house is the overflow. Stop using water immediately -- every flush adds to it -- and it needs pumping before anything is diagnosed.

The drain field is not accepting what the tank is sending it. Grass greener than the rest of the lawn is effluent fertilising it, and it is the classic sign of a field that is failing rather than a tank that is full.

Most household tanks are pumped every three to five years depending on tank size and how many people live there. Solids that carry over into the field are what destroys a field, and a field costs many times what a pumping does.

A septic inspection is separate from a home inspection and is not usually included. It should cover the tank, the baffles and a load test on the field, because a field at the end of its life does not announce itself on a dry day.

The pump is not moving effluent -- a failed float, a tripped breaker, or the pump itself. The alarm means the tank is filling above its normal level, so it is a matter of hours or a day rather than a week.