When sewer lines become obstructed, the thick, black water that forms as sewage is a health hazard, and is extremely unsanitary as it consists of contaminants such as pathogens, bacteria, and viruses that may pose a risk of severe illness if exposed to people or pets. If you have a sewage backup in your basement, or your toilet has backed up, you will need to repair it quickly, or you will end up with dirty water all over your home or business. Knowing what causes sewer backups, however, may help you avoid a hazardous situation in your basement, home or business. Following is a list of items that may help to prevent and handle sewage backups:

Sewage Backup Causes

  • Clogged Drain Pipes – Sewage backs up into your home or business when your drain lines or main sewer lines become blocked. As an example: if one commode starts a sewage backup, the attached drain and/or many toilets and the main sewer may become clogged.
  • Imposing Tree Roots – Trees that have large strong plentiful roots have the ability to grow through and around pipes, even crushing sewer lines. Tree roots have the capability to extend out to a long distance and wreak havoc on your pipes, leading to a sewer backup. Be very aware of roots near your sewer mainline or septic tank area to protect them from damage.
  • Aging & Damaged Sewer Lines – Older sewer lines, pipes, drains and septic systems can fail by slowly cracking and failing over time – resulting in sewage backups, water filled homes, and basements full of sewer water. Pay attention to the age of your home and community and search for these potential problems.
  • Large Rainfall Amounts – Heavy amounts of rain can crowd your main storm and sewer lines. If it happens that your public sewers can’t handle large rainfall levels, the flooding can work its way into the sewer lines connected to the mainline, and put your home or business in a potentially dangerous possibility of sewer backup. There is a risk of severe health issues when in and around flooding waters in your area that happens from flooding in rivers and streams, hurricanes, and other similar weather, when water merges with sewage, contaminants and chemicals. When wading in these waters use extreme caution, and also when the water goes down and starts drying. Organic matter that is dried out can then turn aerosolized and present a risk of breathing in these contaminants. Be positive to use proper PPE to guard against these dangerous risks.

Our Greater Bradenton process for sewage cleanup and sanitation

PuroClean’s process for cleaning and restoration of Category 3 water, aka sewer and contaminated water backup clean up according to the IICRC industry standards, is as follows:

1. Ensure all employees and occupants remain safe by restricting access to the site to restoration employees only in order to guard against any health-related issues.

2. Health and Safety survey and assessment of the entire work premises.

3. Be confident that all restoration workers are equipped with the appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE). This includes but is not limited to:

  • Full face respirator
  • Nitrile and cut resistant gloves
  • Rubber boots with steel toes and shank
  • Entire body suit protection

4. Institute engineering controls, firm barriers if suitable to prevent cross-contamination.

5. Eradicating any type of probable safety risks if at all possible.

6. Disposal, removal of bulk sewage water, soil, and contaminates.

7. Disposal of all contaminated porous and semi-porous materials that are not salvageable, which can consist of but are not limited to:

  • Carpet, rugs, pad, or underlayment
  • Gypsum board (Drywall)
  • Hardwood flooring
  • Vinyl flooring and underlayment
  • Padded and upholstered items

8. Implement cleaning methods and use of EPA certified biocides and antimicrobials

9. Full physical cleaning of all structure items that remain

10. A clearance test by a third-party Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) is recommended to ensure the building is returned to a pre-affected condition for health and safety.

11. Drying of all materials affected by the water intrusion back to pre-loss dry state

12. Post restoration cleaning of all tools and machinery used

13. Elimination and disposal of all demo materials removed from the site

For Professional Sewage Cleanup in Greater Bradenton , Call PuroClean!

If a sewage drain line backup happens in your home or business, reach out to the PuroClean professionals for sewage removal and cleaning services. Our employees use state-of-the-art equipment and cleaning systems to efficiently remediate the damaged building materials and contents.

We have proved time after time that our services and our specialists are top quality, efficient, and work with care and empathy for all involved. We are your ideal damage restoration and cleaning specialists and we pledge to do whatever needs to take place to rescue and restore all homes and businesses in the communities we serve.

*Not all PuroClean offices offer sewage cleanup and sanitation cleaning services.

"Brenden and his friendly team really saved us after Hurricane Ian when our daughter’s house was flooded. We were not able to find anyone in our area to do the mitigation work, and when we [...]

MARY H.
Venice

Celeste Caudill: Brenden and his crew cleaned up an awful mess quickly. Communication throughout the whole process was great which is pretty rare these days. Very happy and so thankful the mess and [...]

CELESTE CAUDILL

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