SEWAGE BACKUP: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO AND WHY SHOULD YOU CALL FOR PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE

Sewage Backup – Encountering a backed up sewer can be one of the most arduous problems to deal with as a homeowner. They have the potential to completely disrupt the normal flow of your daily routine and pose as a hassle if not taken care of immediately. A sewage backup has ramifications that engender both sanitation and property damage as well as personal safety threats- not only does it adversely affect the structure of your house and the plumbing system itself, but also it can serve to be a health hazard that could be menacing to the safety of you and your family if not treated at the earliest.

Given these facts, a situation of a sewage backup must be handled as soon as possible to not foster the worsening of an already compromised situation. If there is a sewage spill in your premises, it is recommended that you evacuate your property immediately and switch off the power system grid for your residence. Following that, a professional plumber and a cleanup service need to be hired to put a damage control initiative in place.

The damage control measures themselves would be heavily dependent on the level of severity of the sewer backup. If the damage is not too critical, you can have some time in your hands to gather and salvage your belongings, or even take care of the issue by yourself. However, most of the times, these situations arrive unannounced, and the damage is too grave to be ignored for long. In such a case, a cleanup is a tedious and even dangerous job to undertake all by yourself. Refusing professional help in a grave circumstance would only increase your problems and lead to more expensive repairs. Thereby, it is imperative that you gauge the damage carefully before proceeding with any measures.

What Is To Be Done Following A Sewage Backup

As aforementioned, you can render the services of a professional plumbing repair service or manage the sewage backup yourself. In both the cases, you would have to administer a set of measures to curb the initial severity of the situation to prevent it from worsening rapidly. As soon as you notice a sewage backup on your residential property, you must prepare for an imminent evacuation. Make sure that the children, pets, and seniors are relocated to a safe place and be certain to prohibit their entrance on the affected area until it has been duly taken care of. This is an obligatory first step that will help you to minimize any potential contamination that could prove to be a serious health epidemic in the family.

After you have relocated the family to a safe place, you must communicate with a utility company that is active and operates in your area. They will be in charge of terminating the gas, electricity, and water supply to your house so that the situation is not further aggravated by an unwarranted gas leak, short circuit or flooding incident. If the sewage backup is still in the early stages, you can shut off your main power and water supplies yourself. However, be careful to not hurt or endanger yourself while doing so and wear appropriate gear to protect yourself from any possible mishaps.

You must also increase the level of ventilation to help the dampened area dry quicker. In the meanwhile, gather and stow away any important items, like documents, cash, clothes, and the like that are still dry and unaffected. If you have standing water in the residential property, you can add a tiny amount of chlorine bleach to it to prevent an endemic of infectious and bacterial diseases in your household.

Additionally, make sure that you have notified your insurance company rewarding this situation in your home so that they can facilitate your insurance claims with ease and rapidity. For this, you must take several pictures of your house, as well as your water-damaged items and any structural damage to the house, as evidence of the circumstance. Be certain to take these pictures before the cleanup begins and keep them safe with you until you can hand over the copies to the insurance company.

When you first notice a sewage spill, do not immediately start unclogging the drains by yourself. The sewage spill has to be removed first before you can examine the situation and diagnose a problem in the structure of the plumbing. A reliable professional plumber would furnish you with their assistance to identify and chart out the likely measures of the problem at hand.

Calling for Professional Plumbing Help



In any circumstance of a sewage backup, it is recommended that you employ the services of a professional plumbing company to take advantage of their expertise and training in curbing the situation and initiating the cleanup procedure, it is absolutely vital you call for professional assistance if you find yourself facing any of the following circumstances.

If the spillage of the sewage water is not demarcated to one room only and is constantly spreading, you would obligatory require professional assistance to stop this from spreading even further. On the other hand, if the sewage backup took place over twenty-four hours ago, there is a greater risk of the stagnated water to foster a breeding ground for harmful bacteria and viruses that can be spread and contaminated by mere contact. In this case, it is rather impractical to try and handle the situation yourself. Professional plumbing services, by the virtue of their training and their skill, would be competent to navigate through this situation without enhancing the risk factor of an endemic on your residential property.

If there is a likelihood that the sewage water has come in contact with your home’s air conditioning system, you would require professional duct cleaning to revert the good air quality in your home.

If you are in need of a reputable professional plumbing service in Toronto and the GTA, you can contact us to cater to all your needs in this arena.

The DrainWorks Team.