Follow Through On Your Home Inspector's Advice
Sewage Backflow & House Floods
The Honeymoon Is Officially Over
Recently, homeowners in Odessa, Florida, called us, a restoration company to investigate a major flood due to sewage backup.
The homeowners were a young couple and this was their first home.
“We literally bought the home, got married, went on a honeymoon and moved in,” Jack, one of the homeowners told us.
“We fell in love with the home mainly because of the kitchen and open concept living area,” Annie, the other homeowner told us.
Unfortunately, for Jack and Annie, the romance of their honeymoon came to a disturbing halt when they came home to a flooded house. Not only was the entire area flooded, but it was also contaminated with sewage that had backed up into their home through a shower drain on the main floor. Jack and Annie dealt with the situation as best as they could: they cleaned up the mess and mopped down the area that wasn’t covered with carpet. For the carpet, they rented a carpet cleaner from the grocery store and did a quick once over. However, they suddenly noticed an odor that wouldn’t go away.
And then sewage backup happened again. Fortunately, this time Jack and Annie called a water damage restoration company for sewer repair and house flood damage help.
Immediately, our water mitigation crew was on site. The house was a mess: there were at least 8 inches of water flooding most of the main floor of the house. What was worse than the flood was the fact that it was completely overrun by raw sewage that had seeped up through the drain in the shower stall. Our water damage restoration team went into full emergency clean up mode. First, we had to remove all the water and sewage from the floor. Our team removed all furniture from the main floor and went to work on emergency water removal. Next, we had to work on completely disinfecting the area, and by disinfecting, this included removing the carpet.
Under regular flooding instances, we might be able to salvage the carpet with proper carpet drying if we were able to get to the property quickly enough. However, due to the fact that the carpet had been soaked by raw sewage flood waters, it needed to be removed. Also, knowing that the carpet had been victim to a previous sewage backup flood, with our experience we knew three things: 1) There was most likely mold growing under the carpet, 2) The store rented carpet cleaner would not be able to effectively disinfect the carpet because the pad underneath had been affected by the contaminated sewage water as well, and 3) The odor Jack and Annie noticed that remained in their house was from the urine and feces that had penetrated the carpet pad.
Once the contaminated carpet was removed and the floor completely dried out and disinfected, our Sewer Repair experts had to figure out what caused this second sewage backup flood. Upon doing a drain scope, we could see clear signs of the sewage backup, sludge build up and tree root intrusion. We would need to dig up the floor and replace part of the sewer pipe.
Although a big job, opening up the floor to replace the drain pipe gave us the opportunity to install a backflow prevention valve. The backflow preventer is a device that allows water and materials that back up to escape from the cleanout rather than flowing into the home; essentially, sewage backup-proofing the home. Once we had fixed the part of the drain pipe that had been compromised and installed the prevention valve, we had to fix the floor and completely restore the home to better than new condition.
Upon returning the completely restored house to Jack and Annie, we learned some interesting information. Apparently, when Jack and Annie purchased the home initially, the home inspector had recommended that they get their drains scoped. Jack and Annie were on a tight budget so they didn’t follow through with the inspector’s recommendation. If Jack and Annie had followed through with the inspector’s advice, they could have avoided the huge headache that came with the sewage backup and water damage.
Good advice for anyone purchasing a home is to get your drains scoped, whether or not your inspector suggests it, unless it is a brand new development. Sewage backups are caused by blockage; blockages include solids, tree roots and structural defects in the pipes. Solids that cause sewer blockage include: fat, oil, grease, dirt, hair, bones, paper towels, sanitary napkins/tampons and items that should go in the garbage such as diapers. If any one has lived in the house you are about to buy, or, if the home is in an older neighborhood where there are a lot of mature trees, you should get your drains scoped.
Sewage backups create a severe health hazard. The longer the contamination process persists, the greater the potential for bacteria development & growth that may lead to some serious illness. Sewage backflows may create a major loss to your property and by introducing harmful organisms into the structure. While prevention is the best method, if you experience flooding from sewage backup, an immediate response is required to reduce cleanup costs and health hazards!
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