Sewage Cleanup and Sanitation in San Diego, CA

When a sewer line is obstructed, the sewage that is thick and dark can be dangerous to your health. This sewer waste is extremely unsanitary, containing contaminants such as bacteria, viruses and pathogens. All of these dangerous germs can pose a serious health risk and lead to many illnesses if humans or animals are exposed. If it happens that you experience sewage backup on the property of your home or business, or a toilet backup in either location, repairing either one is of the highest importance. Having this unsanitary sewer waste in your home is dangerous and should be removed as soon as possible. Furthermore, to know what is causing the sewer backups may aid in preventing this potentially hazardous situation. To help you in managing sewage backups in your home or business, following is a list of things that can help:

Causes of Sewage Backup

• Heavy Rainfall – Excess flooding can overwhelm your town or city’s storm sewer system. If this happens, the waste can expand into the attached sewer lines bringing your home or business in possible compromise of water backflow. Growing rivers and streams, hurricanes and other related events can cause flood and sewage waters to mix and present serious health related dangers. You should be extremely cautious when walking in this type of water, and even stay cautious after the water recedes and dries up. It’s viable for the organic matter to turn aerosolized and respirable, meaning there’s a chance you could breathe it into your lungs. To stop contact or risk of breathing in these contaminants, legitimate PPE should be worn at all times.
• Tree Roots – Trees can have long roots that grow into water or sewer lines and crush or damage them. Damage to pipes and a sewer backup can also be induced by tree roots that aren’t even on your premises. Be keenly aware of any tree roots that can sprawl into your water and sewer lines that lead to the main sewer line or septic system.
• Old/Aging Sewer Pipes – Older and aging sewage structures are susceptible to breaking down and cracking, inducing sewer backups, flooded basements as well as entire home flooding. The older your neighborhood or dwelling may raise the chance of this type of catastrophe occurring.
• Clogged and Blocked Drain Pipes – If your house or business’s main sewer line or drain pipes become clogged, sewage may back up inside the building. A good example is: if a single toilet causes a sewage blockage, the adjacent pipes connected to that toilet, or the main drain lines of more toilets, will also suffer backflow flooding.

• Old and/or Damaged Lines – Aging sewage systems have a tendency to suffer damage and crack, leading to sewage backups and flooded dwellings full of sewage. If your home or neighborhood is older, the probability is greater that you’ll experience failing sewer lines than newer ones.
• Heavy Rain – Heavy and sudden rainfall can overwhelm your local storm sewer lines rapidly. If these public sewers can’t deal with excess rainfall, water can backup and progress into connected sewer lines. This can put your dwelling at risk of backflow problems. Regional flood waters from events like rising rivers and creeks, hurricanes, or any rainy weather events can cause clean water to merge with sewage water and other chemicals and contaminants that cause serious health difficulties. Use extreme caution when wading in this type of waste, but also remain cautious once it dries. The dried organic material can turn aerosolized and turn respirable. Correct PPE needs to be utilized at all times to stop contact and risk inhaling contaminated air.
• Blocked/Clogged Sewer Lines – A fouled pipe or sewer line can cause sewage to back up into your home or business. If only one toilet becomes backed up, the sewage backup can spread into the sewer lines and disturb all linked toilets on that line.
• Tree Roots – Tree roots can wreak havoc on water and sewer lines. The roots from huge trees can make their way into and around the lines and damage them tremendously. If the roots under your property are not the problem, roots from closely located trees can grow under property lines and damage your sewer line, causing a sewage complication. Be super aware of all tree roots that could affect your mainline sewer pipes and/or pipes connected to your septic tank.

PuroClean’s process for sewage cleanup and sanitation in San Diego, CA

Our methods for Category 3 water (also known as sewer and contaminated water backup) cleaning, adhering to the IICRC industry standards, consists of:

1. Ensure the safety of all personnel and non-personnel by restricting onsite access to remediation personnel only to prevent health-related dangers

2. Assessment of the area and Health and Safety checks.

3. Ensure proper personal protection equipment (PPE) is being utilized by all restoration personnel. This may include but is not limited to:

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

4. Use established engineering controls, critical barriers, to alleviate cross-contamination.

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

6. Clearing the jobsite of all bulk water, soil, and contaminates.

7. Removal of all contaminated porous and semi-porous materials that are not able to be saved, which can be 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 processes and use of EPA registered biocides and antimicrobials

9. Full physical cleaning of all structure items that remain

10. We suggest using a third-party Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) to perform clearance testing to ensure the site is returned to a safe pre-loss state for health and safety.

11. All materials affected by excess waters are to be dried and returned to pre-loss dry condition

12. All equipment used on the project to be cleaned after restoration completion

13. All demo materials removed from the building

For Professional Sewage Cleanup in San Diego, CA, Call PuroClean!

If a sewage drain pipe 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 tools, methods and cleaning systems to completely remediate the damaged building materials and contents.

The sheer value of our sewage removal and cleaning services, along with the speed in which we deliver the work, as well as our kindness demonstrated throughout the process helps make PuroClean your ideal damage remediation and restoration firm. We pledge to do everything that’s needed and within our power to restore and rescue properties in all the towns and cities that make up our coverage areas.

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