September 9, 2009
How do I cleanup after a sewage backup ?
Sewage backups and spills can cause serious damages to your home and your health. Do not under estimate sewage as an easy cleanup problem, sewage carries many virus and bacteria that can cause serious illness. When dealing with sewage you must always wear protective clothing and gloves on your
hands, goggles for your eyes and a resperator for breathing. When removing sewage contaminated items
dispose of them in accordance with your local city/state regulations. Most areas allow you to dispose of
carpeting, padding and other items in a local land fill but raw sewage must be disposed of in a sanitery
sewer! Do not dispose of raw sewage any where else, this can be a major health hazard for others and also
carries a huge penalties with the health departments and EPA(Enviromental Protection Agency).
Pregnant women, women who are nursing, babies or young children, elderly and anyone with immune
deficiency or health issues should not be in any area where sewage damages have occured. These areas
should be contained using 6mil pastic vapor barriers and HEPA air cleaning units. If containment is not
possible we advise not staying in the home.
Okay ! So now we have some warnings and we are ready to begin removing sewage!
1. Extract all standing sewage from the flooring, bath tubs, shower etc. using a vacuum system that has a
filtration device to catch toilet paper, feminine products or worse. The items we throw in toilets will clog
up a shop vac. and never use a regular floor vacuum cleaner. Also contents which can be salvaged should
be stored for later cleaning.
2. Remove all saturated carpeting, baseboards, drywall, wood flooring, vinyl flooring and dispose. Water
contaminated with sewage will work it's way under your flooring and must be removed, not cleaned ! This
type of water damage is prone to mold growth ;due to the high level of contamination, carpet and wood
flooring may harbour bacterias causing future issues.
3. Now that all the contaminated materials have been disposed of you can begin cleaning the remaining
structural items such as concrete flooring, wood frame work etc.. Using antimicrobial disinfectants clean
all areas. After all areas are clean, clean them again, you can't clean it once it's put back together.
No one wants a "funny" smell in the basement.
4. Okay all the sewage is gone now and things should look spotless and smell like a summer's day so
next we must dry out the structure, a complete drying of all exposed frame work and flooring using
dehumidifiers and air movers. Leaving a wet structure is not advised due to the possibility of mold
growth. Dry time depends on amount of saturation from backup and amount of drying equipment used.
The average dry time is 3 days for most materials although concrete floors can take much longer any
where from 3 to 14 days. Keep in mind laying new flooring requires the concrete floor to be at a certain
moisture content depending on your area of the country. Once everything is dry you will be ready for
reconstruction.
Also remember that the sewage on your floor may not be yours! Alot of times it comes from the main line,
don't under estimate this health hazard!
Good Luck!
Some home owners policies cover sewage loss, call us for more information or adviceat 678.300.6090.
August 7, 2009
MOLD REMOVAL -when to call a pro Alot of our customers have asked whether or not they can remove mold themselves or if they need to call a professional service in. Well first thing to evaluatue is the extent of mold contamination in your home or business and that is usually a case of visual inspection. If there is less than 10sqft. of mold say on your bathroom ceiling, the EPA's recomendation is that it can be removed with out calling in a professional remediation service. This does not mean take no precautions, some molds have mycotoxins which may be harmful to you, you can find out more about DIY mold removal on our KNOWLEDGE section which will link you to the EPA's website. Now here is the tricky part of evaluating your mold contamination sometimes it's not simply mold in one spot, sometimes mold growth may be a small area over here and some on the leather sofa and a little on the baseboards. This is where cleaning up mold yourself can cause more damage than good. People see small amounts of mold say through-out a basement and start wipping (spreading) the mold spores causing the spores to migrate somewhere else possibly another area which may not have been affected. If you have small amounts of mold growing over a large area the air is carrying the spores from place too place this requires a professional remediation service. So to sum up, yes you can remove a small amount of mold using precautions but be careful not to under estimate your contamination level, and always wear protective equipment.
Geauga County commissioners received calls from Chardon fire officials late Saturday night, informing them that the newly renovated Courthouse Annex was flooded from the third to the first floors. Cascading water soaked still-packed cardboard boxes, newly installed drywall and new carpeting in the three-story brick building. One maintenance official described the situation as rain throughout the structure.
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