What to do when you receive a sewage escape
What to do when you receive a sewage escape
You might think of telephoning your plumber if sewerage is backing into your shower, toilets or bath tub. This sewerage will contain bugs so it should be cleaned at once and your plumbing system should be repaired so as to prevent it from happening again.
It would be prudent to clean the area with a cup of bleaching agent to five gallons of water before the plumber reaches your home. Wear eye protection, long trousers, gloves and boots and seal the area to prevent entry by kids, the elderly and pets. Cleanse your hands later on with warm clean water and soap. As another temporary measure, if you can limit the water going into your waste pipe you can prevent the volume of drainage backing into your home.
There might be a obstruction between the toilet and the shower, or the waste line may have been plugged. Whatever the cause, protecting you and your family from harmful waste needs to be your first concern.
Vomiting, fever, chills, stomach pain, diarrhoea are some of the symptoms of exposure to sewerage. Seek medical attention right away if you go through any of these symptoms.
Use a disinfectant (1 cup bleach in 5 Imperial gallons water)to sanitise any toilet items, toys, fixtures or other items that may have been contaminated by the drainage. Throw away items that cannot be washed and cleaned (such as mattresses, stuffed animals, baby toys, and wood cutting boards) and food that may have come in contact with sewage water.
If the sewage leakage was around the shower, you might want to use a snake, part of a plumbers toolkit. It would be best for you to get 25 feet long one quarter inch snake to tackle the issue if you are not calling in a drainage contractor. At this size it will be more easier for the tool to move all the way through the drainage and plumbing line. It is quite common to find out that while the shower trap is backed up the toilet in the same bathroom is not. The reason is that the typical shower drain is installed level with the flooring whereas the toilet trap is frequently 6 inches above the flooring level.
An expert tradesman, a plumber, must be contacted if you can’t fix the backflow yourself. They will be able to clean up the leaked sewerage thoroughly, as well as find out exactly where the clog is located. It is better to let the expert handle the plumbing remedies unless you know precisely what you are doing.