There’s not much that can cause a panic and loud screaming than when the handle of the toilet is pushed and — instead of everything swirling down into the sewer line — it all comes rushing back out. Ew! Sewage backups are nasty business!
You know what the “everything” is… and you surely do not wish to be the offending flusher who must clean it up. But someone needs to do the dirty work. What is sewage?
Yes, when a toilet overflows, it’s time to put on your best game face and get ready for action. Put this nightmare behind you. But before you start work, you might wish to reach for good shoes, like rubber boots, along with gloves and other protective gear. A nose clip might not be a bad idea, either.
What to do about the toilet over flow
The first order of business is to stop this exciting event from happening again. Be sure the toilet is unplugged, draining, and working properly. If you clean everything up and it all happens again, your nightmare just repeats itself.
Scrape up any (ick) solids and soak up any liquids with disposable towels. Remove as much excess contamination as possible.
Then liberally apply a strong disinfectant cleaner, something appropriate for this type of work. Your local hardware or grocery store will have a selection of products, and you may have something under your kitchen sink that will work.
Wipe down everything, even if in doubt if a surface was affected. Better safe than sorry. After doing all of this, do it one more time, just to be sure.
Follow this with cleaning the same surfaces with a typical bathroom cleaning product, to remove any remaining residues.
If the sewage has contacted drywall or carpet, these items will need to be removed and disposed of.
Although this is a common occurrence and it is a safe bet that every home has a vengeful toilet that has belched up offending olfactory gunk, be sure to do a thorough job with your cleanup process. Bacteria can grow and affect the health of your family.
To keep your home clean and healthy, there’s something else you can do. Reach out to your restoration pros at Accent American. They know how to handle not only floods, mold, fire and smoke damage… but sewage backups as well. Let them handle the icky stuff.
