Effective sewage backup prevention definitely beats the alternative: noxious sewage flowing backwards into your house. A sewage backup complicates normal water damage recovery because raw sewage—officially categorized as “black water”— is a toxic biohazard that requires professional clean-up and specialized decontamination procedures.
Household sewage may reflux back into the home due to obstructions in your underground sewer pipe leading to the main municipal line at the street. Alternatively, sewage may also flow into your home if the municipal sewer backs up, such as when heavy rain swamps the local system. Here some sewage backup prevention strategies to avoid these messy, unhealthy scenarios.
Household Sewer Issues
Have your sewer line inspected. Tree root infiltration is a major cause of blockages in original clay or cast iron sewer pipes with seams between segments. The only way to know for sure whether your line is affected is professional inspection of the internal pipe with a video camera. If tree roots are discovered, a high-speed cutter run through the length of the pipe every few years can maintain proper flow.
Collapsing segments are another fact of aging sewer pipes. As the pipe gradually deteriorates and deforms underground, sewage flow is increasingly obstructed until backup into the house occurs. As with tree roots, only video inspection can determine internal condition of the sewer pipe and locate potential blockages.
Municipal Sewer Issues
Heavy influx of water into the city sewer may exceed system capacity and cause sewage to flow backwards into your house. Installation of a sewage backflow device in your sewer line prevents backwards flow of sewage. The most typical type is a sewer check valve that incorporates a flap that permits only one-way flow of sewage in your main pipe. If sewage flows backwards, the flap closes and prevents flow into the house.
Information about effective sewage backup prevention as well as professional techniques to remove sewage backflow from a residence is available the water damage experts at Rytech, Inc.
