10 Things You Don't Know About Home Sewer Explosions

10 Things You Don’t Know about Home Sewer Explosions and Home Contamination Reduce the likelihood of sewer backup in your home More than 500,000 sewer backups occur each year in the United States. Sewers normally back up through the lowest plumbing fixture in your home. According to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), 68% of all drain system sewer backup claims started in the basement and claims occurring in finished basements are 65% more severe than in unfinished basements. Even if you are adeQuately protected financially through your insurance coverage, it’s worth the time and investment to prevent the inconvenience and health hazard from a major sewer backup. Depending on the severity of the loss, your family may need to live elsewhere while your home is restored to a habitable condition. Nationwide Private Client Risk Solutions recommends the following steps to help prevent sewer or drain backups: • Have your home’s sewer lateral line periodically inspected for buildup, cracks, and invading tree roots. If you have a cast-iron or clay lateral pipe, you may want to have a PVC pipe installed to reduce the risk of tree root problems. Homeowners, not your local municipality, are responsible for maintaining the sewer lateral lines. • Don’t pour grease down your kitchen sink. It can congeal, cling to your pipes and cause serious damage and blockage. • Compost or throw away larger food items rather than grinding them in the food waste disposer. • Don’t flush anything other than toilet paper down the toilet, even if the product packaging suggests that it is flushable. • The best way to help prevent a backup is to have a plumber install backflow valves or standpipes in all basement or lower level drains to prevent sewage from backing up. During a rainstorm or flood, the city sewer system may not be able to accommodate the extra volume of water and could release the excess into neighboring homes. • Install a water/flood-detection device that sounds an alarm or calls your phone if it senses water — typically, in your basement. The faster you react, the more you can control the cost and inconvenience of the cleanup efforts – especially if you have to temporarily relocate out of your home. If you experience a sewer or drain backup, get to it fast. • Call a plumber or water mitigation service company immediately. A water mitigation service company will have the right eQuipment and experience to mitigate the amount of damage and prevent secondary damage from mold or rot. • Dry the area as Quickly as possible, including any standing water. Don’t use your furnace to dry things out as you could spread mold throughout your entire home. • Contact your insurance agent or call us directly at 855-473-6410 to report a claim. Be sure to save any receipts from incurred expenses to help process your claim. Recurring Sewer Backups Nobody wants to think about a sewer backup. It’s gross and messy and can potentially cause a lot of damage to your home and your health. If you have a simple clog, it’s easy to pull out the plunger or yank out that clump of hair from the tub drain. But when you find the tub overflowing because you flushed the toilet; or the kitchen sink won’t drain no matter how many times you run the disposal or clean the trap, you might be dealing with a more serious sewer stoppage problem. Causes of Recurring Sewer Backup There are a few common causes of these backups that keep happening over and over again. Tree and Shrub Roots Tree and shrub roots crave water and will make their way toward any moisture. So even the smallest crack in a sewer line will attract roots. And as trees and shrubs continue to grow, so do the roots causing a potential blockage and possibly creating more cracks and holes. The roots can also grow around and crush a sewer pipe. And don’t think just because you don’t have any trees near or in your yard means this can’t happen. Roots can reach your lines from your neighbor’s yard or even from surrounding city land creating undesired sewer backups. Sewer Clogs Sewer systems are designed to handle a lot of crap. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care with what goes into those pipes. Here are a few main culprits that could be causing serious clogging in your sewer pipes: • Fats, oils, grease – Never pour these into your kitchen sink. Even if you run really hot water with it, these substances still stick to your pipes and solidify. Aside from building up on their own, there’s the added bonus of catching any other debris and food stuffs that might make it into your pipes creating very stubborn clogs. • “Flushable” wipes – Just because you can flush these wipes down the toilet doesn’t mean you should. Utility companies around the world are finding these wipes congealing with other debris creating tight knots. And testing by Consumer Reports have found some of these wipes don’t break down as advertised. • Paper and feminine hygiene products – These are just not meant to be flushed. They don’t break down like toilet paper. Toss them in the trash instead. Broken or Sagging Sewer Lines Cracks and holes left unrepaired lead to broken sewer pipes. A broken sewer pipe leads to backups. Older homes constructed with cast iron or clay pipes are more susceptible to breaks. And a sagging—or bellied sewer pipe—create recurring backups, too. Because a sewer line is designed to use the power of gravity, if a pipe is sagging, it can’t drain leaving water and debris to settle in the sag causing backups. Determining the Cause of Your Sewer Backups One thing you don’t want to do when you have a sewer backup is reach for the Drano or some other liquid drain cleaner. The chemicals in these products can cause more damage to your pipes creating an even more expensive problem. Instead, call a licensed plumber or sewer expert to inspect and diagnose your sewage problem. INFORMATION FOR HOMEOWNERS & RESIDENTS - Facts About Sewer Backup Incidents - Sewer backups are an unfortunate but common problem in U.S. cities and towns. Although municipal departments make every effort to prevent such incidents, they still may occur. The following information is offered to help property owners and residents understand why backups happen, how they can be prevented, and what steps citizens should take if a sewer backup affects their property. The following questions and answers may be helpful: What causes a sewer backup? Sanitary sewer overflows can be caused by a number of factors. They usually involve sewer pipe blockages in either main sewer lines or service laterals (lines between buildings and the main line). Causes may include pipe breaks or cracks due to tree roots, system deterioration, insufficient system capacity due to residential or commercial growth, or construction mishaps. In home and office plumbing systems, the main cause is accumulation of grease, tree roots, hair, or solid materials, such as disposable diapers or sanitary napkins that are too large for wastewater pipes to handle. Such materials may cause major backups in drain lines as well as in your lateral lines. A frequent cause of water stoppages within your neighborhood, can be from vandalism. Leaves, sticks, rocks, bricks and trash have been found stuffed down manholes. We hope you will report observations of any such activity. How could a sewer backup affect me? If the backup occurs in your town maintained sewernline, the wastewater will normally overflow out of the lowest possible opening, which is usually a manhole. However, in some homes—especially those with basements, or where the lowest level is even with the sewer lines—the overflowing wastewater may exit through the home’s lower drains and toilets. What should I do if sewage backs up into my home? First, take action to protect people and valuable property: • Keeping in mind that ceramic plumbing fixtures such as toilets are fragile, quickly close all drain openings with stoppers or plugs. Tub, sink, and floor drains may need additional weight to keep them sealed. A string mop can be used to help plug toilet openings. • Don’t run any water down your drains until the blockage has been cleared. • A quick check with nearby neighbors will help determine if the backup appears to be in your neighbor’s wastewater line, and/or widespread in your neighborhood. In this case, call the Department of Public Works immediately. • Call a plumber or sewer expert if the problem is in your lateral service line. Is there anything I can do to prevent sewage backup into my home? • Avoid putting grease down your garbage disposal or household drain. It can solidify, collect debris and accumulate in drain lines, or build up in your own system. • Never flush disposable diapers, sanitary napkins or paper towels down the toilet. They could stop up your drains and may damage your plumbing system. • If the lateral line in your older home has a jointed pipe system, consider whether the roots of large shrubs or trees near the line could invade and break pipes. • If the lowest level of your home is below ground level, such as a basement floor drain, it may one day be affected by a backup. One way to prevent sewage backup through such below ground areas is to Install a “back-flow valve” on the lowest drain(s). You can also use a plumber’s test plug to close these drains when not in use.

Load more