Most Common Causes of a Sewage Backup Disaster

One of the nightmares a homeowner can experience is sewer backup disasters. Unlike leaking or burst pipes, sewage backups cannot be handled unprofessionally because of the hazardous organisms conveyed through the pipes. If you are not insured, you will spend thousands of dollars cleaning and restoring the damaged furnishings. To prevent sewer backups, flooding and other disasters at your property, knowing and understanding what causes it is vital.

Tree Roots

Root encroachment happens when vegetation roots wiggle their way into your drainage system, spreading through the pipes directly or encircling and destroying them to reach the water flowing inside.  This takes place gradually, but it might proceed more quickly if your pipes are damaged and have holes or gaps that permit tree roots to access the drain, after which they will form hair-like structures. 

Tissue paper and other waste flushed down the sewer system will then be blocked. When choosing where to place new plants on your premises, consider how a tree’s root system will develop to reduce the risk of tree or plant roots blockage.

Main Sewer Blockage

Your city, municipality, or district owns and maintains the central drainage system. A clog comparable to a domestic clog may be the reason for the obstruction. If your neighborhood is experiencing rapid growth, sewer backup can also occur due to exceeding system capacity. This kind of issue becomes evident if a community experiences sewage issues following significant rainfall.

Instead of merely affecting one drain, a central sewer obstruction will concurrently impact most or all of your plumbing across the rest of the house.  If this is the case, turn off all of your home’s water supply to prevent further inconvenience, and try to cover drain outlets with materials that can absorb liquids.

Damaged Pipelines

Your sewer system may not drain effectively if a pipe is broken. Sewage effluent can pile up and back up. Various factors may harm a pipe but also result from poor installation.  The properties in jeopardy here are older ones to which the homeowner has made improvements. 

If the improvements were not made professionally, it could lead to drainage problems. Additionally, rushing the process could have led to installation problems. Sewer lines might also be harmed if you reside in an area that experiences earthquakes or other earth tremors. The forces of nature are beyond your power; if the pipes are old, they are more susceptible to damage.

Grease

The unfounded belief that dumping grease while pouring hot water simultaneously can remove it from your drains is surprisingly common. While it might seem to make sense, the rumor is false. Grease hardens as it cools, and even hot water cools quite quickly in a pipe.

Grease can solidify into a block and cause a wastewater backup if you pour it into your drains. This obstacle will eventually block the pipe by trapping garbage of various kinds. Due to its stickiness, grease will capture even objects that shouldn’t be a concern. Even deep in the pipeline, a grease blockage might develop. Such clogs can be quite challenging to clear and potentially endanger the pipes.

Basement flooding and sewage backup disasters are expensive. Most property insurance companies provide limited coverage for sewer backup disasters, including options for hiring a disaster cleanup professional to extract sewage water and clean your property professionally.