Sewer Backup Cleanup in Anaheim, CA
Somebody flushed upstairs and the shower in the hall bath filled with gray water instead of draining. By the time you found it the water had come over the curb, across the bathroom tile, and into the hallway carpet, and the smell tells you what it is. This site puts you through to an independent local provider who cleans up sewer backups in Anaheim and the north county cities.
Treating drain water as what it is from the first minute
Water that comes up a drain is the dirtiest water that enters a house. It has been through the toilets and the kitchen sink and, if the main line is the problem, through the neighbors' too. The crew arrives in protective gear, closes off the affected rooms from the rest of the house with plastic, and pulls the standing water with equipment that will be cleaned or thrown away afterward. Then they meter the floor and walls to see how far the water went under the carpet and into the drywall, because contamination travels as far as the water did.
Porous material that touched it leaves. Carpet and pad come out and are bagged. Drywall is cut above the water line. Hard surfaces that stay, tile, slab, the tub, get cleaned, then disinfected, then cleaned again. The rooms stay sealed until the surfaces are dry and the air has been scrubbed.
Keep everyone off that floor and do not run the fan
Stop using every drain and toilet in the house until a plumber has cleared the line; one more flush sends more water up. Keep children and pets out of the wet rooms and close the doors. Do not run a box fan or the central air across the water; that spreads what is in it through the house. Do not try to soak it up with towels you intend to keep. Photograph the rooms from the doorway. Then call, and say plainly that the water came up through a drain, because that decides what the crew brings and how they dress.
Why carpet, pad, and lower drywall leave, and why the tile stays
With a clean leak the crew tries to save material. With a sewer backup the rule flips, because the contamination remains in the material after it dries. Carpet and pad are removed and disposed of, not cleaned. Baseboards come off and are discarded. Drywall is cut a foot or more above the highest water mark and the insulation behind it bagged. Cabinet toe kicks that soaked are cut out. The slab, the tile, and the tub or shower are scrubbed and disinfected, and the air in the room is run through a filter while the surfaces dry. Then structural drying brings the slab and framing back to dry on the meter before anything is rebuilt.
If the water that backed up was clear and came from a plumbing supply line rather than a drain, it is a simpler water extraction job. If you are not sure which, say so and let the provider sort it out at the door.
Cast iron, clay, and ficus roots under the north county
The sewer lateral that runs from an Anaheim house to the street is as old as the house. In the tracts built from 1953 into the 1960s that is cast iron under the slab and clay or cast iron out to the main. Cast iron rusts from the inside until the bottom of the pipe is gone and the water is running on dirt. Clay joints open and the roots of the ficus and the jacaranda the city planted in the parkway find their way in. Either way the line narrows every year until one load of laundry backs it up into the lowest drain in the house, which is the shower.
The main lines in the street belong to the city, and the big trunk lines belong to the Orange County Sanitation District, which treats wastewater for most of north Orange County. A backup that comes from the city's side of the cleanout is the city's problem; a backup from your side is yours. The plumber who clears the line can usually tell you which, and the camera inspection afterward shows whether the lateral needs a spot repair or a full replacement.
A sewer backup is usually not covered by a standard California homeowners policy unless you added a water backup endorsement, and many policies in these tracts never did. This site cannot read your coverage and promises nothing about it. Have the crew document the rooms, the water line, and what was removed before it goes to the curb.
Calling about water that came up the drain
Say which drain the water came up, which rooms it reached, whether it has stopped, and whether a plumber has been called. Mention if anyone has walked through it. Know the address and have a phone number the provider can reach you on. Call (657) 239-3689.
