Basement Floor Drain Backup
The floor drain in your basement has backed up and flooded your entire basement with water. Now you need to determine if it is local waste produced in your home that can’t get out due to a blockage in the main line leaving your home, or if it is waste from the sewer system coming back in.
If you have any lower elevation drains like a shower/bathtub or floor drain and they are backing up too, then it is likely you have a partial blockage in your main sewer pipe. Commonly the lowest level drains will start gurgling when the washing machine discharges, then as the sewer pipe gets blocked more, or when the toilet is flushed or shower/bathtub is drained, it starts backing up and overflowing sewage from the lowest elevation drain.
Blockages; getting to the root of the problem
Blockages can occur if a portion of the line has broken, but generally a blockage is caused by roots that have grown into the line, or by something flushed down a toilet that has lodged in the drain pipe. When this happens, you will see evidence of your drain backing up at the lowest point in the system, typically the basement floor drain.
Your own local waste backing up is one thing, but when disgusting, contaminated waste from hundreds of neighbors starts pouring into your home, it becomes a whole different problem. This is usually due to high levels of rainfall temporarily raising the overall water table and then the entire drainage system becomes overwhelmed. If the lowest drain in your basement is lower than this temporarily raised water level, you will find your basement drain backing up. In some cases the pressure created by the raised water level is so great that raw sewage will be spewing from your basement floor drain.
What our rural friends need to know about sump pumps
If you live in a rural area and have your own septic system, you may also have a sump pump to pump waste water from the basement level out to your septic system. So if you were doing a load of wash and returned to discover water flowing out of your floor drain and flooding the basement floor it could very likely be a problem with your sump pump. Stop the washing machine, so more water isn’t dumped down the drain, then check if the ground fault switch for the sump pump has tripped and reset it if it has. If it kicks in and the water starts draining out, then that was the problem, if not, then it could be your sump pump needs to be replaced.
Now to clean up the mess! The first thing you need to do is get the water out as quickly as possible. The longer the water sits in your basement the greater the chance you have of developing mold. However, if you determine that the backup was sewage water, you should leave the flooded area and remove any clothing that had gotten wet. The next thing to do is to call Water Damage Minneapolis™ so that every surface that was contaminated by the waste water and be cleaned, sanitized, and thoroughly dried out to prevent mold and odors.
Water Damage Minneapolis™ is ready to come to your rescue!
Call 763-242-2103 now.