How do I stop my house from flooding?

May 26, 2011 4:11 PM

Is there a way to prevent water flooding into the house as a result of heavy rain?

It's been raining for the past few days and there's been water backing up into the toilet, that then drains into the shower, and when the shower is full it spills out onto the floor. In the other bathroom the water leaks through the bottom of the toilet onto the floor. Is there a way I can prevent this from happening again tonight?

My parents are out of town and I don't have any money to call professionals in to fix the problem. I've tried shutting off the water to the house, but that didn't help. Yesterday three rooms ended up flooding and I'm worried the water will eventually get to the back rooms where the important things are. I'm pretty sure the only reason that didn't happen yesterday is because I put a bunch of towels, sheets, etc on the kitchen floor and it soaked up a lot of water. I don't have many more things to use to soak it up today though.

Is there anything else I can do to either prevent flooding, or to contain it so it stays in the bathroom or at least only floods two rooms? We just moved here around a month ago and I don't have any experience with this.

posted by biochemist to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Best answer: Money or not, you need a plumber right now. It appears that the sewer line is leaking. Usually, this means that raw sewage is leaking out into the ground. Because the rain is so heavy, the water from the soil is finding the easiest route and that is back through the leak and into the house. It is likely that the sewer line is clogged downstream from where the leak is, resulting in the water not being able to escape that direction. Unless you know how to fix these things, you need that plumber. Contact your parents (if you can) and tell them that the house is flooding and why. Ask if their insurance will cover any portion of the damage. If so, have them contact the insurance company, have you appointed as their agent and get them out to assess the problem now.
posted by Old Geezer at 4:24 PM on May 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

I suppose you could pull the toilets off and open up the drains and plug them with a drain plug or a big ball of plumbers putty or wax. You'll need to get the sinks too. You could sandbag the doors to the rooms that flood to contain the water. But, seriously, the longer you don't address this, the more screwed you probably are. If nothing else, all that spilled water is soaking into the floor and wicking up the walls and will cause serious damage to the house, not to mention mold. Any of the possibilities involve significant effort and expense, whether you're dealing with drainage issues or plumbing issues (or both).

Call your parents. Get it fixed.

Err...btw...how exactly does a toilet back up drain into the shower?
posted by kjs3 at 4:29 PM on May 26, 2011

Sounds like your sewer pipe is backing up. If you have a floor drain in your basement, it's probably the last access before the water heads out to the sewer. If that's not backing up, it doesn't make sense that anything on the first floor is. You can try running a snake from the basement out to the sewer. If you have roots growing through the pipe (they look like tufts of hair) there's not much you can do short of renting a power snake or paying a roto rooter guy.
If you go outside, does your downspout from the roof gutter go into the ground? If yes, you're probably adding a huge volume of rainwater to the amount going through your sewer pipe. When it's not raining, the only water going out of your house is wastewater, but add in the rain and your partially clogged sewer just can't handle the extra flow. You can try disconnecting the downspout and divert the rainwater away from the house as a temporary fix. Good luck.
posted by PSB at 4:31 PM on May 26, 2011

Response by poster: To clarify: my parents already know what's going on and don't think there's anything I can do other than wait it out, but I'm hoping that isn't the case.
posted by biochemist at 4:31 PM on May 26, 2011

Response by poster: I asked the parents about calling the insurance and they said they'll do it when they get back. I've been reading other askmes about flooding and I have an additional question, if that's ok: How much danger am I in health-wise? I read this and I'm totally freaking out because I have no idea if it's flooding sewage or rain water. I haven't noticed any obvious signs of waste other than the water being a brownish color, but since it did contain rocks/dirt I assumed it was just rain water.

I put on boots to walk through it but my feet still get damp, and now I'm worried I've been exposed to some dangerous bacteria by handling/walking through the water. I washed my hands after but stopped bothering with my feet awhile ago.
posted by biochemist at 5:15 PM on May 26, 2011

Pop off the grid drain in the shower, and get "test balls" for the toilet and the shower. They're what plumbers use to plug things so they can test the water-tightness of the system for inspectors. You'lll need a bike pump to pump them up.

Until you get a plumber in there once your parents get home, that's the best you can do. They're cheap. This will at least keep things from backing up all over the house (yuck!!!).
posted by notsnot at 5:17 PM on May 26, 2011

put the super important things up high. If it floods at least that stuff will be ok.

RE Bacteria- make sure you don't have any cuts/scrapes in contact with the water, don't drink it, and wash when practicable.

Hang in there!

Have you explained to your parents exactly how bad it is?
posted by titanium_geek at 6:07 PM on May 26, 2011

I can't imagine being on vacation and blithely ignoring that sewage was flooding into my house. Your parents are wrong that nothing can be done. I've had this problem to a lesser extent in two different houses. Same problem both times: the sewer line going from the house to the main (assuming you're on a municipal sewer system and not a well or septic) is not draining for some reason. This means, yes, every time you flush a toilet, it's not getting out to the city's sewer line.

If I were you I'd call my parents with the name of a plumber, or even just Roto Rooter or the like, and get them to call the plumber to authorize a credit card charge to come fix this ASA-fucking-P. If it's "just" a sewer line snake, you're likely talking less than $500, maybe closer to $250. If there's any reconstruction of damaged pipes or major obstructions to clear, it'll likely be more than that.

Depending on where you live, the city probably establishes a border line at which it's your liability to fix something (e.g., between the sidewalk and your house) vs. their liability (e.g., under the street). Hell, calling someone to fix the problem now might even reveal that it's not your parents' liability to pay for at all. Which is yet another reason to call.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 6:49 PM on May 26, 2011

you need to get the water dried out asap before it causes structural damage and later mold. This means you need a plumber, probably need to have you drain line snaked. It may be a problem with the city mains, you can call the public works department at city hall and ask to speak to someone on duty about sewer problems see if they can help you.

Dilute sewage is not super danegourous as in if you touch it you will die but it isn't something you want to have hanging out in the house either.

Have you parents call a plumber to come over and get it worked on really fast, are you sure they understand it isn't rainwater but it is sewage coming up? this can really ruin a house pretty damn quick.

a quick fix that might help you is find the sewer clean out somewhere outside the house. It will be a black PVC pipe sticking up that has a square bump on the top. take off this cover with the square bump and it will relieve some of the backpressure pushing sewage into the house. If you are on a septic system you need to get it pumped as quickly as possible, there are lots of companies that do this work.

Don't let this set till your parents get home. This is serious, as in rebuild half your house serious.
posted by bartonlong at 7:05 PM on May 26, 2011

Your parents are bonkers. Call a plumber, let them know they'll have to bill your parents.
posted by padraigin at 7:52 PM on May 26, 2011

You're seriously walking around your (your parents?) house with the water off and boots on because of flooding, potentially with sewage, and your parents are "meh"? Either you're leaving an awful lot out of this story, or you live in a deeply dysfunctional world.
posted by kjs3 at 7:53 PM on May 26, 2011

Best answer: In the other bathroom the water leaks through the bottom of the toilet onto the floor. Is there a way I can prevent this from happening again tonight?

In addition to all the above comments, if water is coming out from the bottom of the toilet it means that the seal on the wax ring is no good. This is a relatively simple repair, but should be done. If the toilet is on anything but concrete it may also require replacement of flooring that has likely rotted under the toilet if this has gone on for any amount of time.

It would be helpful to know if this is a new problem and/or if this is a new(ish) house. I know that my parents live in a location where the city storm and sewer system is just plain not able to handle the storms and they have a special backflow valve on the drain line that is supposed to prevent flooding. Even those can fail, but if the house is at a low point in the system, then this may also be part of the explanation.
posted by meinvt at 9:00 PM on May 26, 2011

I don't have many more things to use to soak it up today though

Dry the others in the dryer. And/or buy sandbags (cheap).

Everyone else is right. It is crazy not to do anything if water is moving from room to room, wicking up the drywall. The cost to repair the lower few feet of drywall in several rooms could easily exceed the cost of a plumber.

To prevent mold, if that's even possible, you need to get water damage addressed within 48 hours. So, besides controlling the spread of water, you're going to want to use space heaters and fans to try to dry everything out.

Also, be careful about electricity. Don't plug in appliances while standing on a damp floor.
posted by slidell at 10:40 PM on May 26, 2011

Response by poster: re: my parents, I think it's more of wanting to save money and not being sure a plumber could do anything useful. They're more the DIY types when it comes to repairs/cleaning, and when I asked about it they said a plumber wouldn't be of any help because the problem is with the city's main sewage system.

Luckily, it only rained briefly last night and I decided to put more towels down in the half bath that was causing the most problems and seal the door with a blanket. It didn't rain much so IDK if that helped or not but the kitchen didn't get any new flood water coming in, so the rest of the house was safe too.

The house is older, I think it was built in the 70's. No idea if the previous tenants had this problem. I'm actually carless and have literally no money ($4 to my name) so I can't follow most of the suggestions, but I'll keep them in mind if this happens again sometime down the line.
posted by biochemist at 2:28 AM on May 27, 2011

Is there a basement or crawlspace? If not, is the street flooded? If the street isn't flooded but stuff is backing up into your house, the problem exists between the house and the street.

Are your neighbors having similar problems?

(Because your house's slab ought to be higher up than the street, and if there is enough pressure in the municipal sewers to back up into your house, they would also be backing up into the street.)

If your street isn't flooded and your neighbors aren't having the same problems, the issue is NOT the municipal sewer system, and IS almost for sure a bad drain tile between the house and the street.

Err...btw...how exactly does a toilet back up drain into the shower?

The shower and bathroom sink are on the same drain line as the toilet.
posted by gjc at 6:23 AM on May 27, 2011

To reply to GJC point this would only be true if the sanitary sewer system is combined with the storm sewer system. Most of the older east coast cities and a few of the west coast cities have this kind of system. Most of the western cities and a lot of the interior have a seperate system and it is entirely possible for one system to be working fine while the other is not. But the larger point is right, if your neighbors are also backing up it is a city problem, if not it is likely your problem.

The exception would be if the lateral is broken in the public right of way under the street. The sewer mains are the larger lines (8 inches or bigger) that run down the streets and carry the sewage to the treatment plant. The lateral is the smaller (4 or 6 inches) that connects your house to the mains and should only carry the sewage from a single house. The typical policy is if the lateral is on private property is the owners problem, if it is on publicly owned property (the street) then it is the cities problem. However you are going to have to prove where the problem is. This is done by sending a camera down the drain and measuring where the break is and locating it on the surface to determine who pays.

this requires a private plumber and the city will not likely reimburse you even if it is on their property.

And while the health effects of brief contact with sewage are not likely to be a problem to someone young and healthy, the long term effects of exposure to materials soaked in sewage are likely to be you are not going to be healthy and probably not feel so young. Mold is no joke and sewage has all kind of vectors in it for nasty bugs like hepatitus, e. coli, cholera, you name it it is likely in the stuff. Among the truly nasty stuff is some of the parasites you can get, so yeah use lots of bleach on anything that has been in contact with it like your feet, socks, shoes, etc.

I am a civil engineer for a small muncipality and we get all kind of mandatory vaccinations for these things. This kind of plumbing problem is really not a meh or even really a DIY kind of thing. It is a real, shorten your life kind of thing. It is the (few) kind of thing houses are condemned and deemed not fit for habitation (and rightly so) over.
posted by bartonlong at 10:27 AM on May 27, 2011

Response by poster: Plumber's verdict: There was a tree root blocking the sewer pipe and that's what caused the flooding. Neighbor's told us the previous owners had this problem too; they also happened to be out of town and it flooded so badly the water was running out through the driveway onto the street.

Parents are back home and doing the cleaning/sanitizing part, so all is well (until it grows back...)
posted by biochemist at 1:56 PM on May 29, 2011