You think you've got a lot of shit in your basement? Well lemme tell you . . .
April 17, 2012 8:13 AM Subscribe
Sewer woes. YANML. The sewer backed up and there is literally shit in my basement. The neighboring house is involved. What are my rights and how should I proceed?
Yeah. So Sunday night I went into the basement on laundry patrol and there was water coming out of our floor drain. And other stuff. Toilet paper, feces, a truly lovely brew. I called my in-laws, and then went back down. the water had receded considerably, so we retired for the night, planning on dealing with it the following day.
Monday morning I went down and it was considerably worse. An inch to two inches of water throughout the entire basement (unfinished, but there's a lot of stuff stored down there). So I line up a plumber to root the sewer line.
Plumber arrives, can't find the blockage. Determines the sewer line is shared with the neighboring house to the north (past that house is a street). Plumber goes into the neighboring house basement, still can't hit the blockage with the snake. So he lines us up with a sewer specialist, as it were. They are coming out tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, we're thinking this is likely going to be very expensive, and to be blunt, we don't have that much cash. The house to the north is a rental.
What responsibility do the owners of the neighboring house have here? Or the city? Are we basically on our own? In for a legal battle? Should we contact a local lawyer?
On a related note, once the line is clear, how should I go about cleaning the basement? When the plumber was down there running the snake through the line, a bunch of really black water came up through the floor drain in addition to the sewage. Plumber said it was rust from the sewer pipes, loosened by the snake. Sounds legit, but it stinks badly, and the smell is starting to invade the whole house. Will a mop and some bleach water do the trick? Given the expense of what lies ahead, I'm reluctant to hire yet another firm to come out and do the clean up.
Central Illinois, if it helps.
Yeah. So Sunday night I went into the basement on laundry patrol and there was water coming out of our floor drain. And other stuff. Toilet paper, feces, a truly lovely brew. I called my in-laws, and then went back down. the water had receded considerably, so we retired for the night, planning on dealing with it the following day.
Monday morning I went down and it was considerably worse. An inch to two inches of water throughout the entire basement (unfinished, but there's a lot of stuff stored down there). So I line up a plumber to root the sewer line.
Plumber arrives, can't find the blockage. Determines the sewer line is shared with the neighboring house to the north (past that house is a street). Plumber goes into the neighboring house basement, still can't hit the blockage with the snake. So he lines us up with a sewer specialist, as it were. They are coming out tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, we're thinking this is likely going to be very expensive, and to be blunt, we don't have that much cash. The house to the north is a rental.
What responsibility do the owners of the neighboring house have here? Or the city? Are we basically on our own? In for a legal battle? Should we contact a local lawyer?
On a related note, once the line is clear, how should I go about cleaning the basement? When the plumber was down there running the snake through the line, a bunch of really black water came up through the floor drain in addition to the sewage. Plumber said it was rust from the sewer pipes, loosened by the snake. Sounds legit, but it stinks badly, and the smell is starting to invade the whole house. Will a mop and some bleach water do the trick? Given the expense of what lies ahead, I'm reluctant to hire yet another firm to come out and do the clean up.
Central Illinois, if it helps.
This is a job for your insurance company. Do you own your house? Call your insurance company, and file a claim. They will connect you with a remediation company (like ServPro).
Take lots of pictures. Keep all receipts.
You need a professional in there to clean up something that nasty. They need to check the walls and floors to see where moisture has leached into. Even if you mop with bleach, the filthy water can have soaked into places you can't reach.
Your insurance company will also have an incentive to figure out who is responsible. If it is the house next door, then they may go after the owner's insurance company.
+1 on calling the city.
And try talking with your neighbors, or your neighbor's landlord, about what happened. If the owner of your neighbor's house is uncooperative, and the specialist determines it is a problem on their end, then consult with a lawyer.
Your insurance company should be the first step, though.
posted by oneironaut at 8:47 AM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
Take lots of pictures. Keep all receipts.
You need a professional in there to clean up something that nasty. They need to check the walls and floors to see where moisture has leached into. Even if you mop with bleach, the filthy water can have soaked into places you can't reach.
Your insurance company will also have an incentive to figure out who is responsible. If it is the house next door, then they may go after the owner's insurance company.
+1 on calling the city.
And try talking with your neighbors, or your neighbor's landlord, about what happened. If the owner of your neighbor's house is uncooperative, and the specialist determines it is a problem on their end, then consult with a lawyer.
Your insurance company should be the first step, though.
posted by oneironaut at 8:47 AM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
Having gone through a sewer backup recently, here's what I learned:
Check with your insurance company to see if you are covered. My property is a rental, and the landlord's insurance DIDN'T cover the backup costs. We apparently need separate flood insurance for that, so we paid out of pocket.
Paying out of pocket blows, but if you can do the clean up yourself, you should be able to save on the worst part. ServiceMaster cleaned up the first time we had it back up, and that was well over twice the cost of the plumber (~$450 for the plumber, ~$1200 for clean up). Then it backed up again, and I cleaned it myself the second time.
Since you don't have to worry about drywall, etc., after you get the water out (either wait until the drain is cleared, or use a Wet Vac to suck it up and then dump it), clean up shouldn't be too horrible. Any rugs, cardboard boxes, etc. need to be pitched, but the contents should be okay to clean unless they are something absorbent like clothes, stuffed animals, etc and they got soaked. Get a bunch of the beach wipes and clean everything with a hard surface (plastic, glass, etc.) with those. The soft stuff might be okay in the washer, but keep in mind there are some nasty bugs floating in that water, so use your discretion there.
With the floor, I had pretty good luck using a floor squeegee and TSP to clean the floors (work from the outside in, towards the now cleared drain). After that, disinfect with bleach.
For anyone else that has vinyl tiles and drywall, it sucks a lot more. We had to pull the baseboards and set up fans to try to dry them, spray with mold inhibitors, scrubs the floors on our hands and knees, etc., but it is all doable if you have the time.
Either way, some box fans and a dehumidifier help bring the humidity level down, but aren't required to get stuff clean.
Good luck, I know how much it sucks to deal with. Hopefully you can get some money from the neighbor or city based on what the problem is.
posted by hankscorpio83 at 9:07 AM on April 17, 2012
Check with your insurance company to see if you are covered. My property is a rental, and the landlord's insurance DIDN'T cover the backup costs. We apparently need separate flood insurance for that, so we paid out of pocket.
Paying out of pocket blows, but if you can do the clean up yourself, you should be able to save on the worst part. ServiceMaster cleaned up the first time we had it back up, and that was well over twice the cost of the plumber (~$450 for the plumber, ~$1200 for clean up). Then it backed up again, and I cleaned it myself the second time.
Since you don't have to worry about drywall, etc., after you get the water out (either wait until the drain is cleared, or use a Wet Vac to suck it up and then dump it), clean up shouldn't be too horrible. Any rugs, cardboard boxes, etc. need to be pitched, but the contents should be okay to clean unless they are something absorbent like clothes, stuffed animals, etc and they got soaked. Get a bunch of the beach wipes and clean everything with a hard surface (plastic, glass, etc.) with those. The soft stuff might be okay in the washer, but keep in mind there are some nasty bugs floating in that water, so use your discretion there.
With the floor, I had pretty good luck using a floor squeegee and TSP to clean the floors (work from the outside in, towards the now cleared drain). After that, disinfect with bleach.
For anyone else that has vinyl tiles and drywall, it sucks a lot more. We had to pull the baseboards and set up fans to try to dry them, spray with mold inhibitors, scrubs the floors on our hands and knees, etc., but it is all doable if you have the time.
Either way, some box fans and a dehumidifier help bring the humidity level down, but aren't required to get stuff clean.
Good luck, I know how much it sucks to deal with. Hopefully you can get some money from the neighbor or city based on what the problem is.
posted by hankscorpio83 at 9:07 AM on April 17, 2012
As oneironaut implies, this is something to take seriously and address quickly. Sewer water causes worse damage than other water, and it is unhealthy to breathe. Financially, at least one of the insurance companies I looked at voided water damage claims if the leak (etc.) wasn't called in within X hours. If you have the budget, there are companies that specialize in water and sewer water cleanup that have round the clock hours for water damage emergencies. All of this would likely help in a court case because you are supposed to "mitigate your damages" (i'm no lawyer).
posted by slidell at 11:52 PM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by slidell at 11:52 PM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
Quicklime (from garden supply store) will absorb a lot of the smell. I am a property manager and use it in basements where where we have had sewer problems.
posted by Melsky at 5:06 AM on April 19, 2012
posted by Melsky at 5:06 AM on April 19, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
In our case, the company who fixed the blockage washed all the nastiness out of the basement for us, and recommended we just hit the floor with some water and bleach. Unfortunately, it's going to be a lot easier to clean if you wait until you can just rinse it down the floor drain.
posted by thejanna at 8:22 AM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]