How can I sanitize my home theater riser?

January 22, 2016 7:53 PM

After a sewage line back-up disaster in the house were renting, is there any way for me to sanitize the riser I built for our screening room?

I built a riser for the second row of seating in my screening room (read: home theater), and while I cant find the original plans at the moment, it roughly follows the precepts in this article. Basically, its a frame made of 2x8 with tar paper on top and bottom, filled with Roxul insulation, and two layers of plywood on top, covered with carpet, and vents cut in the rear of the top layer to allow it to act as a bass trap. The riser sits on top of a painted cement floor.

The trouble is that the house we are renting recently had its own 60-year-old terra cotta sewer pipe fail, and flood back into the house. Where the riser is, there was probably a couple of inches of water. The tar paper was certainly not water-tight enough to actually prevent water from seeping in.

I suspect my options are these:

1. Tear the whole riser apart, throw it away and start over.
2. Tear the carpet and plywood off the top, throw away the Roxul and replace with new. Spray Lysol & bleach liberally and scrub the rest of the wood.
3. Find some substance to pour into the vents that will settle into the Roxul and sanitize it, and scrub the exterior.

I suspect the wisest course of action is #1, and #3 is probably a pie-in-the-sky scenario, but I was really hoping not to have to tear this thing apart until we move out in a few years, and I certainly would not rather take a week and a decent chunk of change to build another one, but… is there a middle way?

posted by mboszko to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

As a veteran of several sewer pipe floods, #1 is your only option. Sorry :(.
posted by asockpuppet at 8:07 PM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

#2-if you soak in lysol-but will probably still stink-#1 is the answer.
posted by H21 at 8:27 PM on January 22, 2016

Best answer: Gross. #1, and have insurance pay for it.
posted by halogen at 10:07 PM on January 22, 2016

Best answer: Ditto for option #1 but instead of using Lysol you might consider using a non-toxic enzyme based product like Kleen Free. It's the stuff they use at crime scenes etc.
posted by little eiffel at 10:33 PM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When this happened to a relative they didn't remove the wall framing just the insulation and gyproc. So with that in mind:

If the effluent didn't rise as high as the plywood I'd probably start with #2 but I'd assess the state of the plywood before tearing it off. While the carpet and pad would have seeped the fluid up to the plywood level the tar paper may have prevented it from soaking the plywood. As long as it hadn't delaminated I'd keep it. However if you used any MDF as in the your link I'd get rid of that.

Whether or not the plywood can be saved; once I was happy with the sanitizing job I'd wait for the framing to dry and then I'd paint the framing with a couple coats of a shellac based primer like Kilz. That will seal in any potential lingering odours. A coat of latex paint (whatever the cheapest can at the Habitat store is) will protect the primer before you cover it with the carpet.
posted by Mitheral at 12:01 AM on January 23, 2016 [2 favorites]