2 Things You Need When You Have To Clean Up A Sewer Backup

A backed up sewer line can leave a huge mess in your basement. Not just that, but the mess may also be a biohazard. If you have had a backed up sewer line flood into your basement, you need to get it cleaned up as quickly as possible. 

Protective Gear

Before you go down to your basement to start cleaning up the mess, you want to make sure that you are protected. Human waste can cause diseases and you don't want to get sick, nor do you want any member of your family to get sick; therefore, you need to have protective gear. In this case, protective gear means masks, eye protection, gloves, and disposable suits. Those suits are the same kind of thing that crime scene technicians wear. You can put them on over your clothes, and then when you are done, you can just rip them off and throw them away. If the suits don't have foot protection, you will also want to get booties. You may also want to get some duct tape so that you can seal any gaps. It may seem like going overboard, but it's better to go a little over than a little under. 

Industrial Cleaner

Once you have all the necessary gear and you are ready to start cleaning, you need to make sure that you have some industrial strength cleaner. Make sure that you look at the cleaner to double-check that it can handle the kind of mess that you are dealing with. While you probably aren't going to be able to save carpeting or other floor covering, you are still going to need that cleaner for the floor and the walls. You want to make sure that the cleaner is designed to kill the bacteria that can live and breed in raw sewage. You may also want to get some bleach so that you can use a bleach/water mixture to do more cleaning after you use the industrial cleaner. Since the heavy duty cleaners and bleach tend to be harsh on your skin, you may also want to make sure that you have thick gloves, like dishwashing gloves, on when you are using it. 

If you don't want to mess with trying to clean up the mess left over from your sewer backup, you can always hire a cleaning company like Maintenance One to come in and do all the cleanup for you. They should already have all the tools and cleaners necessary to handle something like that. 

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