What to Do After a Sewage Backup: Before, Same Day, Days After

This is a checklist for what to do after a sewage backup, which also answers searches like sewer backup what to do. The steps come from state health departments, the CDC and the Red Cross, arranged by when each one matters. Nothing here replaces advice from your own sewer utility, and none of it is a reason to enter standing sewage before you are ready to.

Before touching anything

  • Keep children and pets away from the sewage and out of the area until cleanup is done (Connecticut and Ohio health departments).
  • Hold off on flushing toilets while the backup is active (Connecticut).
  • Shut off the main power only from a dry spot. If the switch sits across standing water, an electrician should do it (CDC).
  • Wear waterproof boots, gloves, eye protection and clothing that can be washed. Ohio also suggests an N95 mask.
  • Keep skin with open cuts or sores away from the sewage (Ohio).
  • Wash clothes worn during cleanup separately from other laundry (Ohio).
Olive green rubber boots and yellow rubber gloves on a concrete floor beside the bottom steps of a wooden staircase.

Later the same day

  • If the home is on a municipal sewer, call the local sewer department, public works department or water pollution control authority (Connecticut).
  • Take pictures and list discarded items for insurance, then call the homeowner's insurance provider, which may have cleanup companies on contract (Connecticut).
  • Decide who will do the work. The options for who cleans up a basement after sewage are laid out on their own page.
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In the days that follow

Ohio's health department lists a submersible pump, mop, wet vac or squeegee for the standing water. Porous things that touched sewage are generally thrown out; Connecticut's rule of thumb is to discard porous materials that were contaminated. Hard surfaces get a detergent wash before any disinfectant, because Connecticut says skipping the wash makes disinfection ineffective.

Drying matters too. Ohio says areas that stay wet longer than a day or two are especially at risk for mold, and Colorado's health department expects drying in a basement to stretch over several weeks.

Never mix bleach with ammonia, Connecticut warns, because it makes a deadly gas. The CDC widens the warning to every other cleaning product. The professional version of these steps is described in how a sewage cleanup proceeds, stage by stage, and a smell that lingers is the subject of what a lingering basement odor can mean.

Sewage Cleanup Crew, LLC passes requests to cleanup contractors and does not clean anything itself. If one serves your neighborhood, a Contact Us request reaches it. The homepage explains how the referral works in more detail.

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Common questions

Connecticut's health department says no: if you have a backup, do not flush the toilets.
Ohio's health department says sewage backup odors are unpleasant but generally not harmful, and Monroe County, New York agrees. The germs left on surfaces and in materials are the health concern.
No. The CDC says bleach should never meet ammonia or any other cleaner, and Ohio asks readers to take great care when combining household chemicals and disinfectants.