Laguna Beach, California
Servicefirst Restoration takes pride in its ability to respond quickly to any type of property disaster. This recent success story is about a beautiful home in Laguna Beach that had a sewage main line back up into the lower level of the home. This happened on a Saturday and Servicefirst was on site in less than an hour to remediate the problem.
Sewage is very dangerous to humans and cleaning up a sewage loss is different from any other type of cleaning procedure. It requires specific and more costly cleaning procedures with properly trained personnel and in this case, pre and post remediation clearance sampling to insure a sanitary condition.
It turns out that this home was one of several on the street that had experienced the sewage back up. The reason why this job was such a success was because we were the only restoration contractor on the street that took the proper precautions and necessary procedures to keep people healthy and safe.
According to the IICRC, sewage is category 3 water and also referred as “black water”. Black water contains pathogenic agents and is grossly unsanitary. Backflows that originate from beyond the trap are considered black water, regardless of the visible content, color and odor. Disease causing pathogens can be found in sewage such as E. coli, salmonella, hepatitis A & B, rotavirus, parasites, and many others.
When you have a sewage disaster it is important that you take the proper procedures to remediate the damages. The other companies on the street did not do this. In fact, they opened themselves up to a huge legal mess by not taking into consideration the health and safety of the occupants. Here are the necessary steps for a proper sewage remediation:
Step 1 – Anyone working in this type of environment must wear the proper P.P.E. (personal protective equipment), otherwise they run the risk of exposing themselves to over 120 possible viruses and parasites.
Step 2 – You must identify and eliminate the source of the problem.
Step 3 – You must set up the proper containment of the affected area using polyurethane sheeting with HEPA filtration systems to remove contaminants.
Step 4 – Remove all of the building materials that have been in contact with the black water. If you have non-removable building materials such as wood stud framing, you will clean this in place by drying, sanding, HEPA vacuuming and treating with a variety of different anti-microbial agents.
Step 5 – The final step in the process is to confirm you have a sanitary condition. This is accomplished by post remediation sampling completed by a 3rd party environmental testing company. This is the property owner and remediation contractors insurance policy that the job was done right.
Where the other went wrong, was they did not contain the affected area and to make it worse they put air movers on the black water blowing contaminated air throughout the homes.
The moral of this success story is to work with professionals that know what they are doing. Not all restoration contractors have the knowledge and skill set required for the jobs they take on. Servicefirst has over 50 years combined water, sewage, mold, fire and reconstruction experience and can handle virtually any type of property disaster that can come their way.
Here are some photos of our successful sewage remediation:
