Sewage Backup Cleanup in Mechanicsburg, PA: Category 3 Water, Handled by the Book

Sewage is the one kind of water we do not want you cleaning up yourself. It carries bacteria and viruses, and it soaks into anything porous. The job is removal, not drying.

If sewage is coming up through a floor drain, toilet or tub right now, stop using water in the house, keep children and pets out of the area and call. Do not flush, run the washing machine or take a shower. All of it goes to the same line.

What Category 3 water means

The IICRC S500 standard sorts water by contamination. Sewage and floodwater are Category 3, sometimes called black water: grossly contaminated water that can cause serious illness if people come into contact with it. Category 1 is clean, from a sanitary source like a supply line. Category 2 has significant contamination, like washing machine or dishwasher discharge.

Category	Typical source	What it means for cleanup
Category 1	Broken supply line, tub overflow with clean water	Most materials can be dried in place if caught early.
Category 2	Washing machine or dishwasher discharge, toilet overflow with urine only	Porous materials are often removed. Hard surfaces are cleaned and dried.
Category 3	Sewer backup, floodwater, toilet overflow from beyond the trap	Porous materials come out. Hard surfaces are cleaned and disinfected. Workers wear protective gear.

Water can move up a category if it sits. A clean-water leak that sat for days in a warm, dirty basement does not stay Category 1. The category can change as the job unfolds, and that is part of why we ask when it started.

What to do first

1. Stop using water. No flushing, no sinks, no laundry, no showers.
2. Keep children, pets and anyone with a weak immune system out of the area.
3. Do not touch it with bare hands. If you have to step in, wear rubber boots and gloves.
4. Do not use a household vacuum on sewage. It aerosolizes it.
5. Photograph the area before anything moves.
6. Call us. Then call your insurer and, if the backup is from the main line, your sewer authority or municipality.

How a sewage cleanup runs

1. Protective gear and containment. Crews wear boots, gloves, eye protection and respirators. We close off the area so contamination does not spread through the house.
2. Remove the liquid. Extractors take out standing sewage and it is disposed of properly. It does not go into a storm drain.
3. Remove porous materials. Carpet, pad, wet drywall, insulation and cardboard are cut out, bagged and discarded.
4. Clean and disinfect. Concrete, block, framing and other hard surfaces are washed and treated with an antimicrobial.
5. Dry. Air movers and dehumidifiers, following the IICRC S500 guidance, dry the structure and the cleaned surfaces.
6. Final check. Moisture readings and a walk-through with you.

Where the backup comes from

The source decides who needs to fix it.

• Your own line is clogged. Tree roots, grease, wipes and old clay or cast iron pipe can block the lateral from the house to the main. A plumber clears it. Many insurers treat a clogged drain as maintenance and not a sudden event.
• The municipal main is overloaded. Heavy rain can push water into the system faster than it can drain. Call your municipality or sewer authority.
• A floor drain has no backflow valve. A plumber can tell you whether one is installed.

Pennsylvania's insurance regulators have advised homeowners to ask their agent whether a sewer backup endorsement was added to the policy, because standard homeowners policies typically exclude backup from drains and sewers unless it is. Check your declarations page before you rely on coverage, and ask about the limit.

Older houses and older sewer lines

Census survey estimates put about 34 percent of Mechanicsburg's housing units as built before 1940, and about 63 percent before 1970. Older houses can have older lateral lines, with joints that let roots in. If a backup happens more than once, ask a plumber to camera the line. We clean up after a backup. We do not repair the pipe.

Related pages: basement flooding cleanup, storm and flood damage and water damage restoration. The blog post on sewage backup categories explains the categories further. We work in Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Shiremanstown and Carlisle.

Sewage backup questions