Sewage coming up a drain: stop using water and call us

This is an emergency: stop using water now

Sewage or dark water backing up into a tub, shower, or floor drain is one of the clearest signs of a blockage in your main line, and it is a health hazard. Stop using every drain, sink, toilet, washer, and dishwasher in the house right away. Adding more water anywhere in the home can push the backup further and make the mess worse.

Keep people and pets away from the area

Sewage backup carries bacteria. Keep children and pets out of the affected room, and avoid stepping in standing water without protection. If it reaches carpet, rugs, or wood flooring, those materials often cannot be fully sanitized and may need to be removed later; do not try to salvage them by cleaning through the backup yourself.

Basic contact precautions

• Wear gloves if you must be near it, and wash your hands and any exposed skin thoroughly afterward.
• Do not use a shop vac on sewage backup; it can aerosolize contaminated water.
• Ventilate the room by opening a window if possible.

Call dispatch now

Call us at (310) 555-0148 as soon as you notice the backup, at any hour. This is exactly the kind of call our 24/7 dispatch exists for. Tell us which drains are affected and whether it is coming up in more than one fixture, since that helps us bring the right equipment on the first trip.

What we look for

A backup that shows up in the lowest drain in the house, often a tub or floor drain, is a common sign that the blockage is in the main line rather than in one branch. We will run a camera or snake the line to find and clear the blockage. Our lateral line, the pipe from your house to the city connection, is your responsibility to maintain; the city main in the street is the city's. We will tell you clearly which side of that line the problem is on.

After the line is clear

Once the blockage is cleared, we recommend a short wait before returning fixtures to normal use, and we will let you know when that is safe. Repeated backups from the same spot can mean roots, a bellied section of pipe, or an aging clay lateral, and we will walk you through camera findings and next steps in plain language rather than pushing a bigger job than the problem calls for.

Need a hand? Harborline dispatch is 24/7 at (310) 555-0148.