Our basement has been a hot mess. I wrote a blog already about having to call in Select Basement Waterproofing to put in a French drain, but there has been another issue in our basement: water rising up from the ground.
It happened in hindsight 2 or 3 times as we were painting and didn’t find out until later because it was covered by plastic on the floor. It occurred overnight, so we just assumed it was a moisture issue. But it started up the afternoon Select was at the house.
I had trouble opening up the hatch that was made to cover up access to a pipe under the house, but it popped off when the next bit of water came up. But we found out it wasn’t water: it was the sewer line that needed to get fixed ASAP.
The Fix: Gold Medal Service
I made several calls to Central New Jersey plumbing companies that claimed to have 24/7 emergency services, but a lot of them like Chapman Brothers and Good Tidings didn’t have people available. But I called up Gold Medal Service and got someone to come help.
I didn’t realize until I called them up that I used Gold Medal Service before at a house I last lived at in 2012. Within 2 hours, I had field supervisor Jeff Rinkowski out at our home looking at our issue.
Opening up the hatch revealed the sewage was fresh including a bunch of toilet paper and excrement. He didn’t deal in sewage, but did wind up easily find the issue causing the backup: flushable wipes, which are apparently not flushable since they don’t break down.
We were told that those wipes not only don’t break down, but the cushy toilet paper that feels good on your butt (I’m talking to you Charmin bears) also don’t break down as well. He was very helpful with that information & in giving us that advice.
Gold Medal Service also offered a complementary camera look at our sewer line to see any problems, but that’s going to be covered in a future blog post.
The Cleanup: DryTech Restoration
Because sewage came up and got on the floor, it needed to be sanitized in the right way for all of the germs to go away. Gold Medal Service connected us to DryTech Restoration, the company they partner with in these situations.
The day after the plumbing fix occurred, project manager Abdiel Marquez of DryTech Restoration came to clean up the muck that was in our sewer line hatch. To do that, he had to use some powerful chemicals and some powerwashing.
We gave him a bit of a challenge since the cement from our French drain job was still within the 1-week period we were given to fully dry. Fortunately, I felt like the cement was pretty dry and Abdiel did a good job at avoiding that area in spite of the hole’s proximity.
After all was set & done, all of the toilet paper & waste were scooped out and tossed along with the towels/cloths we used to stop the sewage liquid from spreading. The area also had a funky smell (cleaning product + sewage) and was wet for like a day.
In hindsight, the timing of this sewage backup was perfect since all of our furniture & the kids’ toys were moved because of our ceiling painting project.
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