This is my experience told in hope that your home will not be flooded due to a sewage backup. It was my lucky day yesterday that mine was not, but it happened at my former home so I've got the T shirt and responded to small water backups, not waiting for a total stoppage.
Getting ready for my party, I'm washing laundry, running the dishwasher, I use the disposal and the water is backing up. I think, well it's just overloaded from the dishwasher draining into it..I clean a shower and the water backs up slightly.
Having had a home flood in the past from a backup, I turn off the appliances and do not use toilets or run water.
I call the number on the front page of TV's sheet of emergency numbers call "Water...emergencies." It was the best match. it's a weekend so I have to call the on call Community Watch folks, who say they'll send out one of their scouts. I'm thinking, they didn't ask me if I had a flood or give any advice about stopping the use of water...
CW calls back and says they're also sending the utility co., who arrive in about 30 minutes, examine their lines out from the house, tell me it's a problem with the sewage lines in the house, not theirs. CW gets this news and calls are made to the plumber who plumbed the house (under warranty), who will be around when they can but they are not in TV, they are in Dunnellon.
45 minutes after my call, the Watch guy comes, who offers nothing about sewage problems. 4 hours after the initial call, the plumber arrives. Jason with Mike Scott, and he's sharp as a tack, does diagnostics with running the water, can't get the problem to repeat, says he's running his snake anyway, and finds GROUT or perhaps concrete in the lines that run under the house. It's a new build so it got in the lines probably during construction
I complained to CW that my house would be flooded by the time there was a response if I had a true backup and they told me I should have called the plumber instead of them (not what their emergency sheet says) (so it might have taken only 3 hours!)
I read the fine print on the rest of the Emergency document provided by TV. Says for homes under warranty you can call their emergency number only if you have a total sewage backup.
So I no longer have a clue who you should actually call if a partial blockage happens but I can tell you a few things to help avoid a flood:
- pay attention to a backed up toilet, it can signal or set off a backup
- pay attention to slow drains
- if your home is new or any evidence of slow drains, don't run laundry and dishwasher together and leave the house
- know where the water shut off is and how to use it
- know that if you have a new home, someone else had a problem with construction related debris in the line..
- get a shop vac and know how to use it
- know that if you have large trees with roots close to your sewer lines the roots can invade the pipe connections seeking water.
I will find out Monday who SHOULD be called. A partially stopped up sewage system is a pending flood. If I had not gotten service that morning, I would have had to call off a party at my home last night and used the portapotty down the street for 2 days.
Kitty, slightly miffed