Sewage Cleanup in Massachusetts

Sewage cleanup in Massachusetts often happens above the basement, which surprises people. Many older homes and multifamily buildings run a main drain stack up through every floor, and stacked units in triple-deckers often share one, so a crack or failed joint can drip contaminated water into the walls and ceilings of every flat below. A toilet that overflows on a third floor can come through two ceilings. Basement bathrooms added later often rely on a sewage ejector pump, and when that pump fails the pit overflows into a finished room. Each of these puts category 3 water into drywall, insulation and wood where it cannot be seen.

In the first hour sewage soaks carpet, pad and the drywall or plaster around the leak, and in a ceiling it pools on top of the board. By 24 hours the smell has spread through hallways and into other units through shared walls and pipe chases. Between 24 and 48 hours the wet framing, insulation and subfloor can start growing mold. After a week, contamination has worked into floor joists, under tile and into wall cavities, and more of the structure has to be removed than if cleanup had started on the first day.

Structural wood is usually saved. Studs, joists, plank or plywood subfloor and stair framing can be cleaned, treated and dried in place when they are solid and the sewage did not sit for weeks. Plaster on wood lath in older homes can sometimes be cleaned and kept if only its surface was splashed, but plaster that soaked through is removed. Ceramic tile on a mortar bed, porcelain fixtures, metal ducts and sealed concrete are cleaned and disinfected. Hard furniture made of metal, glass or sealed wood can be wiped down and kept, and air movers aimed into opened cavities dry the framing from the inside.

Soft and layered materials touched by sewage are removed. That means carpet and pad, vinyl or laminate with sewage under it, ceiling drywall that held water, wall board up past the wet line and every piece of insulation in the wet cavity. Particleboard vanity bases and kitchen cabinet boxes that wicked contaminated water usually go, along with mattresses, upholstered furniture and soft toys. Subfloor that is delaminating or soft around a toilet flange is cut out and replaced so the new toilet sits on solid wood.

Sewage leaks inside walls and ceilings show up wherever buildings stack households, and Massachusetts has plenty of those. In Greater Boston, Cambridge and Somerville have median years built of 1950 and 1938 and owner shares near a third, so many cleanups there happen in multifamily houses and condos where a leak in one flat reaches the next. In the North Shore and Merrimack Valley, Lynn has a median year built of 1946 and 46 percent of homes built before 1940, and older housing there means older drain lines running between floors.

In Central Massachusetts, Worcester has many triple-deckers, the stacked three-flat house where a toilet overflow on the top floor can travel down through the two units below. On the SouthCoast, Fall River has a median year built of 1945 and about 35 percent owner-occupied homes, so landlords and tenants often call together. Call the number on this page, say whether the sewage is in a ceiling, a wall or a basement bathroom, and we connect you with a local crew.