Sewage Remediation:

It’s a shit job.

One sewerage job that’s hard to forget happened in 2018.

We were called to a property in Byford on an acreage block for an insurance sewerage claim.

On arrival we were directed around the back to sunken games room which you entered through two glass doors and dropped down two steps.

The sight we encountered was spectacular, there was about 30cm of raw sewerage throughout the room consisting of toilet paper faces and urine among other things.

In the toilet it was level with the top of the bowel, this is where it had originated from, the toilet was totally full of sewage and blocked solid.

The first thing for us to do is to assess the risk to ourselves and the occupants, who had been wandering around in thongs.

We donned our PPE which consisted of Gumboots waterproof coveralls respirator and goggles. We double gloved (two pairs of gloves the first being tapped to our suits) as well as long green gardening gloves, the boots and green gloves were also taped to our coveralls for added protection.

Our first task was to unblock the toilet, so we had somewhere to dispose of the waste, this was achieved by reaching down through the putrid mess and removing handfuls of raw material and placing it in buckets while wadding gumboot deep in waste.

Once the toilet was clear we were able to start disposing of the waste by bucketing it into the toilet bowl. This progressed for several hours until we were able to squeegee and shovel the remainder into the bowl.

The area was heavily treated with an antimicrobial and we turned our attention to the contents. Items were photographed and cleaned prior to bagging and loading into our truck for disposal.

Our focus was then diverted back to the building removing skirting boards and paint and plaster where required.

We then engaged our truck mount steam cleaning machine and began washing down walls and floors using copious amounts of antimicrobials. The property was recleaned and then we tested using our ATP machine (a handheld device that measures bacterial activity by reading the waste it produces).

There are a lot of very dangerous pathogens in sewerage. Listed are just a few:

• Hepatitis A

• Enteroviruses

• Norovirus

• Rotavirus

• Escherichia coli

• Enterococcus

• Faecal Streptococcus

• Clostridium difficile

• Leptospira

• Helicobacter pylori

• Digestive tract and respiratory disease from faecal bacteria

• Legionnaires’ Disease

• MRSA

• Tuberculosis

Once satisfied the contamination was under control, we installed an air scrubber and drying equipment to begin the restoration process. Finally, we ditched our PPE and went home for a well-deserved shower ready to return tomorrow for the next stage.

As we were preparing for the next day, I was reminded of the resilience that our team shows on a regular basis at WA Forensic Cleaning, ready to tackle whatever challenges come their way with professionalism.