My toilet just overflowed for about an 45 minutes

[lisaross]

down in the basement till i noticed! Half my basement carpet is SOAKING WET - my wet vac is not working so i'm using towels and washing drying them and laying them down again...........
i have to say i find the humor in it and only because this year was so hard for us with my husband loosing his job for 6 months and now back at the job, i would have normally been freaking and don't get me wrong for a few minutes i was But then i think about what things out there are for really freaking out about like how are you going to pay your bills etc so i know things can be worse and we'll deal with this.

any tips?

lisa

thanx just needed to vent till my husband gets home from work and he can deal more with this

 

[Chickysmom]

bummer.....

make sure you get it as dry as possible and turn on a heater or fan down there to help dry it further.

a basement can already be a damp place and you do not want mold to grow.....

 

[Chickysmom]

maybe we could suggest this as a tip to cheaply add humidity back into your house? lol

sorry, but someone had to say it.....

keep us posted!

 

[buckeye]

Just sending good vibes your way and admiring you for keeping things in perspective. This too shall pass...

 

[zumbergc]

i'm no expert... What about renting one of those steam cleaners from the local stores. It should be able to pick most of the water up, and help get the goook out.

You would probably have to go over the area several times?

Good luck

 

[moniot]

First be thankful it wasn't on the second floor

I leave that fan running in the basement and/or a dehumidifier to make sure it is really dry.

I left the laundry room sink running when the phone rang and forgot about it. Not only did it flood the laundry room it went under the walls and into my bathroom, both closets and it warped my new flooring. My DH was down stairs and heard the water running down the wall

 

[emdav]

Keep a fan on. Use all the fans you can find. Watch for mold. If you can not get it dry enough, you may need to pull up the carpet.

 

[Plantlady]

I second putting a fan on the area... but away from it.. don't let it stand in water.. you know what I mean.

Nice work having a good persepective.

Last year, Our basement filled with about a 1/2 inch of water.. it's more of a storage area..not a finished basement. But, the basement was PACKED with stuff.. 1/2 of which was ruined.

anyway, I just decided... we were meant to declutter, and I was thankful we could afford to pay a plumber to come find the problem and fix it.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Get it as dry as possible and then get a bunch of baking soda and cover all the wet areas. Leave it for a day or two and then vacuum it up. It will soak up all the moisture. We have used this trick many times and it works great! I am so sorry you have to clean up such a mess though. Hopefully it will clean up quick.

 

[ELLE-TN]

I Came Home One Day To Find A Waterfall Running Down The Outside Walls Of My House. A Pipe To The Washer Had Burst And It Had Completely Flooded My Laundry Room And Kitchen. What A Disaster. You Kind Of Have To Laugh Though Never Expected To See The House Give Itself A Bath.

 

[neatokimmo]

Can you pull up the carpet easily along the tack strip? I'd think that would help in the drying of the pad and help prevent mold.

 

[donnajon]

You definitely want to lift the carpet up. My DH broke a pipe in the bathroom 5 days before Christmas. It flooded the bathroom, the hallway and into the greatroom and two bedrooms. He used the steam cleaner to get up the water. The we left the fan running and a huge lamp light going to help dry it out. We ended up with mold and had to have someone come clean it. They said he did a really good job of cleaning it up but there were areas he couldn't reach - like the back of the closet and under an armoire. The good news is that the carpet got messed up (it was delaminating) so the insurance company is paying for new carpet. We also have to get new flooring in the bathroom - they had to rip it out to clean the mold. I've been wanting new carpet but we really couldn't afford it. I told DH I was never so proud of him for messing up so much!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I just remembered something that happened to us ( I have tried to block it out! ) A few years ago our cesspool was full. Now where we grew up we had sewers so you never had to worry about such things. Anyway- We called the cesspool guy to have it pumped since it actually broke our washing machine (when it rains it pours). Well- I hate to say this but the guy apparently didn't know what he was doing and opened the main cap to the waste line which was in my basement. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. Mess does not even begin to describe what we had to clean up. Thank God our basement isn't finished or it would have all been ruined. For whatever reason the guy didn't think he should just open the outside cap and pump it out. I guess he wanted a birdseye view of our waste products! Needless to say we had to clean it up and then put limein our basement to get rid of the delightful odor and excess dampness. We have since learned that if someone comes to pump the cesspool and they need to go in our basement it is time to call someone else!

 

[mantaz]

I had the same thing happen to us in October while we were on vacation. My MIL calls and said it would have been nice if we had told her the upstairs toilet was leaking. Gee if I had known I would have told her but it wasn't leaking when we left. Well then she realized it was overflowing the back side. The cutoff didn't stop. Apparently she flushed the toilet and didn't wait for it to quit filling up before she left. I asked her if she could just cut off the water. Why she didn't think of it before she left the house is beyond me. Well the kitchen ceiling was ruined. It ran through the ceiling before finding a space in the wall and ran straight down to the basement where it poured down on DH's nascar collection and ruined the carpet. I called the insurance company. They had someone come out to clean the water mess and put out blowers and a dehumidifier. They took out the wet carpet, took out the ceiling that was bulging and took out pieces of the wall that wasn't drying. Then they paid to have a contractor come out and repair all the damages. All I had to pay was my $500 deductible. The water cleanup guys also sprayed the walls and such to make sure mold would not grow.

I hope you get everything cleaned up!

Good Luck!!

 

[Maybelle]

I'd call the insurance company before you get too far into the cleanup.

My parents had their hot water heater leak out and inch of water all through their finished basement about a year ago. The insurance company sent someone right out, and that same day they sent out a cleaning company who took all the rugs out to clean (they were only throw rugs, and brought in heavy duty wet vacs and fans that they had to keep running non-stop for days on end. The insurance covered all the costs including the electricity to run the big fans, and they were left with very little residual damage. If you clean everything up yourself, the insurance company may not be willing to cover it.

 

[lisaross]

the carpets are almost all dry - i will try and have my husband pull up the carpets if possible - he used a wet dry vac last night - we had the fans going all night and the dehumidifer. I will use the baking soda as well....i didn't think of calling the insurance company - guess i should have i guess because about 4 years ago i had water in my basement but since it was coming from an outside crack in the foundation i was not covered - probably would have been for this since it was from an inside source - well hopefully it will all dry out well and no huge damage!

lisa

 

[tinkarooni]

Hi there. I am an insurance adjuster. I think I can help. First of all if the toilet suddenly overflowed it will probably be covered by most Homeowners Policies. Take pictures before you do anything else if you think you might want to turn it in. Call them today most companies have 24 hours claims service.

Ok second of all, do you have padding under that carpet that got wet? If the water overflowed for 45 minutes there is no way you got it dry from on top the carpet. I can not tell you how many people have tried to do it themselves and than call me two weeks later with a stinky, smelly, moldy mess. If you want to clean it yourselves you can but you have to do it properly to prevent further damage.

Even if you think that the carpet is dry from the top lift it up. I can pretty much guarantee that it is not dry underneath if there is padding. The pads sucks everything up like a sponge and can not be dried through the carpet. You can try to dry out the pad but honestly it rarely drys well, it usually starts to crumble and always stinks. As an insurance company we would cut out the wet pad and just piece back in a new piece later. If you do it yourself pad is pretty cheap, you just need to piece it in. But the most important thing is to get it dry from underneath. That is how you keep mold from growing. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a spray on mildecide and spray the top and bottom of the carpet. Use fans to dry from underneath. This is the best way to save everything. I'm also assuming that this was clean water. Any questions PM me. Trust me, I do this everyday. Good Luck!

 

[Chickysmom]

Be careful if you are planning to pull up the carpet as the tack strips along hte edges will be nailed into the cement, if your basement has a slab floor that is. You would probably have to call someone in to get them put back down if they got lifted.....the water will soak that wood and make it easier to damage.....speaking from experience sadly enough. If you got it dried out fast enough you may not have a problem.....good luck, I know what a mess that is!