What Is Sewer Backup Protection?

Chances are, if you’ve ever had a sewer backup into your basement or place of business, you remember it vividly.  A sewer backup can be one of the most unpleasant situations you’re likely to encounter, and if you haven’t taken measures to protect against it, you surely will after it happens once.

What Is a Sewer Backup?

When municipal sewers become overloaded with rain water after a heavy storm, the water is often forced back toward your home through the sewer lines and up through the drains in your basement.  This is known as sewer backup, and it has the potential to send contaminated water through your floor drains, up through toilets or even through tubs and showers.

Storms aren’t always the culprit, though.  Sometimes, you may encounter a sewer backup because of tree roots, grease, broken pipes, waste or ground saturation. 

Sewer Backup Protection

Since a sewer backup has the potential to be such a nasty situation, sewer backup protection is extremely valuable in your home or business.  There are a few different ways to initiate sewer backup protection, all with a slightly different strategy.

• Floor Drain Plug – a floor drain plug is a simple little device that’s designed to stop sewer backup right in the floor drain.  The plug fits easily into the floor drain and bolts are tightened to keep it in place and expand a rubber gasket in the plug.  This prevents water from flowing up through the drain and into the basement.
• Standpipe – a standpipe consists of a “donut” with metal end pieces and rubber gasket that’s positioned inside the floor drain.  A length of pipe fits into the donut hole, then if the sewer back up the water is supposed to stay inside the pipe.  This system is usually effective, unless the there is a large backup that goes up and over the pipe.
• Sewer Backflow Valve – Sewer backflow protection with a sewer backflow valve is installed on the main building drain, where the sewer leaves the house or building.  This system protects the entire building and is located in a spot where the homeowner can have easy access.  Unlike other methods, this one only requires one installation at one site to protect all the different vulnerable points in the building.  At ExpressRooter, we recommend the Mainline Fullport Backwater Valve to protect your entire building.

The City of Toronto offers a financial subsidy of up to $3200 per property for home owners to install a flood protection device like a backflow valve, sump pump, and more. Make sure that you have a licensed plumber assess and install your backwater valve to be eligible for up to 80% of the cost of the installation, materials and labour.

Give us a call at ExpressRooter if you’ve yet to install some sort of sewer backup protection.  The times when you’ll need it may be few and far between, but if you do, you’ll be thankful you have a solution in place.