Water Damage Guides · Drying & Mold

How to Protect Your Family After a Sewage Backup

A sewage backup turns a home into a place that needs to be handled with care, and the first thing to protect is the people in it. The water is contaminated, the rooms it has reached are contaminated, and the most important job in the first minutes is not cleaning, it is keeping everyone away from the water and out of the affected area. That sounds simple, and it is, but it is also the step that gets skipped most often, because the instinct is to start mopping up straight away.

📞 Call Now — (888) 855-7081 All Water Damage Services

✓ Written for Louisiana homeowners
✓ Visit first, then a plan
✓ Call to arrange a visit

This guide explains, in general terms, how to protect your family after a sewage backup: avoiding contact, keeping children and pets away, not entering contaminated water, and calling a professional. No DIY advice is given, and no health advice is offered beyond avoiding contact. The sewage cleanup page is the service page for this work, and the same steps apply in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge.

Avoid contact with the water

Avoiding contact with sewage is the first and most important step after a backup. Do not step in the water, do not touch it, and do not try to clean it up yourself. Keep everyone out of the affected rooms, and if the water has spread to a hallway or another room, keep people out of those areas too. Do not walk through the water to reach another part of the house if there is another way round, and do not handle items that have been in the water, because they are contaminated too.

Avoiding contact also means thinking about the things that carry contamination without being obviously wet. A mop, a towel, or a pair of shoes that has been through the water can carry contamination to clean rooms, and a household vacuum used on the water can spread it through the air and through the machine. Leave the affected area alone until a professional has looked at it, and do not move items out of the area into clean rooms. If anyone has come into contact with the water, speak to a medical professional, and do not look for health advice in a restoration guide.

Keep children and pets away

Children and pets need particular attention after a sewage backup, because they are the most likely to come into contact with the water without understanding the risk. Children play on floors, touch surfaces and put their hands to their faces, and pets walk through water, drink from puddles, and lick their paws. A room that looks like an interesting place to explore to a child or a dog is a contaminated area to an adult, and the gap between those two views is where the risk sits.

The practical steps are straightforward: keep children and pets out of the affected rooms, close the doors where that is practical, and keep them in a clean part of the home until the cleanup is under way. If the backup has affected the rooms the family uses every day, think about whether the household should spend time elsewhere until a professional has looked at the property, and arrange that before the work begins rather than after it is under way. The water damage restoration page outlines the wider process in general terms.

How to Protect Your Family After a Sewage Backup — Louisiana water damage guide

Do not enter contaminated water

Do not enter contaminated water, and do not enter a room where contaminated water has reached electrical items or where the water is deep enough to hide what is under it. A flooded room can hide hazards under the surface, from sharp debris to electrical dangers, and entering it puts the person entering at risk in ways that have nothing to do with the water itself. Do not handle electrics in or near standing water, and do not wade through contaminated water to reach a shut-off or a fuse box. If the power or the water needs to be dealt with, that is a job for the utility or a professional, and it should only be done from a dry place.

The same rule applies to the rooms below the backup. Water from a sewage backup can run through a floor into the room below, and the ceiling and the floor of that room may be contaminated even though the water never appeared there directly. Keep people out of those rooms too, and let the professional inspection map where the water went. Homes in Lafayette and Shreveport follow the same advice.

Call a professional, and what to say

Call a professional promptly, and describe what happened as plainly as you can: where the backup appeared, which fixtures are affected, whether the water is still rising, and which rooms it has reached. Say whether children or pets have been in the affected area, and whether anyone has come into contact with the water. A clear description helps the response start in the right place, and it helps the professional to plan the cleanup around what the property actually needs rather than around a guess.

It is also worth noting, when you call, whether the backup came from a toilet, a drain, or a floor drain, and whether other fixtures in the home are affected at the same time, because that helps to show where the problem sits. The flood damage cleanup page covers flood cleanup in general terms, and the structural drying and dehumidification page explains the drying work that follows a cleanup.

After the cleanup, and looking after the home

After the cleanup, the affected area is dried and checked for mold, because damp materials left behind after a sewage loss can allow growth, and that check is part of finishing the job properly. The drying stage matters as much as the cleaning, because a structure that is cleaned but left damp has not been dealt with fully. The repair stage follows the cleanup and drying, and it should only begin once the structure is dry and the cleanup is complete, because repairing over a damp or contaminated area is a mistake that will cause problems later.

Keep a record of what happened and what work was done, including photographs and notes, because that record is useful for insurance purposes in general terms and useful if a problem appears later. It is also worth asking, once the work is done, what to watch for in the weeks that follow, and what the signs are that would call for another look. The same steps apply in Lake Charles and across Louisiana, and the mold removal and remediation page covers the mold side of the work that can follow a sewage loss.

Key Takeaways

Avoiding contact with sewage is the first and most important step after a backup.
Children and pets need particular attention after a sewage backup, because they are the most likely to come into contact with the water without understanding the risk.
Do not enter contaminated water, and do not enter a room where contaminated water has reached electrical items or where the water is deep enough to hide what is under it.
Call a professional promptly, and describe what happened as plainly as you can: where the backup appeared, which fixtures are affected, whether the water is still rising, and which rooms it has reached.
After the cleanup, the affected area is dried and checked for mold, because damp materials left behind after a sewage loss can allow growth, and that check is part of finishing the job properly.

Questions About How to Protect Your Family After a Sewage Backup

What is the first thing to do after a sewage backup?

Keep everyone away from the water and out of the affected rooms. Do not step in the water, do not try to clean it up yourself, and call a professional. Avoid contact with the water and with items it has touched.

How do I keep children safe after a sewage backup?

Keep children out of the affected rooms, close the doors where that is practical, and keep them in a clean part of the home until the cleanup is under way. Children play on floors and touch surfaces, so they are more likely to come into contact with the water.

Are pets at risk after a sewage backup?

Yes, in general terms. Pets walk through water, drink from puddles and lick their paws, so keep them out of the affected rooms and in a clean part of the home until a professional has looked at the property.

Should I enter the room to turn off the water?

No. Do not enter contaminated water and do not handle electrics in or near standing water. If the water or power needs to be dealt with, that is a job for the utility or a professional, done from a dry place.

Your Next Step

If this guide matches what you found at home, the next step is a visit — not a guess. Call and describe what you found, and the visit is arranged from what you describe. The Emergency Water Removal page explains what that service covers, and the water damage restoration page explains how the full sequence works when water has reached more than one room.

Do not enter flooded rooms while you wait, and if water is leaking, turn off the shut-off valve for that fixture where you can reach it safely from dry ground.

Keep the guides on this site bookmarked: the first guide, the signs guide, and the preparation guide cover the checks worth repeating — after moving in, and after bringing used fixtures home.

Water damage help is available across Louisiana. See water damage restoration in Many, LA for one local example, or find your town on the service areas page.