Waking up to a flood in the bathroom can easily ruin your day. What once was a place of peace and relief is now a nightmare flood scenario. Leaks, overflows, sewage backups, water damage, and mold are all issues you might face in the event of a flooded bathroom.
Before getting into how to respond to a flood in the bathroom, it’s important to understand the common causes of bathroom floods and how to be proactive in preventing these from occurring.
Causes of a Flooded Bathroom
Toilet Overflow
The most common cause of a flood in the bathroom is a simple toilet overflow. This often occurs due to a pipe clogged by the flushing of improper materials that aren’t safe for toilet use.
While a plunger generally does the trick in unclogging a toilet, the flood in the bathroom itself can range from a manageable mess to an extreme water spill. In some cases, hazardous waste materials may have erupted from the toilet as well.
Shower Leak or Stall Seepage
A shower is designed to contain and divert water toward your available bathroom drains. However, if the shower’s foundation becomes compromised, leaks can form.
A shower leak may not cause an outright flood in your bathroom, but it is the number one cause of mold growth in bathrooms. A small leak may go unnoticed and cause leaks in the subfloor, where mold will form due to the moisture.
Burst Pipes or Broken Water Lines
If broken, the pipes underneath your bathroom sink can cause a torrent of water to burst forth and flood your bathroom. The situation can get out of control fast and cause a major bathroom or even house flood if no one is around to close the water shutoff valve.
Bathrooms that suffer a pipe burst or water line while the property owner is away is a common scenario our flood cleanup crews see in the San Francisco, CA area.
What to Do if Your Bathroom Floods
Shut off the source of water
Locate the water shutoff valve near the pipes under your bathroom sink to stop the flow of water.
Assess the Situation
If your bathroom smells of mildew and you notice your shower leaks a little water from time to time, it’s time to call both a plumber and a professional mold remediation service.
If the bathroom has outright flooded full of water due to a burst pipe or toilet overflow, contact a flood cleanup team as soon as possible to avoid long term water damage.
Finally, if a sewage backup or toilet overflow has produced waste materials in the floodwater, contact a sewage removal team to safely perform the flood clean up the mess.
Professional Bathroom Flood Cleanup Services
ServiceMaster of San Francisco/San Mateo offers bathroom flood cleanup services in the San Francisco, CA area. We are an IICRC-certified term and our water restoration crews are on standby 24/7 to respond to emergencies such as a bad bathroom flood.
Contact us at (800) 439-8833 for fast response bathroom flood cleanup in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Foster City, Cupertino, San Carlos, and Palo Alto, CA.
