Sewer Backup? Here’s What You Need to Know

When a sewer backup hits your home, it’s more than just a messy inconvenience, it's a serious health hazard. Sewage water can contain bacteria like E.coli, viruses, and other dangerous pathogens that can harm you, your family and even your pets. The longer it sits, the higher the risk of structural damage, mold growth, and continuing damage that costs more to repair.

Here’s how Renew Restoration, an IICRC-certified firm, can help get you back on track—safely and quickly.

We offer 24/7 emergency responses for sewage backups. Our team responds quickly to assess the damage and takes immediate steps to stop it in its tracks. Prompt action can reduce damage and disposal costs.

We perform a full inspection—checking floors, walls, and hidden cavities. Using moisture meters and thermal imaging, we detect all affected areas to ensure no contamination is missed.

Our IICRC-certified experts use industry-standard protocols and EPA-approved disinfectants. We remove sewage, thoroughly disinfect surfaces, and safely dispose of contaminated materials. We ensure sewage is removed from wall joints and all affected materials are disposed of. We thoroughly inspect every element of your home's construction. This includes removing stair treads to check beneath them, examining areas under bathtubs, and even removing tiles to ensure that any potential health hazards are identified and addressed for your safety. After extraction and demolition, structural drying with powerful air movers and dehumidifiers stops secondary damage—and we monitor moisture levels daily until they are back to normal. Once areas are clean and dry, we repair affected zones: replacing drywall, flooring, baseboards, and ensuring your home is safe and restored completely. As a licensed general contractor, we manage permits, schedule subcontractors, and maintain constant communication.

Why choose Renew Restoration over your insurance company's preferred vendors for sewer damage clean up? Preferred vendors often have contracts with insurance carriers that help them bring in more work. That means their loyalty is split; they may prioritize the insurer’s bottom line over your home’s full restoration. We’re independent, our only priority is getting your property truly clean, safe, and restored the right way. Preferred vendors can be pressured to keep claims cheap—even if it means skipping critical steps. That could mean:

• A less than thorough investigation into damage: we don’t care if the insurance company wants keep the cost of your claim as low as possible-we only care that the work is performed correctly. We only do necessary work related to the damage, but we are thorough. We are prepared to document all the work we perform and provide justification for the reasons behind what we do.

• Wanting to please insurance companies can lead to less drying time which may contribute to future mold or dry rot in your home. Some insurance companies try to influence the number of “days” for your property to be dried in advance. They may try to tell us we need to get their approval to continue drying past the number of days they have decided it should take. They present the idea of an “industry standard dry time of 3 days”. No two homes or sewer damage projects dry the same because materials and conditions vary. This is why we provide daily monitoring of equipment, making necessary adjustments to dry your home in the shortest amount of time possible, but without cutting corners.

• Rushing to keep costs low for an insurance company could lead to cutting corners. This could mean overlooking sewage damage under tubs, under stairs, and under tile flooring. We prioritize your health and safety, ensuring the job is done correctly even if that means your claim may cost more.

It’s important to remember that insurance companies are not responsible for contractors who do not perform their services correctly. Once they have settled with you on an amount to restore your home, if there are issues in the future you must try and resolve them with the restoration company who performed the work.

With Renew Restoration you get full transparency, detailed documentation, and work that meets or exceeds industry standards. We are not pressured to keep insurance companies happy with quick turnarounds and lower costs. We focus on doing the job right and restoring your home to its original condition.

We provide detailed documentation—photos, moisture logs, line‑by‑line costs—to support you in your insurance claim. As an independent company, we work for you, not the insurer, offering unbiased service and transparent pricing. We advocate for you only and will help you understand the process you can expect as your work with your insurance company on your claim.