What to Do If Your Toilet Backs Up Whilst Your Family Is Ill
If your family has the flu or any other health issue where they are vomiting and having diarrhea, the last thing you want is a backed up toilet. However, toilets seem to back up and overflow at the worst times, and if it happens whilst everyone is sick, there are a few steps you need to take. Try these ideas:
1. Shut Off the Water
To prevent more water from getting onto the floor, shut off the toilet. Most toilets have a valve near the pipe that comes out of the wall and fills the toilet, and you just need to turn it to shut off the tap. If you can't find that valve, open the lid of your toilet tank and try to rig the ball so that the toilet doesn't fill.
2. Try a Plunger
A plunger can fix a lot of simple issues with a toilet. Try just plunging the toilet until you remove any clogs. Once the bowl has emptied, turn on the water and try flushing again.
3. Contact an Emergency Plumber
If the plunger doesn't seem to fix the issue, you should contact an emergency plumber. These professionals answer calls and come out to homes 24/7, and they are usually open 365 days a year.
Let the plumber know that people in your home have been ill. That way, the plumber can take the necessary precautions for working around germs.
4. Clean the Bathroom
Ideally, you need to clean the bathroom, and you may want to do that before the plumber arrives. Depending on how many times your toilet overflows, you may end up cleaning the bathroom multiple times.
If you are too ill to clean the bathroom, at least lay towels over the sick. That removes the slipping and falling risk.
5. Use Another Toilet
If you have multiple toilets in your home, you may want to close off this bathroom and use another one. Although that can be inconvenient when multiple people are sick, it's more convenient than having to clean and re-clean the bathroom with the clogged toilet repeatedly.
6. Clean and Sanitise
In addition to cleaning up the mess around your toilet when it occurs, you need to sanitise the bathroom. Use bleach on hard surfaces. If you have a carpeted bathroom, get the carpet professionally cleaned. Without cleaning, some viruses can live in carpet for a month or more.
Contact a company like Sam's Local Plumbing for more information and assistance.
