An overflowing toilet can be stressful and difficult to deal with. You worry that it may cause damage to your bathroom and that it could have harmful effects on your family’s health. These are common concerns, but in most cases, you can deal with this situation yourself while keeping your family and your home safe. Here’s how.

Deal With the Overflow

The first thing you’ll need to do is stop the toilet from continuing to overflow. For this, it might be necessary to get someone to help you. You can have someone else turn the water valve off. This is usually located behind the toilet near the floor. While your helper is doing this, remove the toilet tank lid. Then, press the circular rubber valve located on the bottom of the toilet tank down, and lift up the float.

Clean Up the Toilet Water

You’ll probably want to get a mop and bucket for this step. You’ll want to clean up as much water as you can because you don’t want to leave dirty toilet water on your bathroom floor. This is not only unsanitary but could lead to a mold problem as well.

Unclog Your Toilet

After you mop up the toilet water in your bathroom, you should obtain a plunger and use it to try to clear the clog in your toilet. It’s likely the plunger will work to unclog your toilet. However, if you find a plunger doesn’t work, you will need to try another method.

Use an Auger

If you don’t have any luck using a plunger, you might want to try an auger. Just make sure that when you use it, you move the auger in both directions to give yourself the best chance of removing the clog. After you’ve located the clog, carefully remove the auger from the toilet. Then, use the plunger again.

Flush the Toilet

At this point, you might want to try to flush the toilet. You could flush your mop water down the toilet if you still have it around. Make sure you thoroughly clean the bucket you were using with hot water and a disinfectant to keep bacteria from growing.

Clean With Bleach

Whether you manage to unclog your toilet or not, you need to thoroughly clean your bathroom. It would be best to use bleach. Bleach will give you the best chance of removing any bacteria from the bathroom that could spread contamination.

You should get a bucket, a mop, a cloth, and some gloves. You will definitely want to wear gloves. They will protect your hands from bleach as well as any dangerous bacteria. Once you do this, you can make a mixture of one gallon of water and one cup of bleach in your bucket. Then, you can use the cloth and a mop to clean your bathroom. Be diligent in your cleaning; you want to remove any bacteria in your bathroom to make sure it is clean and to avoid contaminating any other parts of your house.

Final Thoughts

If you are careful, you should be able to clean up your bathroom after a toilet overflow without it causing any lasting damage to your house. However, if you are worried that the water may have damaged your walls or floor, or if you start to see signs of mold after the toilet overflow, you may want to contact a water restoration and mold remediation company to have the room checked.

Contact Us

If you are concerned your bathroom may be suffering from water damage or a mold problem, contact Restore Pro. Our certified water damage restoration and mold remediation experts have decades of experience restoring homes and businesses from the harmful effects of water damage and mold. Call us at 1-800-847-0114 and connect with us on Facebook.