Sewage Cleanup in Augusta, GA: Sewer, Septic and Crawl Space Backups

Sewage in the house is a health hazard, not a mopping job. Water that has come up through a floor drain, a tub, a toilet or a broken drain line carries whatever was in the pipe, and it soaks into carpet, drywall and wood within minutes. The first decisions are about people, not property: who stays out of the room, what gets switched off, and who needs a phone call.

Augusta GA Water Damage is a referral service that connects callers with independent local providers and is not a contractor. The call is free. The provider you are connected with, not this site, looks at the damage, quotes the job and carries out the cleanup.

This page covers sewage cleanup in Augusta, Georgia, in the order the questions usually arrive: the first minutes, whether the house is safe to stay in, why the restoration trade puts sewage in its most serious water category, and only then whose pipe it is and who to call. After that come septic systems, the cleanup itself, what gets thrown away, crawl spaces, insurance and published cost figures. It deals with water that came up from a drain, a toilet, a sewer line or a septic system; creek and storm water that came in from outside is covered under flood damage restoration in Augusta.

What to do in the first minutes of a sewage backup

None of these steps cleans anything. They stop the backup from growing and keep people away from it until someone equipped for contaminated water arrives.

1. Stop using water everywhere in the house. No flushing, no taps, no shower, no dishwasher and no washing machine. If the line is blocked, every gallon sent down a drain comes back up at the lowest opening.
2. Keep children and pets out. EPA’s flood cleanup guidance says children and pets are kept away from sewage water. Close the door to the affected room if it has one.
3. Keep it off your skin. Do not walk through it in bare feet or house shoes. EPA says any cut or scrape that touches sewage should be washed and disinfected immediately.
4. Leave the fans and the central air off. The flood clean-up guide that the Georgia Department of Public Health links to warns against running fans in a house contaminated with sewage, because moving air can spread germs to other rooms. EPA gives the same instruction: no fans until the water is known to be clean.
5. Treat the electricity with care. CDC’s rule for standing water is to switch off the main power only if the panel can be reached from a dry place. If getting there means stepping into water, do not do it. Call an electrician.
6. Take photos from the doorway. A few pictures of the water, the drain it came from and the things it reached will be wanted by the insurer later.
7. Make the phone calls. Which calls depends on where the blockage is, and the table further down sorts that out.

If the water is clean, from a supply line or a failed water heater, the first steps are different and faster, and they are set out under emergency water removal in Augusta. When there is any doubt about where the water came from, treat it as sewage until someone qualified says otherwise.

Is it safe to stay in the house?

It depends on how far the sewage reached and what is left untouched. A backup confined to one bathroom or a utility room, with the door shut and a second bathroom and the kitchen still clean and working, is a different situation from sewage across a hallway, a kitchen floor or the only bathroom in the house. No one can answer the question for a particular house from a web page. The provider who sees the rooms is the one to ask, and a doctor is the one to ask about a person’s health.

Some points do hold in general. Nobody should sleep, cook or eat in a room that sewage has reached until it has been cleaned and disinfected. If the air handler or its return duct sits in the affected area, the system stays off so it does not draw air from that room into the others. A house with no usable toilet and no clean place to prepare food is hard to live in for practical reasons alone.

Federal cleanup guidance written for mold after a flood says children should not take part in cleanup, and that people with asthma, other breathing problems or weakened immune systems should stay out of moldy spaces. The same caution is sensible for rooms contaminated with sewage, and for older adults and anyone with an open wound.

Can a sewage backup make people or pets sick?

It can. CDC’s list of illnesses and injuries linked to contact with contaminated floodwater is short and specific: wound infections, skin rash, gastrointestinal illness and tetanus. The joint federal guide on cleanup after disasters says flood water that carried sewage or chemicals indoors can expose a household to viruses, bacteria and parasites. Anyone who feels ill after contact with sewage, or who has a wound that touched it, should speak to a doctor, and a vet is the right call for an animal that walked through it or drank it.

Why sewage is Category 3 and what that means for your house

The restoration trade sorts water by how contaminated it is, using categories from its water damage standard, the IICRC S500. Category 1 is clean water from a sanitary source. Category 2, often called gray water, carries significant contamination. Category 3, often called black water, is grossly contaminated water that can carry disease-causing or otherwise harmful agents and can cause severe adverse health effects if it is touched or swallowed.

Sewage is the textbook Category 3 source. General summaries of the standard list it first, beside seawater and rising water from rivers and streams. OSHA says floodwater can be a biohazard because of direct contamination by untreated raw sewage.

The category changes the job in three ways. First, the people doing it need protection: EPA states that where water is known or suspected to be contaminated with sewage, protective equipment and containment are required by OSHA and an experienced professional should be consulted. Second, drying is no longer the goal on its own. EPA’s table of materials that can be dried and kept after water damage applies to clean water only and does not apply when the source is sewage. Third, a good deal more comes out of the house, which is covered below.

EPA’s advice to homeowners is plain on the point. Where water or mold damage was caused by sewage or other contaminated water, it says to call in a professional with experience cleaning and fixing buildings damaged by contaminated water.

Does a toilet overflow count as sewage?

Not always. Water that spills from the tank or the supply line is clean when it leaves the pipe. General summaries of the categories place water from a toilet bowl holding urine but no feces in Category 2, and anything involving sewage in Category 3. Water that rose back out of the drain, at the toilet or at a tub or floor drain nearby, came from the sewer side and belongs in Category 3. A category is also not fixed: clean or gray water left sitting can deteriorate into a worse one with time and warmth.

City sewer or your own line? Who to call in Augusta

Water and sewer service here is run by the Augusta Utilities Department, which serves about 230 square miles and more than 160,000 people. Its published design standards describe where its part of a house connection stops. Each sewer service runs from the main to a clean-out built at the edge of the right-of-way. The owner’s private service line is tied in at that clean-out, and only after the utility has inspected its side.

That is the utility’s construction standard, and it is as far as this page goes. It describes how connections are built. It is not a ruling on who pays for a particular backup, and nothing here should be read as one. Whether the public sewer played a part in a given backup is for Augusta Utilities to determine.

In practice a sewage backup on city sewer can mean three separate calls, to three parties who each handle one piece. A property on a septic tank swaps the utility for a septic contractor.

Who	What they handle	How to reach them
Augusta Utilities Department	Reports of a suspected public sewer backup, and sewage in the street or from a manhole. Its standards run each sewer service from the main to a clean-out at the edge of the right-of-way	After hours: 706-842-3060. Customer service, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: 706-821-1851
A licensed plumber	Clearing and repairing the private line between the house and the clean-out, and the drains inside the house	A plumber of your choosing. Plumbing repairs in Augusta need a permit
A cleanup provider	The contaminated water inside the house and the materials it soaked	The number on this page connects you with a local provider
A septic contractor	The tank and drain field, for properties not on city sewer	A septic contractor of your choosing

Sewer problems that are not urgent can be reported to the city in two other ways. Augusta 311 takes calls on 3-1-1 or (706) 821-2300, Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and passes them to the responsible department. The free MyAugusta 311 app accepts reports of non-emergency sewer problems with a photo and a location attached.

The plumber’s part is regulated. Under Georgia law nobody may work as a master plumber or a journeyman plumber without a valid state license, and the legal definition of plumbing includes repairing pipes connected with sanitary drainage. Augusta’s permit FAQ says every plumbing job needs a permit, and that covers repair work as well as new installation. A plumber clears the blockage and fixes the pipe. A plumber does not usually remove contaminated carpet or disinfect a subfloor, which is why the cleanup is a separate call.

Is the city responsible if the sewer backs up into the house?

This page cannot answer that, and neither can a plumber or a cleanup provider. What Augusta Utilities publishes is the point where its service ends, the clean-out at the edge of the right-of-way, and the number to call when a backup is suspected to involve the public sewer. Report it, write down the date, the time and the name of whoever you spoke to, and keep the photos. Questions about responsibility for the cost go to the utility and to your insurer.

What causes backups on the Augusta system

A backup into a single house often starts on the private side: a line blocked by grease, wipes or roots, a pipe that has sagged or cracked, or a failed pump. The public side has its own pressures, and the city has described them in its own documents.

In its March 2017 work plan for the Rocky Creek watershed, the city says it has an ongoing program to replace aging sanitary sewers, both to add capacity and to reduce inflow and infiltration. Inflow and infiltration is the engineers’ term for rain and groundwater getting into sewer pipes through cracks, joints and openings. Water that enters that way takes up room in a pipe sized for sewage, which is why a line that copes on a dry day can struggle during heavy rain.

Trees are part of the local picture as well. Augusta Utilities’ report for 2025 says it continued clean-up and repairs after Hurricane Helene during the year and finished clearing downed trees on many sewer easements around Augusta. The same report lists sewer expansions in South Augusta among the projects funded by SPLOST 9, and notes that a OneGeorgia grant is paying to replace about 5,000 feet of sewer line, along with 5,000 feet of water line, in the Woodlake subdivision area.

One more local fact explains why creek and street water gets the same careful handling as sewage. The same 2017 work plan records that the lower two miles of Rocky Creek, from State Route 56 to New Savannah Road, were listed by the state for fecal coliform bacteria impairment due to urban runoff. The plan is dated 2017 and cites the state’s draft 2016 list, so the listing is of that date, and it names runoff, not the sewer system, as the cause.

On a septic tank? A different call

Not every property in Augusta-Richmond County is on city sewer. Some are on septic tanks, and a backup on a septic system does not involve the public main at all. The tank, the line to it and the drain field are private, so the outdoor problem goes to a septic contractor and the indoor contamination goes to a cleanup provider. Calling the utility’s backup line will not help with a full or failed tank.

The sewage itself is no different. What comes back into a house from a septic system is Category 3 water, and the cleanup indoors follows the same sequence as a sewer backup.

The city has published a way off septic for some owners. On March 3, 2015 the Augusta Commission approved a voluntary Sanitary Sewer Connection Program. Under it, qualifying owners pay a 10 dollar fee, and a contracted plumber breaks up and fills the old tank and ties the house to city sewer. Not every property qualifies, and the program’s brochure carries no date, so whether it is still offered and whether your property qualifies are questions for Augusta Utilities.

Septic systems that have been under floodwater are a separate matter. The Georgia Department of Public Health’s environmental health emergency preparedness page points residents to EPA guidance on septic systems after a flood. Residents of Hephzibah and Blythe should also know that both cities kept their own governments when Augusta and Richmond County consolidated in 1996, so the first step there is to check with the resident’s own city about who provides sewer service.

How a sewage cleanup is done

Providers differ in equipment and method, and the provider you are connected with decides its own scope for your house. What follows is the sequence the work typically runs in, so you know what you are looking at when it starts.

1. Protection and containment. Workers suit up before entering. CDC’s guidance for anyone who has to enter floodwater is rubber boots, rubber gloves and goggles, and providers typically wear more for sewage. The affected area is closed off from the clean part of the house, often with plastic sheeting, so that nothing is tracked or blown through.
2. Pumping and extraction. Standing sewage and solids are pumped or vacuumed out and disposed of. This is the same extraction step as on any water job, done with equipment that is cleaned afterward.
3. Removing what the sewage soaked. Carpet, pad, wet drywall, insulation and other porous materials that the sewage reached are cut out, bagged and taken away. The next section explains why.
4. Washing. The hard surfaces that remain, such as concrete, tile, framing and subfloor, are scrubbed with detergent and water to take off the soil.
5. Disinfecting. A disinfectant goes on only after the surface is clean. FEMA’s guidance is that disinfectants are meant for surfaces that have already been cleaned.
6. Drying. Air movers and dehumidifiers come out once the contaminated material is gone, not before. That drying stage is the subject of the page on water mitigation in Augusta.
7. Checking moisture. Readings are taken in the framing and subfloor so that nothing is closed up wet.
8. Handing over for the rebuild. New drywall, flooring and trim go in once the structure is clean and dry, as described under water damage repair in Augusta.

The public guidance on disinfecting is specific. EPA’s flood cleanup FAQ, issued in November 2012, gives a mix for hard, non-porous surfaces after sewage contamination: one cup of unscented household bleach in five gallons of water, used after washing with soap and water. FEMA says a disinfecting bleach solution should stay on the surface for at least 10 minutes before it is rinsed or left to dry. Bleach must never be mixed with ammonia or with other cleaners, because the fumes are toxic.

Those figures are published for households cleaning hard, non-porous surfaces. They are not a description of what any particular provider uses, and they do not make a soaked carpet or a wet wall safe.

Can you clean up a sewage backup yourself?

A small spill on tile or sealed concrete that touched nothing porous is within reach of a careful adult wearing boots, gloves and goggles, using the wash-then-disinfect order above. Beyond that, EPA’s advice is to bring in a professional experienced with contaminated water. That applies once sewage has reached carpet, drywall, insulation, a subfloor, ductwork or a crawl space, or has sat for hours, or when anyone in the house has asthma or a weakened immune system.

What has to be thrown away

This is the part of a sewage job that surprises people, because much of what looks salvageable is not. HomeAdvisor’s cost guide, updated June 17, 2026, puts it this way: with black water, everything porous that it reaches takes up contaminants, and it names upholstered furniture, beds, carpeting, clothing and porous building materials. A porous material cannot be washed clean all the way through, so it cannot be reliably disinfected.

Material	Usual outcome after sewage contact	Source of the guidance
Drywall and insulation	Removed and discarded, not dried in place	CDC
Carpet, pad and rugs	Discarded and replaced if they cannot be thoroughly dried and cleaned	EPA flood cleanup FAQ
Mattresses, upholstered furniture and other soft items	Discarded if they cannot be disinfected	EPA flood cleanup FAQ
Tile, sealed concrete, metal, glass and hard plastic	Washed with soap and water, then disinfected, and kept	EPA flood cleanup FAQ
Clothing and washable fabric	Washed in hot water and detergent	CDC

Carpet draws the most argument. Sewage passes through the face fibers into the backing and the pad beneath, and the pad holds it like a sponge against the subfloor. Whatever happens to the carpet, the subfloor underneath has to be cleaned and dried as well. That is why providers typically remove sewage-soaked carpet and pad instead of attempting to clean them in place.

Wood framing and solid subfloor usually stay, because they can be scrubbed, disinfected and dried. Materials that stay damp afterward are where mold starts, and if growth appears in the weeks after a backup, mold remediation in Augusta covers what happens next.

Sewage under the house: crawl spaces

In a house raised off the ground, the drain lines run through the crawl space, and a cracked or separated pipe there leaks onto the soil below the floor. Nothing appears indoors. The first sign is usually a smell, sometimes with slow drains.

Augusta has many houses built this way. In Olde Town, the city’s design guidelines say brick is the usual foundation material and that many early houses stand on brick piers, later filled in with brick, stucco or lattice, with crawl spaces beneath. Laney-Walker has Sandhills cottages with a raised main floor, and Bethlehem is mostly small one-story wood-frame houses on brick or concrete foundations.

Under the house, a provider typically removes the contaminated plastic ground cover and any insulation the sewage reached, takes up fouled soil where needed, treats the framing and then dries and ventilates the space. Access decides how hard that is. A licensed plumber repairs the pipe itself, under an Augusta plumbing permit, and the cleanup is of little use until that repair is done.

Does insurance cover a sewer backup in Georgia?

Often not, unless cover for it was added to the policy. The Insurance Information Institute says sewer backups are not covered by a typical homeowners policy and are not covered by flood insurance either. The cover has to be bought as a separate product or as an endorsement to the homeowners policy.

The reason is in the policy wording. The sample of the standard HO-3 homeowners form published by the Institute defines its water damage exclusion in three parts, and one of them is water that backs up through sewers or drains or overflows from a sump. That sample is an older edition of the form and a real policy can differ, so the only reliable answer is in your own documents.

• Look at the declarations page and the list of endorsements for wording such as water backup or sewer and drain backup. If it is there, it will usually show its own limit.
• Call the agent or the insurer early and ask the question directly. Report the loss promptly even if you are unsure of the answer.
• Photograph before anything is thrown away. For flood claims, FEMA says items posing a health risk can be thrown away once they are documented. That guidance is written for flood insurance, so ask your own insurer what it wants kept.
• Keep receipts for anything spent on protecting the house from further damage.

If a claim is disputed, Georgia’s Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire has a Consumer Services Division that answers insurance questions and helps resolve disputes between policyholders and insurers. Its toll-free line is (800) 656-2298, and its insurance resources page lists the other ways to reach it. Neither this site nor a cleanup provider can tell you what your policy will pay.

What sewage cleanup costs and what drives it

This site sets no prices and quotes none. The provider you are connected with prices its own work after seeing the damage. The figures below are published estimates from third parties, given so that a quote can be read against something.

Published figure	Source and date	What it covers
About $7.50 per square foot	HomeAdvisor national guide, updated June 17, 2026	Black water cleanup
About $5.25 per square foot	HomeAdvisor national guide, updated June 17, 2026	Gray water cleanup
About $3.50 per square foot	HomeAdvisor national guide, updated June 17, 2026	Clean water cleanup
$3.26 per square foot, range $3.02 to $3.49	ProMatcher report for Augusta, ZIP 30901, dated July 14, 2021	Clean or gray water only; sewage cleanup is excluded

Two cautions go with the table. HomeAdvisor’s numbers are national estimates, not Augusta prices. The one Augusta figure is from 2021 and its own notes say it leaves out sewage or black water cleanup, drywall and floor repairs and after-hours fees, so for a sewage job it is a floor at best.

What moves a real quote up or down is easier to state than a number:

• Area. How many square feet the sewage reached, and how many rooms.
• Time. How long it sat before extraction began. Sewage wicks up drywall and under walls the longer it stands.
• Porous material. A tiled bathroom is a smaller job than a carpeted den of the same size.
• Access. A crawl space, or a finished room with built-in cabinets, takes longer than an open floor.
• The rebuild. New drywall, flooring and trim are usually priced separately from the cleanup.

The plumbing repair is a separate bill from a separate trade. So is pumping or repairing a septic tank. Ask each party for its price in writing before work starts.

Keeping it from happening again

Prevention after a backup is mostly a conversation with a licensed plumber, and a short one with an insurance agent.

• Find the clean-out. Under Augusta Utilities’ standards it sits at the edge of the right-of-way. Knowing where it is saves time for a plumber and for the utility.
• Maintain the pump station if the house has one. A private pump and check valve required under the 18-inch rule are the owner’s to operate and maintain.
• Ask a plumber about a backwater valve. Whether one suits your house and line is a plumber’s judgment, and installing it needs a permit like any other plumbing work in Augusta.
• Have a recurring blockage looked at with a camera. A line that blocks more than once usually has a cause that snaking does not remove, such as roots or a sagging section.
• Keep grease and wipes out of the drains. They are common causes of private-line blockages.
• Ask the agent about a water backup endorsement before the next event, not after it.

Speak with a local sewage cleanup provider

The call is quicker with three facts ready: whether the house is on city sewer or a septic tank, which rooms the sewage reached, and whether the backup has stopped or is still rising. Mention a crawl space or a private pump station if the house has either.

Some participating providers take calls at night and on weekends, and many people search for 24/7 or emergency sewage cleanup for that reason. Availability depends on the provider and on demand, and this site does not promise an arrival time. The areas callers come from are listed under Augusta neighborhoods covered, the full range of water problems is on the water damage in Augusta, GA homepage, and how this free service works explains the connection in more detail.

Questions people ask