How to lean up sewage flood in garden.

[GoodbyeQuietLife]

Our drains back up yesterday back flooding into the bathroom. The flood was minimal internally but after a day today of shifting and flushing the drains in the garden the patio has been flooded with sewage waste (absolutely stunk so certainly a back up of a lot of toilet waste). Most of its been cleaned up now but what do we need to do to make it safe for our dc to play out there again? I assume that we need to somehow chemically clean the flags??

if you have an actual garden, you could dig a trench and shovel the waste in there, and cover over with soil. Garden soil is teeming with worms and microorganisms that will make short work of it.

Or you could phone your council and see what facilities they have. It may involve shovelling the waste into buckets or other containers for disposal.

p.s.

and clean the paving with a hose and stiff broom, again let it drain to a trench. Don't use bleach or disinfectants yet as they will damage the micro-organisms that are going to clean it up. A day of good sunlight on dry concrete will kill off much of remaining traces, you can then use cleaning materials if you wish. Bear in mind that the ground you walk on is constantly scattered with droppings from cats, dogs, mice, rats, birds and foxes so it is always preferable not to lick the soles of your shoes. I am assuming that none of your neighbours have cholera, typhoid or polio, which would make me more cautious. Wellingtons and rubber gloves are advisable while cleaning up and in contact with the contamination.

Piglet thank you for your reply. The actual waste was bagged up and raheb to the skip . We have literally (3 weeks ago) had the whole garden landscaped with new patio, turf etc so didn't really fancy digging anything up to utilise the waste.

At has done pretty much what you described, hosed the patoo clean and swept with stuff brush. And we've left it to dry out. Piglet, is ordinary bleach ok to use? Will it damage /discolour the flags? What else can be used? I read something aboutime but not sure what/where to buy?

Honestly, the timing of this couldn't be worse. I gave birth to dc3 the day the drains blocked!!!!!

I have seen bleach used on coloured paving stones, and it bleached the colour out. I don't know what it might do to ordinary concrete. I suppose you could use Jeye's Fluid, though it smells quite strong.

I'd leave the sun to kill off the bugs today and if you want to sterilise it l'd use Jeye's fluid. Make sure you keep children and pets off the patio slabs until it's dry though, as l know it's toxic to cats/chickens but not sure about other species but better safe than sorry!

We had a sewage leak. The water company offered a clean up but in the end they just hosed it down. 28 days of sunlight radiation is enough to kill any harmful bacteria still lurking on the surface.

I wouldn't bleach it at all. Hose it away, stiff brush, etc., and let sunlight do the rest. It'll be more effective. Bleach will kill plants and microbes, leaving you with a garden which smells odd and has lots of dead things in it. Not nearly so good.