Lime For Sewage Cleanup

Are you currently facing a sewage spill in or around your home? Should you use the garden, quick or hydrated lime for sewage smells and spills?

Don’t worry; this article will explore lime for sewage cleanup. As you read on, you’ll know how effective this substance can address sewage smell, neutralization, and cleanup.

Lime For Sewage Smells and Spills

Sewage is generally contaminated with harmful substances such as pathogens and parasites. Therefore, when there’s an outdoor spill in areas of land, you must respond quickly.

However, you must be careful when attending to such an emergency. You may invite professionals to address the situation to avoid putting yourself, your family, and your pets at risk.

• Can Lime Be Used for Sewage Cleanup?

You may be wondering if lime can be used to handle sewage spills. Of course, you can use this substance to address sewer smell, adore removal, and cleanup.

We’re referring to the lime made from limestone (calcium carbonate) or dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate). This raw material can further be processed into quicklime and hydrated lime.

Because of the alkaline properties in lime, it’s perfect for neutralizing sewage odors and spills. Moreover, it adjusts the pH of soils containing acidic components.

With that, you can use it to treat both drinking and wastewater.

The Best Lime for Sewage Cleanup

Quicklime is the most effective for this operation. But for safety, it’s best to use hydrated lime.

This means both classes of lime can be used to address sewage spillage. Meanwhile, it’s best to use quicklime when handling sewage in a grassier area.

Hydrated lime is much more caustic, which can burn grass when applied. Such a class of lime is used to treat or clean sewage on soil or cement floors.

Sewage Cleaning Tips Using Lime

Before cleaning up using lime or other substances, you’ll need to wear protective gear. Plus, abide by the safety rules for cleaning sewage spills.

Moreover, it would be best to close the affected area against children and pets. Having done that, you remove items from spills using your hand tools.

Also, eliminate all visible liquids and solid materials from the affected area.

Now, you must add a considerable amount of lime to the spill. Leave it for several hours for the pH to reach 12.0 to kill bacteria properly.

Add more lime for areas with thicker spills, and then use a rake or shovel to mix the sewage. Give it another 24 hours so the lime can have enough time to work on the sewage.

The next day, you are to shovel up the entire area.

Next, you look for a trash bag and package the sewage. It’s not advisable to use regular trash for this purpose. That’s because it’ll kill the yard and risk your family.

Therefore, you’ll need to dispose of this waste properly.

You can swing into cleaning the area once you remove the more significant portion of sewage. For this operation, you’ll need enough water.

Doing so will prevent the leftover sewage from absorbing into the soil. Finally, you wait for a day to dry the area properly. If you still spot some white powder in the site, rewash it until it disappears.

Can I Use Lime for Sewer Odor or Smell?

As highlighted above, you can also use lime to address this situation. How to handle sewer smells is similar to that of cleanup.

You’ll first locate the source of the sewer smell and sprinkle a substantial amount of lime. You can spray half a cup per square foot on top of the affected area and its surrounding.

That way, it will reach any particles that might have splashed out.

Allow the lime for at least 24 hours to soak up the smell. You shovel the entire area and package the toxic soil into a thick bin bag the following day.

Same here; you’re not advised to use your regular trash bin for the parking. After that, you wash the space until the white powder disappears.

Neutralizing Raw Sewage Using Lime

You can use lime to neutralize a raw sewage spill around your home. Just get a plastic spray bottle with undiluted white vinegar. Mix the lime with white vinegar and fill the bottle.

Hold your spray bottle 6 inches from the furniture for a practical application and begin spritzing. The smells and other odors will disappear in thin air shortly.

You’ll then regain a conducive atmosphere and breathe with ease.

Where to Buy Lime for Sewage Spill

There must be more than knowing how to use lime to address such mishaps. You’ll need to know where to get lime for such an operation.

Now, several home improvement stores will have different types of lime. Some stores you may try out include Home Depot, eBay, Craigslist, Ace, or other fruit-related facilities.

You can also get great lime in areas with in-depth gardening materials.

Should I Put Lime Under My Home

No. Putting lime under your house will compromise the air quality around your home. Research indicates that lime dust can cause burns and tissue damage when in contact.

Safety Guidelines

It would be best to abide by some safety guidelines when cleaning sewage with lime. That way, you’ll ensure the safety of yourself, your family, your pets, and the environment.

Some safety measures include quarantining the affected areas, cleaning contaminated tools, or seeking professional help. Let’s briefly take a look at them.

• Quarantine Affected Area

Before cleaning, you’ll need to secure and prepare the affected area. In this case, you must keep your children and pets away from the vicinity.

This will avoid any illness or further contamination.

• Sanitize Contaminated Equipment

The tools you’ll use for the operation will be contaminated by sewage. Therefore, you’re to wash and disinfect your working tools.

Allowing them with such contaminants will increase the risk of the growth of microorganisms. These include viruses, bacteria, and fungi.

Furthermore, you should extend your cleaning to areas such as your driveways, patios, decking, tables, ornaments, and more. The clothes you wear should also be burned to avoid the further spread of microorganisms.

• Seek Professional Assistance

Remember, sewage spills can be dangerous and pose certain health risks.

Inviting a professional hand will be better if you have a significant sewage spill. Some companies provide such cleaning services.

However, you’ll spend some handsome cash to execute the job effectively.

Lime is an excellent ingredient for addressing minor sewage spills. In addition to that, you can also remove sewer smells and odors. However, you’ll need to be careful when combating this emergency.

The guide above will lead you to a successful sewage cleaning.