# Do I need sewage backup coverage on my house insurance?



## ButaneProphet (Feb 15, 2011)

I am in the process of shopping for a homeowner's policy. It seems quite costly ($300/year extra on my premium) due to the "high number of claims in my area" which I suspect are other areas of town where the infrastructure is older. I have owned the house for 4 years and have never had any water problems. BTW there is no sump pump and no floor drains in the basement; toilets and sinks only. Do I gamble on this?


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

Nope, I've heard the horror stories out there and better to be safe than sorry especially when it comes to a high dollar expense that could result from such an incident. Unless you are willing to part with/have an extra 20-50k sitting around available for such an incident and are willing to take on that bet.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

I wouldn't. Having lived through two backups personally, as well as extended family having done so, it's a big loss.

All it takes is a "once in a lifetime storm"...or some bone headed city planner who drained the storm sewers into the regular sewers to save some money...


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

As an aside, I would look into why you don't have a floor drain in the basement. It's possible that, because of the high incidence of backups "in your area" it has been deliberately omitted or blocked up. It's equally possible someone has foolishly covered it over. But either way you have to ask yourself: if I ever get a burst pipe/leaking water heater/burst washing machine hose; or rain/ground water leakage into the building; how is the water supposed to get out?

The normal practice in areas where sewer backup is high-risk is to put in a back-flow valve on the main building drain.


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## iherald (Apr 18, 2009)

OhGreatGuru said:


> The normal practice in areas where sewer backup is high-risk is to put in a back-flow valve on the main building drain.


Anyone know the cost of these?


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

THey aren't a lot of money and some municipalities offer rebates, but they don't tend to tell people they do...


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## spirit (May 9, 2009)

As someone who has had a "once in a lifetime" flooding episode I can attest to the fact that having good insurance is a blessing. Our neighborhood got hit 7 years ago and the horror stories I heard from people with their insurance companies denying coverage still makes my hair turn grey. Opps that's age but still...My husband bought the platinum coverage 40 years ago and we had never used it....until we needed it. Replacement coverage was way better than just coverage. Found a 25 year old receipt for $2500 for our downstairs carpet that we installed 25 years ago. That allowed us to get top grade flooring rather than the one the insurance was going to cover. Just that item was worth the extra we had paid for that coverage over the years. 
I concur that penny wise and pound foolish is not necessarily wise. If you can afford it, and it means the difference of basically one coffee a day, it will be worth it if you ever need it. By the way, we live on high ground, our houses were well built, never problems before. But just one freak storm and we had sewage 6" high in our basement. Not pretty, a lot of sleepless nights and many other problems, but at least adequate insurance was not one of them.


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

99 problems but insurance ain't one :encouragement:


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

No floor drain? That scares me.

Doesn't protect you from a backup, any of your drains could back up, sink, toilet, washing machine etc.

This insurance is cheap why risk it?


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## joncnca (Jul 12, 2009)

i worked for years as an environmental consultant. sewer backups were a big part of our business. we'd provide advice on dealing with bacteria, sewage contaminants, water damage restoration (removing damaged, mouldy drywall, etc etc etc.).

it can get really nasty, and once you get into taking care of the biological hazards safely (the workers must be protected by law), costs rise very quickly.

i make sure to have good coverage for water loss including sewage. better safe than sorry. 300 bucks a year isn't bad, people waste more money on phone plans, ipods, and crap like that.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Sewer backup insurance can be a pricey add-on onto your home insurance policy. On my homeowners policy, it is about a $50 rider

You should always have a basement floor drain in case a hot water tank leaks or some kind of plumbing leak. 

I have a sewer backup valve in my basement floor drain, that I installed myself. I think they are around $20.
http://www.globalspec.com/FeaturedP...ts_Basement_Flooding/142624/0?fromSpotlight=1


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

iherald said:


> Anyone know the cost of these?


http://www.globalspec.com/FeaturedP...ts_Basement_Flooding/142624/0?fromSpotlight=1

The one I installed myself was about $20 at a local plumbing store.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

How much would it cost to self insure this kind of risk? I can do all the repairs myself.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

it's the cost that would otherwise be borne by the insurance company. The estimate provided upthread was between $20L - $50K. If you actually want to self-insure (defined as "acting like the insurance company would") you'd need to keep that in liquid assets.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I don't think it would cost me 50k to repair my basement. The insurance company, sure. Me, no way. 
I can self insure this risk easily using cash flow, to pay for the materials and save money by doing the repairs myself.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Don't think most people understand this could result in health issues if your basement is full of sewer and where the heck will you put it.By time you get proper removal done and then have to meet all the standards you may as well pay the insurance bill..never mind if you have to get things dug up outside to repair the pipes.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

To each their own but in my case, I'm not willing to risk saying "I'll do it myself" if I get a sewer blowout while I'm across the country or continent for work or on vacation. (I just had a friend experience a sewer backup and insurance covered everything. They had a team in the basement pretty much full-time for seven days, industrial dehumidifiers, replaced all the tile, repainted, etc.)


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

marina628 said:


> Don't think most people understand this could result in health issues if your basement is full of sewer and where the heck will you put it.By time you get proper removal done and then have to meet all the standards you may as well pay the insurance bill..never mind if you have to get things dug up outside to repair the pipes.


Most of the time, the floor drain overflows due to some unprecedented heavy rainfall within a certain time period where the storm sewers overflow and the water could also backup in the floor drain in the basement. I believe (but don't quote me on this) is that the basement floor drain drains into the storm sewer and not the sanitary sewer.

Sanitary sewer backups are very rare since the 4 inch sanitary pipe run from your house goes to the tributary sewer line on your street which then flows into the main trunk sewer which may go into a larger trunk sewer to get to the sewage treatment plant.

So having sanitary effluent in your basement drain is probably not going to happen unless your toilet is blocked and overflows.

Although the sewer backup valve (as I installed) is a one way ball valve, to allow water in the basement to flow into the floor drain but seals off any storm sewer backup from coming up into your basement due to excessive water backup in the storm drains. BUT...it is not fool proof. There is always
a chance it could be"blown" out by extreme hydraulic pressure, of the rising waters in the storm sewer.

Chances of that happening is extremely low..unless you were to experience a hurricane force storm and widespread flooding) such as what occurred during Hurricane Sandy in some places last year.

If you decided to "self insure" with just the backup valve on it's own,. bear in mind that any water in the basement of significant depth can cause black mold over time. 
That is not healthy for living in the house and it would be difficult to sell the home if any black mold is discovered in the home.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

If the floor drain is overflowing due to municipal storm sewer issues, you may be also able to recover some cost from the city, since the city is responsible for the storm sewers.
A couple of years ago, during a very heavy spring rain, some areas of Ottawa were "underwater" and the storm sewers could not cope with the huge deluge.
Some basements were flooded as a result, since the storm sewer water came up through the basement drain. Some homeowners sued the city, but I don't
know the results since the lawsuits were settled privately..probably for the cost of pumping out the water and restoring any water soaked things in the basements.

The basement drain sewer backup prevention valve is peace of mind...and..so is having a rider for basement flooding due to sewer backup..I have both.

I tend to have a "belts and suspenders at the same time" mindset.:biggrin:


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## callyhan (Dec 7, 2010)

carverman said:


> Most of the time, the floor drain overflows due to some unprecedented heavy rainfall within a certain time period where the storm sewers overflow and the water could also backup in the floor drain in the basement. I believe (but don't quote me on this) is that the basement floor drain drains into the storm sewer and not the sanitary sewer.
> 
> QUOTE]
> 
> Most floor drains will drain into the D/W/V sanitary system. If you live in an area equipped with storm drainage only the exterior foundation drainage (weeping tile)will drain into the storm system. If you don't have storm drains in your neighbourhood, and instead have a sump pit in your house, I suppose you could have a floor drain that drains into your sump.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

callyhan said:


> carverman said:
> 
> 
> > Most of the time, the floor drain overflows due to some unprecedented heavy rainfall within a certain time period where the storm sewers overflow and the water could also backup in the floor drain in the basement. I believe (but don't quote me on this) is that the basement floor drain drains into the storm sewer and not the sanitary sewer.
> ...


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## joncnca (Jul 12, 2009)

i don't think anyone saw my earlier post, or chose to ignore it, but i'll repeat myself because i saw a lot of this through my work as an environmental health consultant and i always felt bad for people, even if they had enough insurance coverage (which they often didn't), because it would still be a huge disruption to their lives. 

i saw a lot of sewage backups, lots of those "statistical impossibilities". and with all due respect, dealt with a lot of DIYers who for all their expertise during a clean construction project, didn't really know how to deal with bio-contaminated building materials. and even outside of sewage backups, standing water will deteriorate in quality over time and can contain pathogens (see IICRC S500). if you don't remove damaged material properly and verify with moisture readingsyou can miss material that degrades and becomes mouldy (especially with all the drywall people use) or otherwise contaminated. 

i've pulled back wainscoting or some kinda wood panelling after someone tried to "fix" the problem themselves and found walls crumbling and covered in mould, for instance. water gets into places that most people don't think about. i'm not saying it can't be done, just that from my experience, most DIY jobs are not good enough. i take air samples and the mould levels are off the charts, and they wonder why their eyes get watery and they have trouble breathing whenever they go into the basement.

choice is yours, i guess everyone has some reason to suggest one brand of optional coverage or another. (i'm struggling with auto insurance right now, something with which i have limited first hand experience =) based on my experience, i ensure that i'm covered for sewage backups and water intrusion. water is the source of all life, including microbes. deal with it quickly and appropriately, or you and your family won't be the only ones living at your home. i wouldn't want young children, seniors, or otherwise ill or immunocompromised people in a building that wasn't remediated properly. i find this is often due to inadequate insurance. people spend so much time at home. 

anyway, those are my (somewhat disjointed) thoughts. i'm being distracted by figuring out this auto insurance stuff.


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