CleanSafe’s emergency sewage cleaning team has cleared an estimated 50 tonnes of raw sewage that had built up over several months under a swimming pool at a large health and fitness club.
In a three-week operation, CleanSafe removed the human waste from a chamber under the pool without the club having to close, and without its members knowing there had even been a problem.
Fully trained emergency cleaning operatives then fumigated, deep cleaned and deodorised the chamber – and capped a sewage pipe that was found to be the source of the problem, so the sewage spill could not happen again.
CleanSafe Managing Director Steve Broughton said: “This is a perfect example of the expertise and quality of service we deliver to clients as the UK’s leading extreme cleaners.
“The sports club was facing a huge problem, both in terms of loss of income if it had to close to remove the sewage, as it first feared, and major adverse impact on its reputation.
“However, we were able to resolve that problem neatly and quickly, while the club remained open. Suffice to say, they were delighted with the results.”
The club realised something was wrong when the changing rooms and spa hot tub area became infested with flies.
It alerted its local water company which, through its wastewater contractors, called in CleanSafe, as experts in sewage removal and extreme environmental cleaning.
Steve Broughton said: “Four chambers under the pool, covering 100 square metres, were filled with sewage up to 0.75 metres deep.
“There were swarms of tens of thousands of flies and the heat caused by the fermenting sewage meant temperatures were over 40 degrees centigrade, with high levels of humidity.
“To work safely in a confined space in those conditions, our team had to wear full breathing apparatus, gas monitors and specially-sealed suits.
“The extreme heat meant they could only work 15 minutes at a time. This was a job that could only be tackled safely by an extreme cleaning company with the right skills and experience.”
Working at night, while the club was closed, the CleanSafe sewage cleaning operatives first fumigated the chambers with smoke bombs to eradicate the drain flies.
They then used high pressure, high temperature water jetters to break up the sewage, which could then be vacuumed out of the chamber into a jet vac tanker outside. In all, 50,000 litres of contaminated water and sewage waste was taken away for safe disposal.
Air blowers and air suckers were used to try to cool the chamber and control the spread of the noxious odour. The walls, floors and a complex series of pipes servicing the pool had to be scrubbed clean. The chambers were then fumigated for fly pests once more.
The sewage cleaning task was finally completed when the chambers were deodorised by thermal fogging. This technique uses a machine that creates a mist of chemicals that penetrates walls and floors, neutralising odours.
The threat to the sport and fitness club’s business had gone.
