The Right Way to Handle a Flooded Residence

7/20/2017 (Permalink)

The Right Way to Handle a Flooded Residence

Water damage is one of the most potentially costly events that can befall a property. Without prompt, professional restoration and mitigation efforts, water damage can quickly begin causing severe and permanent damage to a structure. The proper handling of flood damage includes the use of heavy and specialized equipment that the general public does not have access to. It also involves considerable expertise and requires the rapid and skillful action of professionals. For this reason, the single most important thing that a property owner should do, upon first discovering water in their home or water in their business, is to promptly call their local professional restoration company.

A professional restoration company knows the proven, effective steps that will prevent water damage from becoming a property-threatening condition. Using a prove, five-step process, the local restoration company will send a team of restoration and mitigation experts to the site of the flood damage, immediately beginning the mitigation of the water damage. In this article, we'll take a look at the process that nearly every team of water cleanup experts follow and why it is so important to get them on-site as quickly as possible.

Whenever a supply line break, pipe break or other source of flood damage occurs, it is imperative that the water cleanup process begins as quickly as possible. Your local mitigation and restoration company will have teams of experts, on call and ready to deploy, 24 hours a day. Once the phone call comes in, the restoration team will arrive on site, usually in less than a half hour.

With the restoration experts arrive, they will immediately enter the property and begin assessing the extent of the water in the home or water in the business. If there is an active leak coming from a supply line break or a pipe break, they will locate it and begin corrective action. The original supply line break or pipe break in the flooded home may require the use of welders, pipe cutters or threaders to temporarily stop the leak.

If the water in the home or water in the business has spread to spaces within the floor or within walls, the water cleanup team will be able to detect it by using sophisticated hygrometers and infrared detectors.

At this point, the team will begin the wholesale removal of water from the flooded home. Using heavy-duty pumps and vacuum equipment, all standing water in the home or business will be sucked out. After the first hour of the team's arrival, there should be no water in the business or home remaining.

Next, heavy drying equipment will be deployed within the property. There will be large dehumidifiers set up within the property and large-scale drying devices will be installed near the supply line break or pipe break. The drying process is the part of the cleanup process that generally requires the most time. It may last between a few hours all the way up to an entire day.

Once the home has been completely dried, it will appear almost fully restored. At this point, there will be no further risk of damage occurring to the property.

The final step involves the complete cleaning and sanitization of the property and its contents. This is done to prevent any incipient mildew or mold growth from worsening, as well as to prevent smells, typically caused by the waterlogging of materials, to proliferate.

Using a process similar to dry cleaning, all items, including furniture, pictures and carpeting, will now be restored to their prior state.
Visit http://www.SERVPROclearlake.com for more information on water damage.