Flood cleanups are stressful because when a flood hits a city or a location, floods, waste, mud, and sand cause considerable damage or destruction to many homes and properties. Some of these properties may need to be cleaned by flood professionals or flood damage restoration service providers in your area during the repair process. The following is dependent on the severity of the flood. You may be able to clean minor water damage on your own. Smaller floods will cause less damage and cost less to clean if you do it yourself. But if it’s not up to your standards, don’t even consider giving it a shot; otherwise, you’ll end up incurring significant costs by causing damage to property and equipment rather than restoring them.
What you need is a well-prepared flood damage restoration checklist and might you need to call professional flood damage restoration service providers. Let’s take a look at the check-list:
Table of Contents
Checklist to follow for flood damage restoration
1. Evaluate the safety
Because the safety of you and your family is paramount, the first thing you should do is ensure that everyone is out of harm’s way. If standing water has flooded surrounding appliances or the water level has risen above outlets, electricity may be running through them. This is a really dangerous situation.
If this is the case, do not contact the water, leave the facility, and call for assistance from professionals. If you are able to safely enter your home’s electric panel, go there and turn off the power to your house to stop the flow of electricity.
2. Determine the reason for the flooding
After the area has been made safe, the next step is to find the source of the flooding. The causes of home flood damage can range from minor water infiltration to large-scale flooding.
Here are a few reasons why water may be accumulating in your home:
- Cracks in the foundation of your home
- Basement windows that need to be replaced
- Water seeping into the house through window wells
- Drainage problems
- Roof drippings
- Pipes that are broken or leaking
- Problems with the sump pump
- Flooding due to excessive rain, snow, or flooding
3. Contact your Insurance Company
The next step is to contact your homeowner’s insurance provider. Your insurance may cover some or all of the flood damage restoration depending on the cause of the water damage and your specific coverage plan. They will come and assess the restoration they can cover. If the flood is due to natural causes, you may not get their restoration cover.
4. Get rid of Excess Water
It is critical to remove water quickly. The more time water sits, the more damage it can cause. If there is a lot of water in your basement or surrounding your house, you should contact a water damage restoration service professionals since they have the necessary equipment to remove the water fast and effectively. If you want to do it yourself, you can grab a bucket and start draining water that way, or you can use your sump pump to remove the water.
5. Remove wet and damaged materials from the area.
Get your wet possessions out of the house and into a well-ventilated area, preferably outside if the weather permits. Porous materials, such as upholstery, wood, fabric, paper, leather, and other porous materials, are the most vulnerable. Get these materials out of the way as soon as possible so they can start drying.
6. Dry up the space
This is when a water damage restoration company would send in air movers, air scrubbers, and dehumidifiers to speed up the drying process. Professionals also frequently have access to wood drying machines, which may dry wood to a depth that prevents mould from growing. Bring all of your fans and dehumidifiers into the space and turn them on if you aren’t hiring specialists or simply want to start the drying process before they arrive.
7. Look for mould
Mould infestation is caused by damp circumstances combined with a lack of airflow. Naturally, there is a possibility of mould formation once any items have been drenched in water. Mould has the ability to penetrate deep into things, causing structural damage and posing health dangers to those who live close. As a result, you want to get rid of the mould as soon as possible and assist prevent it from coming back. Because mould growth is so closely linked to flood damage, mould remediation professionals will be knowledgeable in this field.
8. Replace the damaged items
Materials like wood framing, some furniture, and drywall may need to be completely replaced depending on the extent of the water damage. The structural integrity of your home could be jeopardized if the wood frame is compromised. Furthermore, when drywall gets wet, water quickly travels up through the rest of the panel, changing the makeup of the entire sheet.
Things not to do in the event of a flood
- If you use your household vacuum to remove water, you risk electrocution as well as equipment damage.
- Newspaper ink transfers rapidly to wet carpet fibers, resulting in permanent stains. Do not walk on newspapers in high-traffic areas.
- Keep harm from spreading to unaffected regions by not walking on the wet or submerged carpet for longer than required.
- Do not attempt to start the water mitigation or mould remediation process yourself; these are time-sensitive procedures that should be left to the experts.
Health and safety tips follow when your property hits flood
Turn off the electricity:
You don’t want to go into dangerously live water if you don’t turn it off first. If necessary, hire an electrician to inspect the premises.
Structure:
Have an expert inspect your building structure after a catastrophic flood to make sure it hasn’t been destabilized.
Disinfection:
After you’ve removed all of the water, disinfect the ground and walls. Because mud and sewer water might be dangerous to one’s health, it’s critical to hire a skilled restoration business.
Mould:
If your property does not dry off quickly enough, mould and mildew may begin to form. This is harmful to one’s health. You’ll need to get professionals to assess any mould problems you could have.
Put flood damage restoration professionals in action
As you can see, flood damage restoration entails much more than simply cleaning and restoring areas where water has been present. You must consider how water impacts your property, the possibility of mould growth, and the contents within. Flood damage restoration service provider like dirt2neat can offer you all of the equipment and solutions you’ll need to restore your property to its pre-flood condition. At dirt2neat, we can manage the complete flood damage restoration process.
Contact us today for a free consultation and find out why homes and businesses alike rely on us to assist them in recovering from natural disasters and other flood or water damage situations.