Floods have been increasing in frequency as well in intensity for years, affecting even homes that used to be safe from raging waters. When the water recedes after the flood is gone, the first thing to do is to remove the water from your building and doing everything you can to accelerate the drying process – wood and plaster tend to accumulate water very quickly, so it might take some time for your building to make a complete recovery, but even so, fast action is essential for mitigating the damage. Here is how to eliminate water from your building after a flood.
The First Steps
The most important part of water damage mitigation after a flood is to ensure safety for everyone and everything involved, for your building as well as for your belongings. The most important risks to eliminate are the problems that might be caused by damaged utilities, such as electrical shock, electrical fire and gas leaks– disconnect the electricity and the gas in the entire building as soon as you notice the damage and preferably before you even enter the building. If you need bright light, try to get a generator to power your lamps or use safe torches.
The other very serious risk is contamination. Flood water is never clean, so in order to avoid any illness, you and everyone involved in the salvaging must wear gloves and masks.
The Salvaging Process
Depending on the amount of water that has penetrated your building and the severity of the damage, you can start the salvaging process by yourself or you can turn to a professional Phoenix water damage repair company. Before you choose any of the solutions, document the damage – take pictures and record videos of the damage site, you will need the footages and the pictures for your insurance claim file. If the damage is substantial and you need professional water removal and drying, start looking for a water damage repair service – you can carry out a search online or you can turn to your insurance representative for recommendations. The damage repair company will use pumps to extract as much of the water from your building as possible and they will also use special equipment to dry the walls and the floors in your building. If necessary, the water damage repair team will complete or help with the removal of the items from the rooms they work in – any furnishing, carpets and mattresses need to be moved outside as soon as possible to make room for the damage mitigation process.
Be prepared that the contamination that might have affected your furniture, your carpets and bedding needs to be removed professionally, by specialized cleaning companies and even though the water damage repair company removes most of the water from your building, dampness will still take some time to dry out completely. This also means that in very severe cases of flooding, you might not be able to move back into your building – you should make arrangements to stay somewhere else until the authorities allow you to move back in.