Water Damage DIY tips

House flooded after a burst water main

Call a professional if your water damage is severe

Spring inevitably comes with strong rains. Although it is considered pleasant and desirable for nature as a valuable source of water, it can also bring about immense destruction, especially if your home’s drainage system and structural integrity is less than sound. Here, we will discuss how to deal with water damage effectively. Let’s now proceed.

The first thing to do would be to check your housing structure after an episode of heavy rain and see if there is any unsightly visual damage to any part of your home. These include possible damaged ceilings, walls, and floors. This should routinely be performed after every heavy rain or thunderstorm.

Secondly, if you’ve noticed the presence of water in an area of your house suggesting water leakage; remove all the non-built-in appliances, furniture and other home decorations from the room. Afterwards, you need to check them one by one for any possible structural/functional damage caused by water. Don’t rush; take your time to properly assess them to optimize protection and safety of your home as well as your personal possessions.

When evaluating possible damaged cased by water damage keep the following in mind:
- Can the home or building be saved and repaired or is it a write-off?
- Are the items moldy? If they are, attempt to remove the mold using a clean cloth wet with soap and water id safe to do so and the items are non-porous.

Thirdly, assess for further evidence of water damage in the affected area. You’re lucky if your floor is covered with ceramic tiles or other types of tiling, for you only have to get rid of standing water and do away with water damage. On the other hand, if you only have carpet covering your floor, you may need to detach the carpet and remove the wet carpet pad if the sub floor is wood. If the subfloor is concrete slab and your have access to air movers and dehumidifiers you can attempt to dry the carpet and pad in place.

If water damage is evident, get rid of excess water right away and this can be quickly and conveniently done with the use of a wet/dry vacuum or a portable extraction unit which can rented from various rental places. Once the carpets are dry you’ll need to get them cleaned with a deep carpet cleaner to prevent further structural damage to your carpet and get it back to a pre-loss condition.

If you have concrete flooring, you just have to dry it and you’re all set to prevent further damage. If you have wooden floors, however, you’ll need to double check it for mold growth, or any other form of damage. If the wood floors are wet they can be dried if done correctly – this is highly specialized as it depends on the composition of the wood floor and how the flooring was installed. I always recommend calling a water damage expert when wood floors are involved.

Water damage is inevitable at some point therefore you should always be prepared so that you’ll know how to minimize the extent of the damage it produces as well as how to deal with it in the most effective manner.

About Dan Camara

Dan Camara is the CEO of PuroClean Home Rescue in Sacramento. We have been helping the good folks of Northern California with water damage dryouts, mold removal and fire cleanups for nearly 5 years now. Connect with me on Google+
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One Response to Water Damage DIY tips

  1. How To Clean Mold in Basement says:

    Admiring the persistence you put into your water damage and mold removal website and in depth information you present. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same out of date rehashed information. Great read! I’ve saved your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account. I trully enjoy reading you block each week – keep up the good work informing us all about the pit falls of water related losses.

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