Have you recently moved to an area where a flooded home is a definite possibility? Not simply from a river or a stream but also from a frozen pipe potentially bursting in the middle of winter? Whatever the cause, dealing with a water damage can be challenging. For serious flooding, you should certainly hire a professional company to come out and restore the damaged section. But since they may not be able to start work immediately, especially in the case of widespread flooding, here are some things that you should do while you're waiting:
Contact insurance company: If you live in an area where flooding is likely, you should pay for additional flood coverage if at all possible. Even if you can't afford this additional coverage, and so you think that your insurance company isn't going to pay for the repairs, it's still a good idea to contact them. If there are extenuating circumstances, such as storm damage causing the roof to leak, it's possible that they may pay for some of the water mitigation services. If this is the case, the insurance company will want to send an adjuster out to view the damage and to see if any of it is covered by your current insurance policy.
Take plenty of pictures: The more pictures that you can take, the better. These will help you to repurchase items that have been destroyed by water damage. They will also form a record that will help you to keep track of how the water mitigation services company is progressing. With extensive water damage, it can be discouraging to enter your home and see how much needs to be done. With a photographic record, you can more easily see how far along the progress is. While part of the water mitigation process is to prevent or remove mold and mildew growth, pictures can also help serve as a reminder of areas that you may want to keep an eye on for a while to ensure that mold and mildew aren't going to be an issue.
Avoid touching things: Besides causing ugly damage, water also greatly weakens a variety of materials. A heavy bookshelf or a section of drywall could collapse at the slightest provocation. You may use mops, brooms, and squeegees to try to remove some of the water while waiting for the water mitigation services company to arrive, but try to avoid entering the home any more than is strictly necessary. By all means, take as many pictures of the damage as possible, but avoid the temptation to move things around in order to get a better picture. If the flooding actually reached the height of the ceiling, take pictures from outside only so that you're not going to be hurt by the ceiling possibly collapsing on top of you.
Contact a company, like First General Services, for more help.
Share18 June 2017
Do you know what it takes to restore your home after water damage has occurred? If you are anything like me, you think that you can get away with simply drying the house out and getting rid of the furniture and contents that are beyond repair. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to it than that. I learned the hard way just how devastating water damage can be to the home if you do not take the proper measures to clean the mess up. You can learn from my personal experience so that you do not have to spend the time and money going through the additional steps of restoration after water damage incident.
