Water damage can be stressful for home and business owners. Like with anything else, the more you know about water damage restoration process the better prepared you’ll be to deal with it all.
When you call STOP Restoration, our team of professionals inspect the extent of the damage and educate the home or business owner using our When Disaster Strikes Guide. Within 24 hours of your initial inspection, we’ll report back to you and your policy holder with a scope of the damage caused by the loss.
What category and class is your water loss?
We use general standards set by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) to classify water damage. Once we’ve categorized, and classified your water loss the drying process can begin.
Category
The category of water damage refers to the source of the water, and its level of contamination.
- Category 1 Clean Water
- “Clean Water”is from a source that poses no significant harm to people. The liquid in a Category 1 is from a sanitary source like a toilet tank, melting ice or falling rainwater,bathtub overflow etc.
- Category 2 Grey Water
- “Grey Water” may cause illness or discomfort if ingested due to significant levels of contamination of bacteria, mold and/or chemicals. The source of the liquid in Category 2 water damage can be dishwasher or washing machine overflows, broken aquariums, and toilet overflow with urine but no feces.
- Category 3 Black Water
- “Black Water” is the worst case scenario. Category 3 water damage holds disease-causing organisms, toxins, and is grossly unsanitary. If ingested this liquid could cause severe illness, and even death. Its sources include toilet overflow with feces, sewer backup, and flooding from bodies of water like oceans, rivers, or streams that has begun to support bacterial growth.
Class
Classes of destruction are based on the amount of water, the rate of evaporation, the size of the affected area, and the type of saturated materials in the affected space.
- Class 1
- This is the least amount of water damage that can occur, as it only affects a room or small area of your home or business. A Class 1 has a low evaporation rate and the affected area includes little or no wet carpet, and the moisture has only affected materials like plywood or concrete.
- Class 2
- Moisture has affected structural materials in the area and the wetness level up the wall has reached 12”. When Class 2 water damage occurs a significant amount of water has flowed into an entire room or area, and wet its contents. It has a fast rate of evaporation.
- Class 3
- Class 3 water damage represents the greatest amount of absorption into the contents of an area, and it’s known for having the highest evaporation rate. This means after the water is removed from the affected area there is a lot of drying to do. The structural materials such as carpet, and ceiling board, and the room’s contents have absorbed a greater amount of water than in a class 1 or 2. This often occurs when the flooding came from overhead.
- Class 4
- This is known as a unique or specialty drying situation. When given enough time even materials with low permeance like hardwood, masonry, plaster and concrete are affected by moisture. When materials that don’t normally absorb a lot of water become saturated longer drying times are required, and often special extraction methods may be necessary as well.
The Water Drying Process
Some home or business owners will find that their property requires extensive restoration or cleaning. At STOP we understand how devastating this can be. Our STOP Restoration will oversee a well-organized, efficient, and most importantly stress-free move-out to protect your belongings from being damaged further.
Excess Water Extraction Excess Water Extraction
If when our STOP Restoration arrive if there is any standing water, it will be extracted from the flooded area before drying begins.
Flooring is the first area of focus. If laminate floors are present in your home, they’re removed to uncover the wet sub-floor.
If your home has hardwood floors present they’re inspected to determine if they can be dried out, and they’re prepped for our Hardwood Floor Drying system. Most floors can be dried, but if they can’t they’ll be removed and replaced after drying process is complete.
If vinyl is present, and our skilled technicians have determined we cannot dry underneath, the flooring material is removed to expose the wet sub-floor.
Carpets and carpet pads are inspected to determine if they should be removed to protect the subfloor.
Evaporation
The moisture remaining in your home must now be vaporized. This means the liquid water must be changed into vapor. STOP Restoration’s technicians are trained to use specialized equipment, such as air dryers, to create airflow across carpets, pads, walls, and furniture which expedites the evaporating process. Moisture levels are closely monitored on the walls and floors of your home or business to track the drying process.
Dehumidification
The evaporation process turns water into vapor and leaves the air more humid. That humidity is hard to access because it settles into the structural materials, and contents of your home or business. In order to avoid further damage that moisture must be removed. Our STOP Restoration use equipment such as high-speed air movers, industrial-grade dehumidifiers, and monitoring equipment to remove humidity from the air and track the progress.
The drying process must begin as soon as possible in order to prevent further damage, and return the affected areas to their pre-loss condition. Our skilled technicians have not only the knowledge, but the tools and experience to restore your home or business.
Call STOP Restoration
(803) 998-2456
For 24 Hour Water Damage Emergency Response
