The first thing to consider when a room in your house floods is to shut off the water and then call STOP Restoration in Crowley Tx at 682.703.0213. STOP Restoration in Crowley Texas has years of experience drying homes and businesses in a timely and efficient manner. Some homes will have a main water shut off valve where the water line comes into the home from the city or county, but all homes will have a main water shut off valve outside the home most often in front of the house on the curb. They are often located in small boxes in the ground and that is generally where the water meter is located. Once the water is no longer coming into the home the next priority is to limit how much additional damage occurs, this will reduce the overall cost of the project. Keep in mind that mold can develop in 24 to 48 hours and so in many ways it is a race against time. In most instances where a room or house has been flooded a few box fans are not going to be sufficient to dry things out properly. There are also things to consider like just because something looks dry does not mean that it is dry or does not contain excessive moisture content. STOP restoration uses tools specifically designed to detect excess moisture such as thermal imaging cameras, moisture meters and hygrometers. Fans alone generally will not dry water damaged walls, floors or ceilings, most often effective and timely drying requires a combination of equipment including air movers, dehumidifiers and HEPA air filtration devices. We also need to determine which walls have insulation within them and is that insulation wet or not. Without the proper tools and training this is a very difficult task for a homeowner to accomplish with any degree of certainty. Thankfully STOP Restoration in Crowley TX has the training and tools necessary to conduct these assessments.
Other things to be aware of
- Get the furniture out of the water we will either move them to unaffected areas in the house or at a minimum elevate the furniture out of the water using Styrofoam blocks.
- Carpet padding will not dry fast enough and even if the carpet can be saved it is important to remove the padding.
- Insulation is a respiratory irritant and not something that you want to breathe, unfortunately when ceilings get wet, they sometimes fall in and insulation falls with it. Before we start drying, we will set up containment areas to eliminate the spread of contamination and establish a drying chamber that allows us to control the temperature and humidity. We will also HEPA vacuum the areas of the home where the insulation may have fallen, this in combination with HEPA air filtration devices will ensure that this irritant is not allowed to spread around your home.
- When water damage or flooding occurs, it is important that we reduce the relative humidity in the home below 40%. If we can reduce the relative humidity to a value below 40% it is much less likely that mold will develop
These are just a few things to be aware of if your home floods, you can try to remember all of this or you can call STOP Restoration, when it come to water damage and home flooding we the training, experience and equipment to make sure the job is done right the first time.
