About two years ago, we were hired by a customer to mitigate water damage in her home. There had been a leak in her kitchen supply line that damaged her floors and spread across most of the home. She attempted to clean up and dry the affected areas herself for a couple weeks, but eventually realized she may need some help, so she contacted STOP Restoration of Winston Salem, NC.
When we arrived on site and began to assess the extent of the damage, we noticed evidence of a previous water issue near the area we were working on, but we were told by the homeowner that it had nothing to do with the recent event and she did not want us to mitigate that area.
The homeowner wanted to minimize the scope of repairs and inconvenience so she didn’t want a lot of flooring removed even though it was damaged by the water. We advised her that everything needed to be thoroughly dried or she would have more issues down the line, but she refused our advice and limited our scope of work to her kitchen rather than allowing us to work in the other water damaged areas.
While working in the crawlspace we noticed several issues with the engineered floor trusses. Someone had cut through one to run plumbing up to the water heater and the weakened joist was directly under the water heater. We notified her of the issue and suggested she have a structural engineer evaluate if the flooring system had been compromised by the damaged truss. Again, this customer refused our advice.
Fast forward to now and a section of her flooring is beginning to sink. The damaged floor is roughly 1” below the bottom of the wall at its lowest point. We inspected under the home and found that the section of floor she would not allow us to remove and dry properly had begun to rot. Additionally, the stress on the adjacent trusses caused a second truss to split and that truss was now beginning to bow down.
Because we weren’t allowed to work on all of her home’s water damaged areas during the first visit, she will now have to spend several thousand dollars on structural repairs in the crawlspace. Her water heater and HVAC system will have to be removed so that the floor can be repaired, creating a big inconvenience in her daily life. Luckily, she has a great insurance company and they are helping her with some of the issues directly related to the water damage. Unfortunately, the structural damage from the trusses will come at her own expense and there’s a good chance that during the process of fixing her trusses, her previously repaired floors will incur damage again.
When you have a water loss in your home or business, call us immediately! STOP Restoration technicians are trained specifically to mitigate damage caused by water. In some cases, that means flooring or walls will have to be removed, but that is only done to ensure your health and safety. Our experts will do everything necessary to ensure the area is safe and that you won’t have recurring issues in the future. The key to successful water damage mitigation lies in listening to our advice and letting us do what needs to be done to ensure your safety.
Call STOP Restoration of Winston Salem, NC today at (336) 829-5345 at the first sign of any damage to your property so we can mitigate any losses to your home or business!
