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Water damage can occur without warning at any home or business. This causes ruined building materials, mold growth, soaked documents, and wrecked furniture. After a flood from a storm or a burst pipe, cleaning up can be tough. Figuring out where to begin might feel overwhelming.
Calling in restoration professionals can put you on the path toward recovery. Knowing what to expect once help arrives may help you feel more confident about the process.
As a water mitigation service, we specialize in restoring damage utilizing our water restoration process. We can help you with water removal and water extraction from affected areas.
What Is Water Damage Mitigation?
Unlike restoration, mitigation is performed to reduce the immediate impact of the flood. When mitigation technicians arrive, they will review the situation and decide what immediate steps to take to reduce the damage. This may include:
- Stemming the spread of floodwater
- Sealing off flooded rooms
- Removing items at risk for damage (electronics, etc.)
Mitigation may help lower the overall cost of flood repair. And prevent adjacent areas from being impacted by contaminated water.
What is The Difference Between Mitigation and Restoration?
Mitigation involves immediate actions taken to minimize the impact of water damage. These may include stopping the source of water, removing excess water, and preventing further damage. It’s about reducing the initial harm caused by the water.
Restoration, on the other hand, focuses on the process of fully restoring the property to its pre-damaged condition. It includes repairing and rebuilding damaged areas, cleaning, sanitizing, and ensuring the space is safe and functional again. Mitigation is the initial rapid response, while restoration encompasses the full repair and recovery process.
What is the Importance of Water Damage Mitigation?
Water damage mitigation is crucial to protect your property and health. Different types of water – from clean rainwater to contaminated floodwater – can pose varied risks. This necessitates a tailored approach for each.
The process often involves the use of specialized equipment like air movers to expedite drying and prevent further damage. Moreover, immediate mitigation can ward off potential health hazards. Health hazards such as mold growth, bacteria, and other pathogens are often associated with stagnant water.
Engaging a professional water damage restoration company ensures that these threats are promptly and efficiently addressed. Furthermore, immediate mitigation is often a requirement of insurance companies.
This is to validate your claim, making it a critical step in recovering from water-related incidents. In essence, water damage mitigation is more than property preservation. It’s about ensuring the safety and well-being of its inhabitants.
What Initial Steps Might Be Taken?
When the flood experts come, they’ll check how bad things are. If it’s United Water Restoration Group, they’ll see where the flood’s coming from and try to stop it by turning off your water. Then, they’ll figure out how to get rid of the water left behind by the flood.
How Is The Water Drained Away?
One of the first steps remediation technicians may take after grading the water is to drain it. Large tanker trucks that utilize hoses may be brought in, as might portable underwater sump pumps.
If your basement floods from a pump failure, technicians might use a trash pump. This is to get rid of sand, mud, or debris that came in from outside or through the sewer.
Your mitigation workers may wear specialized equipment during this phase. Especially if the water is Category 3, which usually contains raw sewage, gray water, and other dangerous contaminnts.
How Are Items Salvaged?
You may be concerned about your most valuable or precious belongings in the wake of a flood. Because not only can dirty water ruin upholstery and fabric, it may also leave foul odors behind.
Your technicians may be able to pull certain items from the flood, such as furniture, clothing, or important documents. They’ll be looking to inspect and gauge whether they can be cleaned. Some porous items, such as plastic kitchen utensils or children’s toys, may need to be replaced.
Will Flood Cuts Be Performed?
If flood water has affected any drywall in your home or business, your flood remediation technicians may perform flood cuts in one or more rooms. These cuts are made into the wall about a foot above the water line. This is to ensure the interior walls have not taken on water and that wiring and insulation have not been damaged.
These cuts may also be made several days after the flood to check for mold growth, which can be common after a major flood. If mold is discovered behind your walls, the insulation and drywall itself will likely have to be replaced.
Does Homeowners’ Insurance Cover Remediation?
Extensive remediation may be necessary after a flood. However, you may not be certain if any part of your homeowners’ insurance will cover the cost. Your flood damage technicians may be able to advise you about some aspects of coverage. But it is wise to contact your local representative directly.
Some policies do not cover outdoor flooding. However, if the source of the water damage comes from a worn pipe in your rented apartment or a damaged water line owned by the county, you might not have to pay for the cleanup.
How Are Odors Removed?
Even when dirty floodwaters are removed, unpleasant odors may linger for days or even weeks. Your remediation professionals may discuss removal techniques with you. These may include the use of ozone machines to clear the air in and around the area and use thermal foggers on furniture and other items you want to salvage. Persistent damp odors could signal the presence of mold, so you may want to have them inspected.
Air scrubbers are used in water restoration to clean and purify the air. They do this by removing mold spores, dust, odors, and other particles that can linger after water damage. They help improve air quality during the restoration process, making the environment safer and healthier to breathe.
Understanding what your water damage experts will do can ease your worries about water damage cleanup, no matter where the flood comes from. Get ready for the process by asking questions. This way, you won’t be surprised by the steps they’ll take to fix your home.
Check out the video below for everything you need to know about Water Damage Restoration & Water Damage Mitigation.
Adan: Wow. Now I know you’ve been in the field for a long time. Can you tell us a little bit about what are the common causes of water damage that you’ve seen recur over and over again?
Liam: Well, it can be supply lines behind the wall or outside of the wall for any type of sink, toilet, shower, what have you. Your washing machine can overflow. Your toilets can overflow. Or you could have potential roof damage and have outside water coming in. Or obviously, the hurricanes or floods can occur as well.
Adan: Especially for some of you guys who live in the northeast, sometimes you get frozen pipes. Sometimes if, say you leave the home and you forget to leave the heating on and you come back to potentially a flooded home. So that’s obviously very, very dangerous. Now typically when that actually happens, you’re going to see signs, right? There’s going to be warping. There’s going to be things. What are some other common signs of water damage around the components of the home that you’ve seen?
Liam: Well, you can have obvious water staining. If it’s in your carpet and you don’t notice it right away, you can get a musty odor. Or if it’s underneath cabinets where you can’t see certain things, obviously warping in your building materials, caulking lines are starting to crack on your baseboards or your crown molding on the ceiling. There’s a lot of different ways that it can go undetected for a little bit of time.
Adan: I think that’s probably the scariest part about water damage mitigation in the restoration process, it’s the unknown. Because if you have water damage, I mean there’s some danger there especially with mold.
Liam: You have multiple different points of building materials and it’s not what you can see. It’s what you can see. We have insulation in attics. We have them on the walls. All that damage behind there that you can’t see right away. We would like to open that up and be able to make sure that the home is safe and you don’t have anything festering behind your building materials.
Adan: That’s great advice. Now let’s say some of our homeowners are watching this, let’s say they actually come across some mold or some water damage. What are some of the precautions they can take immediately prior to calling for help?
Liam: Well definitely don’t put any fans on any discoloration or anything along those lines to try and dry it out yourself because you could actually do more harm than better because you could aerosolize the damaged materials into the air and then compromise your immune system that way.
Adan: That actually will make the mold spread even faster. Right? Because you’re not pushing the mold spores into the HVA system. Now you have mold inside of that system and it’s almost like a virus. It just tends to spread.
Liam: Absolutely. And it will.
Adan: Now can you tell us a little bit about the process? A lot of the calls that we get, especially here at United, a lot of the homeowners are a little bit confused and not really sure of how this whole process works. Can you walk us a little bit through what a typical restoration job looks like?
Liam: Absolutely. It’s good to get us out on site so we can get an inspection. We’re not magicians or anything. We rely on our equipment to tell us what’s going on. That’ll lead us to exactly where it came from. Our first job is to make sure that the source has been corrected, that the water is not still coming into the home. Then we can figure out a way to dry it, minimally invasive. If it’s a dangerous material like mold or sewage, then we would have to remove the materials out of the property for your safety.
Adan: Wow, that’s great. Great advice. Now I have a question. Does that process differ between residential and commercial properties?
Liam: A lot of times it could be the same thing. It’s all about the source of the water and how quickly we get out there. If we get out there the same day, we can usually save a lot of things if it is a clean water loss. Now if it’s not clean, then we would recommend being removed from the site. But given the size would be more equipment in a commercial and less equipment in a residential. But it’s the same process. We have to dry out the home. We have to get it to a standard level of dryness and a safety level.
Adan: Well listen, that’s been amazing advice. I want to thank you so much for answering some of these questions. If you guys have any kind of water loss, any kind of mold issue, anything to do with the components and damage to your home, definitely give us a call to the United Water Restoration Group.
Adan: We are a 24/7 restoration and mitigation company. Hopefully, you’ll get an expert technician like Liam here to your home. So if you guys have any questions, please leave us a question. Leave us a comment below the video. We’d love to answer it in a future episode of Restoration Talks. Until next time.
United Water Restoration is a leading water mitigation company serving the sunshine state of Florida. Coverage spans across Ormond Beach, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Melbourne, and many more locations. When a water source threatens your property, we’re just a call away. Our team of experts specializes in water remediation. We turn the tide against potential damage and ensure your home or business stays safe and dry.
We are more than a restoration company. We are your partners in the face of natural disasters or unexpected damages. Our services extend beyond professional cleaning, including comprehensive repairs and restoration. When an insurance claim becomes necessary, we are right there to guide you, helping to restore not just your property but peace of mind. Trust United Water Restoration to make the difference when it matters most.
