Water damage in your home and be a challenging problem that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. The longer you wait to have your home professionally cleaned by a water damage restoration service, the more damage your property incurs. Failure to act quickly will inevitably lead to higher repair costs, and, in many cases, even more, expensive replacement costs.
Emergency water damage companies are designed to minimize your cost while preserving every component of your home’s interior and exterior. So when there is standing water in every room, the last thing you want to do is wait it out. You’ll wind up regretting not picking up the phone sooner. If you want to know just how bad water damage can be, then read below. Afterward, give Just Floods a call and let us give you some helpful hints on what you can do to prepare your house and your family if your home suffers from a flood.
Immediate Damage
First, it’s important to note that all water is destructive. Even if the water is merely trickling out of a broken pipe, it can cause many components in your home to corrode or weaken the framework. But in the Miami or Delray Beach area where hurricanes or flash floods are possible, water is like to destroy your home on impact. It can come crashing through windows, bust down doors, and even break through vinyl siding and drywall. Once it enters your home, it can wreak havoc as it barrels through every room destroying furniture, turning over appliances, and frying all electronics along the way. Within minutes your entire home is turned upside down leaving you and your family shocked at the amount of devastation in such a small period.
Standing Water
Some of the water will subside and drain out. If your house is well built with proper insulation such as spray foam, there’s a good chance that the water will remain in the home (assuming your doors and walls haven’t been busted out. What lies beneath the standing water is where much of the long-term destruction will take place. Your goal should be to get the water out of the house as soon as possible. This is why an emergency water removal service is valuable. Rather than using buckets and towels to soak up the water, they can provide pumps that remove all flooding from the interior in just minutes. Standing water can cause a homeowner to go from incurring minimal costs to shelling out thousands of dollars in repairs.
Electrical Damage
Water can cause a home’s electrical system to overload and destroy it upon contact. Electrocution occurs if someone is in the home and the electrical current flows through the water. Although this is rare, it is a possibility. Most electrical systems can survive a limited amount of contact. No system can survive a flood, however. If the water level is low, the overload will trigger the electrical panel, and the fuse will be blown cutting off the circulation. Any wiring, outlets or electronic devices will be spared. Once the water level reaches the fuse box, however, the entire system is destroyed including all components. Within the first 48 hours, the electrical system will begin corroding, and rust will set in throughout all parts. The entire network will need to be replaced.
Floors, Walls, and Ceilings
Water is like air. It will find its way into anything. Even well-constructed wood flooring or properly sealed tile will not be able to withstand the pressure of standing water for more than a few hours. Eventually, it will seep into the subflooring, through the baseboards, and through the drywall. The longer it stands, the worse it gets. Your wood slats will begin to buckle, mold will set in throughout the walls, and the framework will expand, crack, and possible even buckle. When the structure’s stability is compromised, the home may shift or lean. Although treated wood is designed to either resist moisture or contract once it dries, it may still be in a weakened state.
Mold and Contamination
From a health perspective flooding is toxic. The extensive list of items that can be found underneath the surface is disgusting. First, obvious: sewage. Excess water can cause plumbing systems to back up and spew sewage back into the house. With sewage comes a widespread bacterium. Water also lifts daily dirt and grime from the floors and spreads it around the house. Do you have any chemicals in your homes such as cleansers, paint, insecticides, oil or gasoline? It’s all in the water now, and it can cause burning and toxicity in the skin and bloodstream. You may also be unaware that there could be dead animals floating around. And finally, you never know what the water has brought with it into the house.
Mold inspections should be done right after any water damage emergency, it can become costly and potentially dangerous if it begins to grow indoors. Indoor mold growth begins when mold spores land on damp or wet spots on your carpet, wall, ceiling, furniture, fabric, and other indoor materials.
What You Should Do in the First 48 Hours
If you are in a home that is flooding the first course of action is to grab your family and get out. If you are unable to, then get to higher ground such as a second floor or the roof. If you’re not home and you suspect that the interior is flooding, the first thing to do is call a water damage restoration service in Southern Florida such as Just Floods. The faster you can contact a company the more likely you are to get the water out of your home and begin the restoration process. You will also need to call your insurance company and inform them of the damage once a water repair contractor has inspected the interior. Whatever you do, avoid trying to clean up or repair your home yourself. If you leave the repair to professionals, you will avoid possible injury and ensure that the job is done right to preserve your home.
At Just Floods we’ve saved thousands of homes from water damage in our 25 years of service. Please visit our website for more information.
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Author Bio:
John Donahue is the owner of Just Floods, the top water removal company in Florida for over 25 years.
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