Heavy and prolonged rainfall is one of the leading causes of floods. Wherever you live, specifically if you are surrounded by rivers, dams, or drainage basins, you can experience flooding. Occasionally a burst pipe can also be the cause.
What if you’re faced with major house damage? After you save your family, you have to manage your belongings next. However, this can be a race against the clock, considering that mold can develop in the next 48 hours. Below are guidelines for how to save what you want and get rid of what cannot:
1. Identify the Type of Water that Invaded Your Home
You have to identify the kind of water you’re managing – dirty, salty, or contaminated with sewage or harmful chemicals. If your belongings have come in contact with toxic water, you might need professional disaster remediation services. Trying to retrieve and clean them may be dangerous to your overall health. If the water is not contaminated, reduce the humidity around your belongings as you clean and dry them.
2. Prioritize Your Belongings
It’s possible that you can not save everything after the flood, so focus on the most important to you, whether for cash or sentimental reasons. Though your insurance can replace all the expenses of your damaged items, some are not irreplaceable, like shoeboxes, photo albums, receipts, and legal documents.
3. Dry Your House’s Indoor
In most cases, everything remains damp, specifically if the rain increases the moisture in your place, even after removing the standing water. It’s always best to air dry it if the weather allows. Open your windows to allow indoor airflow.
Or else, use dehumidifiers, air conditioners, and fans. Avoid using irons, ovens, hairdryers, and prolonged exposure to sunlight, causing permanent damages.
4. Arrange Your Possessions and Manage with Care
Separate soaked from dry materials, like eliminating photographs from damp albums or taking paintings and prints from their frames. Be sure to place white paper towels between every few pages of wet books you want to restore. Most importantly, take care of wet things with care because they can be fragile.
Numerous companies can help you recover your valuables and ensure their quality. You may start searching online to find reliable professionals near you. For instance, search pack out services Redmond if you’re around the area.
5. Clean Carefully
Use soft fabric and brushes to loosen dirt and debris on fragile items. Avoid rubbing that can crush dirt. For porcelains, use a dry cloth to remove any dust and a small, soft-bristled brush to extract dust from crevices and tiny holes.
Gently rinse photographs in clean water before air-drying them on paper towels or plastic screens. Hang them with plastic clothespins. Avoid letting the picture come in contact with other surface areas when it’s drying out. You may visit this page and read more about water damage restoration.
6. Store Valuables and Dispose of Damaged Items
Get rid of objects and items that cannot be saved right away. Place them in open, unsealed bags or boxes. If you can’t attend to your belongings in 48 hours, you can put them in the freezer for cleaning later.
Generally, you can freeze some items that can not be dried out in two days, including documents, books, fabrics, and pictures. This stops molds from growing and dyes from transferring. It can also allow you to do other essential things.
7. Throw Away the Debris
Eliminate wet items from your house as soon as you can return home to your house after the flood. Rather than waiting on your insurance to document the damage, you can do it yourself by taking videos and pictures.
Experts recommend the following on how you can sort out your items right into the following categories:
- Hazardous household waste. Paints, batteries, and cleaning supplies
- Vegetation debris. Plants, leaves, and tree branches
- Building materials. Drywall, carpeting, mattresses, furniture
- Electronics. Computer, TV, and stereo equipment
- Huge appliances. Water heaters, air conditioning systems, and refrigerators
- Bagged household garbage. Packaging, food, and paper