Water Damage Safety Tips

Water Damage Safety Tips

5 STAR WATER DAMAGE Safety tips on what to Do or Not to do in the event of water damage at your home, office, or any property.

First and most importantly, your safety during a flood is more important than your property and other things involved in water damage. Water damage and flood can happen to anyone or any place without notice therefore you need to be as calm as possible to think and manage this well. Therefore, it is essential to keep in mind these great water damage safety tips to make the right decisions. We are certified and have years of experience in this area. Believe it or not, in the last 10 years, I had water damage in my own home twice due to frig or faucet problems that all happened when we were asleep during the night.

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN WATER DAMAGE HAPPENS AT YOUR PLACE:

** Do not enter a room with standing water until electricity has been turned off. 

** Do not use a regular household vacuum to remove water. 

** Do not attempt to start removing your wall-to-wall carpet.

** Do Not Delay water damage Cleanup

.What to do WHEN WATER DAMAGE HAPPEN AT YOUR PLACE: 

• Damage from water and bacterial growth can begin within hours.

Call for our professional assessment to prevent any secondary water damage and prevent mold formation, this will minimize the damage and cost.

• Remove as much water as possible by mopping and blotting.
• Remove any wet area rugs or other loose floor coverings

It is very important to know how to prevent mold after any water damage. How quickly you act within 24 hours is the key to prevent any further contamination and mold formation at your flooded home or office or workplace.

Depending on the source or cause of the flood, the water damage can be dangerous.

For example, A gushing plumbing leak can dump several gallons per minute into your home or office or any place that effected by this. You must act fast to stop the water leak stream ASAP. The main water valve must be shut off right away. Turn off the lowest faucet in the place that this water damage happened.

But there are still be a few gallons of water held in pipes above the leak. By turning off the lowest faucet in the house, or where this problem is, will let the water harmlessly drain out of the faucet instead of through the leaking pipe.

Do Not Delay water damage Cleanup

When water damage happens, you need to act quickly for arranging for clean-up. Cleaning up professionally by certified water damage restoration company, within 24 – 48 hours of flooding or any water damages to your property will greatly reduce the spread of mold within walls and your wet stuff, will prevent further damage, and eventually save your property and minimize the cost involved. For more information and professional help for your water damaged place from certified, insured, IICRC Certified Firm, insured with WSIB with years of experience.

The longer things stay wet, the more likely you will have permanent damage. 

Your first impulse will be to panic and rush to jump in and rescue your stuff.

Any water in contact with electricity might be deadly

But that water might be dangerous, so put on your boots and take precautions. Stay out of the water until you, an electrician or your utility has turned off the power in the area that has been flooded. Consider Flood waters dangerous, may contain toxic chemicals and will almost certainly breed dangerous bacteria depending on the source of water damage.

Protect cuts and open sores from floodwaters and wear plastic gloves when handling your possessions if you must. 

  Before Cleaning Anything regarding water damage or flooded area:

1. Before entering into water damage or flooded property, or you are in the house or office that flooded, , if you can and know how to check for structural damage and safety. Otherwise get professional help for your safety. If there is structural damage, let a professional secure the home and tell you when it is safe to enter.
2. Turn off the main power and each individual breaker or fuse to the home, even if power is not operational. You do not want it to come back on before an electrician can inspect. It is important to know, if your home is still holding water, like in a basement or crawl space, do not enter the home to turn off electricity, You may need to have it turned off at the street, call an electrician to verify. Gas lines may also need to be disconnected, again consult with a professional to verify.
3. Before cleaning anything, take as many pictures or video clips of all the water damaged areas if safe to do so. You might need these pictures and videos for insurance coverages and possible compensation.
4. Mold can develop within 24 to 48 hours. Remove all wet contents as soon as possible. This includes bedding, furniture, curtains, etc. Anything that was touched by water damage needs to be removed and discarded or dried, to check for mold and decide if it can be cleaned, repaired, and salvaged.
5. Wood and plastic can harbor bacteria, even after cleaning with a bleach solution. Cutting boards and plastic containers or other food contact wood and plastic needs to be thrown away.
6. Moisture and mold in the air can damage items, just as much as the flood. Inspect all items above the flood line to determine if they are water damaged or has mold
7. If there is mold, small or big areas need to remove professionally as soon as possible. As mold spreads easily to air and all over the house.  The cost of removing the mold when spreads all over is either very high or impossible to do mold-remediation mold remediation and lastly insurance companies do not cover for mold removal.

Even if the cabinets do not show damage, the drywall and insulation behind the cabinets will have water damage and will still be holding water. You do not want to provide a suitable environment for mold formation. There may even be water beneath the cabinets still.  water damage restoration certified professional will cut baseboards 2 feet to promote dying behind baseboards and wall, set up equipment to dry all the areas, flooring, drywall, and the behind baseboards, behind those cabinets, and wet insulation should be all taken out, dry behind and install new insulation.

When the carpet area is wet, Underpad is like Sponge and absorbs water. There is no way you can dry the wet under pad safely without promoting mold formation in that moist and warm wet underpad.

Only way to dry the wall to wall carpet, to professionally remove all wet underpads and disposed them. After drying and disinfecting the wet carpet, install a new underpad, stretch the carpet, and clean the carpet. carpet cleaning, install new under-pad, carpet stretching, will be the last steps of repair after drying the water damaged areas, by professional water damage and carpet cleaning certified technicians.

Dry and clean the carpet and install bard new Underpad. Underpad is inexpensive and easily can be installed by professional and certified  water damage technicians

 Disinfect All the Things involved in water damage that is safe to keep

As a last note, the whole area with contents before, during, and after the drying process will be, will completely disinfected by professionals. Remember as I mentioned before about that bacteria, sewage, mold, and other hazardous items being in the water depending on the source of water and type of water damage.

At, Last, Water damage need to be taken care of professionally and quickly within 24-48 hours, to prevent secondary water damage, prevent mold formation, to minimize the cost, and save property. It is always worthwhile to let water damage Professional to take care of it. 

For professional 24/7 water damage restoration in GTA, or any question or need any information, please contact us at 5 Star Cleaning 

Toll Free # 1855 697 9889 & 416 315 7562 & 416 270 7717

[email protected]   & [email protected]

5 Star Cleaning is a certified firm by IICRC, with water damaged certified, insured, and professional crew with WSIB that can provide ant 24/7 water damage restoration services, repair services after water damage, and wet carpet, rug, and upholstery cleaning services in GTA and Toronto.

Source: Bahman Geran

416 315 7562

April 20/2020