Act Quickly When You Have Flood Damage

Flood water damage is a highly uncertain, yet very common problem for real estate owners in the U.S. 90% of all natural disasters in the U.S. involve flooding; so, if your home or office space is faced with such an uncertainty, the best action to take is to respond ASAP. You should not lose time in taking action, because the longer the water stays, the greater is the damage to your property.

Water damage due to floods affects your property in more ways than you can imagine.

1. Structural and aesthetic damage to property and personal belongings
2. Risk to health & Safety
3. Loss of Connectivity, communication channels
4. Economic loss and financial burden to victims.
5. Mental and emotional trauma

The NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) estimates that there’s a 25% probability that a property in high flood risk areas in the U.S. will be hit by flood damage, over an average 30-year mortgage period. Not only this; about 25% of flood insurance claims come from moderate-to low-risk areas. That makes water damage from floods an incredibly common but expensive hazard. It’s unfortunate that most home insurance policies do not cover losses due to flood water damage.

It can take years to re-build community life and return livelihoods to normalcy. Water damage problems get exacerbated with time; property damage due to water permeating your home must not be ignored.

Quite contrary to many other home emergencies, water damage persists long after the actual event has ceased.

Within an hour of the water damage event:

• Flowing water is soaked up by highly porous materials like sheetrock, drywall, and insulation.
• Furniture may render carpets stained or disfigured.
• Moisture-sensitive furniture may get deformed and discolored.
• Paperwork, fabrics get destroyed.

Between 1-24 hours of the flood:

• Laminates on furniture peel off, woodwork swells/warps/splits.
• Odor due to bacterial action starts developing.
• Uncoated metallic surfaces develop tarnishing.

2 to 7 days of the flood:

• Mold, mildew, other microbial growth begins growing
• Drywall swells up and disintegrates.
• Wooden articles like door and window casings, decking and studs swell and distort or delaminate.
• Electronic components may malfunction.

Beyond 7 days:

• Strong musty odor, irreversible mold growth.
• Disfiguration of wood, metal and ceramic components.
• Chemicals like paint, varnish dissolve, discolor or degrade.
• Serious occupant health hazards may occur.

Act Fast!

The first 24 to 48 hours after a flood attacks your home are critical to save your property from further deterioration. Get water damage restoration services on the scene ASAP, since they are available on call 24x7, and are armed with a plethora of tools and techniques to salvage the most out of a flood-ravaged property.

Every water damage event being distinct, each remediation process is also unique depending upon the specific conditions. While it may seem reasonable to take time to evaluate the situation before calling for aid, it can turn out to be a tremendous, expensive blunder. Flood damage cleanup is a priority task.

A water restoration expert will help you to not only clean up and extract the flood water, but also use special equipment to dehumidify and dry up your property, leaving no scope for water to strike havoc in your home again. Moreover, there are other benefits of employing the services of flood water cleanup contactors:

• disinfecting your home for microbial growth prevention,
• carpet and upholstery drying,
• salvaging important documents,
• repair and restoration.

Contacting an insurance agency is your next task. Once your home or office space has been cleared by competent public health & safety officials for re-entering after a devastating flood, you should take pictures of all damaged areas and document, with a guesstimate of the monetary values of the extent of water damage. This helps you, as an informed consumer, from being over-charged with unnecessary expenses before you sign a contract.

Bottomline:

We’ve mentioned all the critical points why you shouldn’t “wait and watch” when it comes to flood related issues. With the hours slipping past, the damage level may fast escalate from category-1 to 3 or even 4, with mounting expenses, apparent and hidden. Call an expert to remediate flood damage at the earliest!