3 Things To Know When Dealing With Water Damage
If you just found water damage in your home, from a burst pipe or from someone letting a bathtub or sink overflow, here are the three things that you need to understand about cleaning up water damage.
#1 Gear Up First
Before you deal with with the water damage, the first thing that you are going to want to do is gear yourself up. Your safety should always come first. That may mean making a quick trip to the store before you start to clean up the water damage if you don't have the right supplies on hand.
You are going to want to have gloves, masks, and rain boots on hand to protect you from the water and any possible contaminates that got into the water. It is vitally important that you protect yourself first before you worry about cleaning up your home. You'll want to keep all pets and children out of the way while you clean up as well.
#2 Get Damaged Goods Out Of The Way
Once you are geared up and ready to go, the first thing that you are going to want to do is remove damaged goods from the water, before you even attempt to remove the water. Getting damaged goods, such as books, picture albums, artwork, and clothing out of the water as fast as you can is the best way to save them.
Hand them off to a family member who can put them outside on a plastic sheet, where you can deal with saving them at a later point in time. The less time that your items spend in the water, the better chance they have of being saved and restored.
#3 Remove The Water
The third thing you need to focus on is removing the water. Turn off and stop the flow of water into your home if at all possible. Then, start getting the water out of your home.
How you get the water out of your home depends on how much water there is and where the water is located. You may need to bail the water out, bucket by bucket, in order to get the water out of your home. If the water is piled up by a door, you can open the door to let the water out.
From there, you rent a wet-dry vacuum to get the rest of the water out of your home. This will help get out the last couple of inches that you can't really just scope up and remove.
To really get rid of all the moisture that has soaked into everything, you'll want to run some fans and dehumidifiers for a few days to ensure that all the moisture is gone.