Water Damage: 4 things to do within 4 hours of discovering your wet Parkville/Carney basement

3/8/2016 (Permalink)

It’s 7am and your basement is flooded; you’re panicking. This is the first time this has ever happened to you. You’ve got to leave for work and you’re maybe already running late. “Do I handle this now or later?” Here are the 4 things you must do within 4 hours of your basement flooding.

Take a few deep breadths, call your boss/roommate/spouse/kids and get to work:

1. If it can be done safely, determine the source, and stop water form coming in.

Did it rain like cats and dogs last night? Is water coming from the hot water heater? Maybe your refrigerator (sometimes, the icemaker line breaks and causes extensive flooding). Turn the water off, or skip to step two if it is storm related and it’s still raining.

2. Move items out of the wet areas

Do what you can without hurting yourself, do not do heavy lifting or awkward bending if your doctor has instructed you not to. Start by “block” furniture (place aluminum foil under furniture legs or wood blocks, this prevents the furniture from staining the flooring, this happens often when a water damage occurs). 

Wipe water excess from surfaces after removing lamps and objects on top, and move wet area rugs away from floors, their dyes often bleed and stain wood flooring and carpet.  Perhaps the garage, or on top of a large trashbag/tarp.

The mitigation company should handle the rest, Here is how the SERVPRO System handles your contents

3. Remove excess water with towels, or Mop.

Blot or mop excess water from carpet with clean neutral colored towels and clean mops. (heavily dyed or soiled towels may bleed and dye the area)

4. Schedule repairs and mitigation services to restore your wet basement. 

If you’ve determined the source, call to schedule to have it fixed immediately, then call your insurance company to file a claim if you wish to, then call an IICRC certified restoration company. 

Not all Restoration companies are equal

Get to know your options and make sure to read reviews from their website and from review sites, inspect before and after pictures, and check certifications. This is not something that anyone can do, in fact the proper equipment and chemicals aren’t even available to those who are not properly trained, licensed and insured in this field, all of which cost thousands and thousands of dollars each year to renew not to mention the mind boggling costs to get trained. Hiring an amateur or someone who considers themselves a handyman will lead to future problems and a bigger bill in the long run, and often times these handymen cost triple what a normal emergency restoration company would charge in the first place. 

IF this is a storm situation, be prepared to be put your name on many waiting lists. During the Polar Vortex, we averaged at about 15 new calls per hour for 3 days, Hurricane Sandy we received 120 calls in 4 hours; this is a standard circumstance for storm situations for Disaster recovery specialists.  Lucky if you call us, we will have “Storm Teams” come to our area from other states to help with disaster recovery.

If it’s not a storm situation, they will likely be able to begin services at your soonest convenience if the water has stopped coming in, and when a crew or manager is able to be dispatched.

Water in your basement can be scary if you don’t know what to expect, and not knowing what to do when flooding happens makes it all that more intimidating. Following these steps will let you regain control until help arrives.