A shop vacuum will easily get up the standing water, but it is a very poor choice if you want to protect your home from damage. If the room is carpeted a shop vacuum will remove water from the top of the carpet, but the vacuum is not strong enough to remove the water trapped in the carpet pad.
Here is an easy test to see if you have water trapped in the carpet cushion; 1) go to a corner and disengage the carpet from the tack less strip. Next carefully pull the carpet back until the padding that got wet is exposed. See if you can wring-out any water out of the pad – odds are you will have a very significant amount of standing water; or 2) get on your knees while wearing long pants, preferably jeans, and rock back and forth on your knees. If your pants get wet at the knees then you have a problem.
Another good indicator is if after 2-3 days your carpet starts to smell like a wet dog or towels that have been left in the wash machine for a couple days, you might want to give us a call.
WRONG! No floor is perfectly sealed and hardwoods vary greatly from one home to the next. Hardwood flooring may be pine or oak, site finished or pre-finished, natural wood or engineered (laminate). Water can easily get between the planks and get trapped underneath. While water may be good for a tree to help it grow, water is hardwood floorings worst enemy! Unless, of course, you like that cupped look.
For more information on hardwood flooring and water damage, log on to the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association at www.nofma.org.
Water wicks up drywall or sheetrock just like kerosene does in a lantern. The scientific explanation is the ability of a liquid to flow against gravity and spontaneously rise in porous materials (sheetrock!).
Good question. We use the best tools and meters available in the industry. We employ thermal imaging, penetrating and non-penetrating meters and bore scopes (to look under cabinets and inside wall cavities) to test and look for excessive moisture. If a material has excessive moisture content we perform an evaluation to determine if it can be dried and returned to its equilibrium moisture content (EMC) and its pre-loss condition.
If you have any questions regarding standards and protocols on water damage, please visit the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification website at www.iicrc.org. Feel free to search for our name – we have certified technicians and are a certified firm.
Wow – let’s see if we can name a few; below are the most common causes of water damage:
- wash machine hose bursting
- ice maker line
- dishwasher
- toilet overflow
- plumbing issues
- pipes bursting
- frozen pipes
- over filling the bath tub
- water supply line breaking
- water heater failing
- sprinkler system
- pipes in the crawl space leaking/spraying
- roof leaks
- flooding due to heavy rains
- sewer back-ups
Walk through your home and look at everything that uses water; faucets, toilets, appliances – and remember, behind the wall, or in the crawl space or attic is a pipe that you can’t see – all of these are potential causes for water damage.
No – there are different categories of water. We treat a water loss from a sanitary source, such as water from an icemaker line (Category 1 water), differently than a sewer back-up. The water in a sewer back-up (Category 3) is the most severe type of loss and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic or other harmful agents. Each Category of water has its own set of standards and guidelines for returning your property to a healthy state.
