If you have had a flood, a burst pipe or a leaking roof, you may be dealing with water damage in your home. If so, this can be extremely distressing as so many important belongings can be damaged along with the property mess you will now have to cope with.
These five steps that were curated with the help of the pros at Water Damage Denver will help you deal with water damage in your home and make dealing with the aftermath as easy and short lived as possible.
Power supply — Before you even consider dealing with any property damage, you must be sure you turn off the power to your home.
Any power source in a home that is flooded or has water damage can be extremely dangerous, so caution should be your first priority. You can turn it back on once you have assessed the damage and figured out the rooms that are safe and those that are currently not.
Locate the problem — Your next step should be to locate where the water is coming from and, if possible, stop it.
If it is a leaking roof and rain is still forecast, try to get a tarpaulin over the hole until a roofing contractor can come to assess the damage.
If it is a burst pipe, find it and turn off the water to that part of the house.
If the water damage is due to a flood, remove any furniture or other items that can easily be moved and avoid using that area of the house until flooding has subsided. The faster you can move items out of the water and on to a higher floor, the less chance there is of valuable or sentimental items being damaged beyond salvage.
Remove the water — Once you have pipes turned off, leaking roofs stopped or flooding has subsided, you can begin removing the water from each room.
This can be done with a pump if the amount of water is substantial. If you do not have a pump, a shop vac will often do as good of a job. It just may take longer to complete the task.
If there is an enormous amount of water, sometimes the fire department will be willing and able to help.
Let the area dry — There is no point setting up appointments for damage to be repaired or repainting to commence until the area that has been damaged has dried out.
This will take several days so take that into consideration when you begin calling plasterers, painters or hard wood floor companies.
In many cases, it may also be a good idea to keep the room heated for a few days just to be sure there are no damp patches left.
After all, you do not want to have to deal with mildew months after the water damage has been repaired.
