Everything You Need To Know About Water Damage

You built your home with great care, right from the foundation to the last roof tile. What could be a greater nightmare than soaking wet furniture, flooded floors, leaky pipes?

Water damage plagues nearly 40% of all US households annually. It’s no wonder that so many people across the nation end up spending exorbitant amounts simply on reparation and restoration of water-damaged properties.

Check out this ready reckoner to battle Water Damage.

1. Water Damage Causes

Water damage is caused by a wide range of factors and events. In many cases, these events are beyond your control and mine; but others can be kept in check by timely preventive maintenance activities.

• Poor/inadequate ventilation
• Condensation and humidity due to faulty air conditioning vents, ill-ventilated bathrooms/kitchens, etc.
• Leaking roof, Aging ceiling/walls
• Poor plumbing lines, leaky pipes, or gutters
• Natural disasters like Torrential rain, hail, melting snow, hurricanes, floods.
• Bursting or overflowing sewer lines 

2. Water Damage Categories

• Hard Water – is water that has high mineral content with magnesium and calcium carbonates. More importantly, it can cause the build-up of limescale that can often reduce water flow in pipes, potentially leading to your home appliance’s failure. Hard water is non-neglectable water damage.
• Clean Water – water spillage from a sanitary water source. It doesn’t pose substantial health risks.
• Grey Water – water with a slight degree of biomedical/chemical contamination, such as toilet bowls with urine, laundry, dishwashers, etc. It may be treated or handled by a layperson with appropriate PPEs.
• Black or Toxic water is grossly contaminated and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic, or other harmful agents. It is hazardous and requires you to employ a professional for clean-up. Sewage, toilet backflows that originate from beyond the toilet trap

3. Water Damage Impacts

Water damage manifests itself visibly as well as invisibly with financial, physical, mental, and emotional implications. The early warning signs of water damage often go unnoticed. Slowly but steadily, the severity of damage can shoot upwards exponentially if one does not act on time.

• Health Impact: Seepage of contaminated water, molding, stagnant water are potential health hazards.
• Physical injury or loss of life due to structural weaknesses caused by water damage.
• Financial Impact: Reparation and restoration of Structural Damage are costly. Damaged plumbing/sewage pipes need immediate expert attention; else, they sum up to quite a hefty amount in the long run. Soaked carpets, ceiling, and furniture destroyed precious family possessions, vital paperwork, and personal items are some other aspects. Mold and mildew are hard to get rid of; you may even need to destroy items succumbing to mold.
• Humidity & moisture may cause corrosion, deformation, decay, and molding.
• Disruption of normal routine life due to water damage, permanent or temporary

4. Preventing Water Damage

We cannot stress it enough: take time to check for water damage periodically. Preventive maintenance can save you a lot in reparations in case a serious eventuality occurs.

• Invest in Basement Waterproofing.
• Get your property insured against water damage or floods.
• If your house tends to have standing water on roofs or enclosures, provide an appropriate outlet to direct this water away from the superstructure.
• Mend damaged drywalls, plaster, flooring, and roofs in the dry season well in advance. Older houses or roofs with previous damage may seem to be strong but will fail in particularly terrible precipitation.
• Fix leaky plumbing lines, and get the sewer system in your property checked regularly.

5. Step-by-Step Water Damage Mitigation

If the extent of water damage is huge, you need to act fast and smart.

• Disconnect the main power supply board and cooking gas.
• Contact your Insurance Company.
• Clean-up debris 24-48 hours after getting clearance from an official.
• Dry-Up all traces of moisture.
• Contact a Water Damage specialist.
• Proceed with Repair and Restoration.

6. Water Damage Cary Professionals

If you’re living in Cary, NC, you may have experienced various degrees of water damage. Water damage Cary NC Restoration Companies will be ready on call to help you with the debris clean-up the mess & restoration. They can address your water damaged home through:

• Water Damage Mitigation: Water Extraction, Debris removal, Clean-up, salvage, demolition (if needed), drying.
• Water Damage Restoration: Repair and rebuild of building materials such as drywall, carpet, hardwood, and other building materials.