Water Damage Restoration

Water damage can often be a fairly scary, and often intimidating thing for most homeowners. Usually, the cause for extensive water damage can be a sudden and unexpected thing. Some examples of the causes of water damage are things like a burst pipe, sudden flood, backed up sewage, or possibly your kids leaving the water running while you were out. If the water damage is overly extensive, as it usually is, you are going to want some professionals to come in and do the water damage restoration instead of you doing it yourself. This way you don't miss something, and allow some mold to begin growing and causing health problems for you and your family.

Before you run off and hire the first company that you can find, there are a few things that you can do to begin the process of water damage restoration. Use these guidelines to ensure that you don't overextend yourself, and will allow you to get a good start on what needs to be done.

• Turn it off. The very first thing that you need to do is turn everything off. If the water damage is the result of a burst pipe or your children leaving the water running, then you need to turn two things off. The first is the electricity, and the second is the water. You don't want to get electrocuted if you can avoid it. If the water damage is due to another cause, then you want to only turn off the electricity.
• Call the professionals. Begin calling the professionals when you find extensive water damage, particularly when you find water that has risen to at least ankle depth. Your first call should be to your insurance agent. The reason for this is that, if you have the proper coverage, they can help pay for all the damage. Even if you don't have the right coverage, they will need to know the change in your property status, so that they can make the appropriate changes to your policy. There is also the side benefit that they may know someone that you can call to come over and work on your house.
• Begin drying out. While you are waiting for your insurance agent, or the cleaning company, to come over you need to begin drying things out. If at all possible, begin removing some of the furniture, and other items from the damaged areas. This will allow the workers easier access to the areas that need to be worked on, as well as allow you to assess some of the damage first hand. Allow any specific clean up to wait until the cleaning crew get's there, and allow them to do their job.
• When not to enter the water. A really good rule of thumb as to when you should, or should not enter any water damaged area is if the water damage comes from backed up sewer lines. If you see any type of waste floating around, or know for a fact that the water damage is from a backed up sewer line, then under no circumstances do you enter the water. Leave that type of work to the professionals.