• Tue. Mar 19th, 2024

Cleaning Up After A Flood

ByLucille

Sep 14, 2017

There are not too many people that live in temperate areas that have not considered looking at the flood plain maps in their area to ensure that they won’t have flooding at some point.  The truth is, with the constant change in weather patterns over the past few decades, even if you are on a 100 year flood plain, you could see a problem sooner than you think.

Of course, if you have just had a flood in your area, it is a different story.  Ensuring that your home has the flood damage cleared from it as soon as possible becomes the most important narrative.

Here are some considerations that most homeowners will end up making when they experience a flood and have to clean their home afterwards:

How to pack things out:

If you have insurance the covers the items in your home and you need to remove water from your basement or any other room in your house, you will likely need to remove the furniture and other belongings that you have in your home in order to complete the flood cleanup without any impediments.

Using a company like DKI services, you can quickly find professionals that are available nationwide to assist you.  The nice thing about using a contractor with flood experience is that they are adept at inventorying and then moving and storing your possessions while they renovate the floor and walls in your home.  So if your insurance covers it, take a look at using an experienced contractor.

What to save:

There are going to be times when you go through your home after a flood that you recognize that you will probably have to throw away some personal items because they cannot be salvaged or cleaned.  When you work with a group of professionals to inventory your items, they will be able to tell you right away whether or not it is possible to repair your goods.

For your more expensive items, you will want to make video and share that with your insurance people.  The reason that you should work with your insurance and get an okay is that they will check the salvage value and compare it to the damage before giving you the okay to save it or replace it.

What to repair:

Some people probably don’t realize that once you receive insurance money, you do not always need to apply it to repairs on your home.  You could take a nice vacation instead.  The truth is, however, even for areas that you probably need to repair, you may not always want to repair them because you may be looking at a chronic problem.  If you have basement flooding once a year, repairing your basement just puts you into position to have to go out and repair it again next year.

Fortunately, when you have a contractor helping you that has a lot of water damage experience, they should be able to make some repair suggestions that can create an elegant or non-traditional solution that can allow you to forget about the yearly problems.  Adding sump pumps strategically can be the type of answer that provides you with the results that you are looking for.

Experiencing a flood in your home is never a happy time.  Just the same, if you want to repair the damage, do it as soon as possible so that you can avoid mold growth.  It also helps to use professional contractors that can reinforce your defense system as they clean up and repair your premises.

By Lucille