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Why Fire and Water Damage Restoration Should Be Left to the Professionals

Experiencing a fire in the home is both frustrating and traumatic. No one wants to go through such a serious ordeal, but fires happen quite frequently, even when property owners have smoke and fire detectors installed. Once a fire occurs inside the home and it gets put out by the firefighters, there may be a combination of both fire and water damage going on throughout the building. The water can cause damage to the floors, walls, and other areas of the home, making it a challenge to get everything cleaned up and restored.

Call a Restoration Company

The first thing that a property owner should do when dealing with both fire and water damage is to call a professional restoration company. It is never a good idea to attempt to tackle this type of damage on your own. The process of removing soot, smoke odors, and excess water is something that takes time and a step-by-step process that most people without experience would not know how to handle. You could end up spending a lot of your time trying to remove water from the home only to realize that you have so much more to do to get your property to look good again.

When you hire a professional restoration company, you know that the people coming to your home to help with the fire and water damage are experienced and know what they are doing. After all, helping people with the restoration process is something they do for a living. One of the very first things these professionals will likely need to do is assess the damage. They need to know what they are dealing with before they even get started because then they can make sure to bring all the necessary equipment to help with restoring the home.

There is a lot of work involved in the restoration process. Excess water must be removed from the home and then the damp areas must be dried out completely. If those damp areas continue to stay wet, mold will begin growing, creating a hazardous living situation for everyone in the home. Even after the water and the excess moisture is removed from the property, there are still several things that the professionals will need to do, such as removing soot and getting rid of the smoke odor. The odor of smoke is often overpowering and can make it difficult for people to breathe freely and clearly when it continues to linger in a home.

Whenever you are dealing with fire and water damage inside the home, you should rely solely on the professionals to help you restore your home back to the condition it was originally in before the fire occurred. The restoration job is not the kind of thing you are going to want to do on your own because it requires a lot of work and the use of the right equipment. The professionals know what they are doing and will follow several essential steps to ensure that you can live comfortably in your home again.

Insurance Coverage And Water Damage

Uncategorized basement water cleanup, mold damage insurance coverage, water damage insurance coverage, water extraction 0

A man repairing his ceiling after water damage Basements get flooded for many different reasons. Most water damage is derived from broken sub pumps and frozen pipes. Will this be covered by your insurance company? Yes is the answer, but it all depends on your claim getting reported to your insurance company.

The Island Cleanup and Restore network of restoration companies work with thousands of different customers each year to help them with overcoming the damage that is caused by cold winters and heavy rain. Every situation is different, however all of the customers share one thing in common. Their home owners’ insurance policies. When searching for a homeowners insurance policy people need to ensure they have 100% coverage.

What does 100% mean?

When it comes to mold damage and water damage, insurance companies are not always up-front about the coverage for your house. For example: When it rains very hard and the sub-pump in your basement is unable to keep up with how much water is pouring into the basement that it considered to be a flood and you won’t be covered unless you have flood insurance.

If your sub-pump breaks down and you have to buy a new one, unless you have flood insurance you won’t be covered. If water gets into the basement due to cracks that is considered to be seepage and flood insurance doesn’t cover it.

When water damage causes mold damage that isn’t covered by flood insurance even if your mold damage was caused by the original water damage. That is referred to as secondary damage. In this case, insurance companies won’t pay for the repair of secondary damage since the homeowner is considered to be responsible due to a lack of proper mitigation.

What mitigation refers to is work that first response companies perform. The work is done in order to prevent the occurrence of secondary damage. Mold only will grow when the relative humidity is over 60% for longer than 48 hours. In order to prevent mold growth (secondary damage), water is extracted from the carpet by the mitigation company, and air movers and dehumidifiers are set up. The most important phase is the extraction process since there are only two ways of removing water: 1 – dehumidacation and 2 – Extreme Extractor.

For removing water, the extraction process is the most effective and fastest method. Water is removed from the air by dehumidifiers and a thrust of water is created which transforms vapor into a solid. Evaporation is created by the air movers so that the water gets transferred from a solid form into vapor. That allows the dehumidifiers to transform the water once again from vapor into a solid and so that water can be drained out of the basement down the bath tub or drain.

Usually it take 3 or 4 days for all the water to be removed using dehumidifiers after the extraction process is complete. Once the basement is dry you should have an IICRC certified company deep clean all of the affected areas.