Water Damage Frequently Asked Questions

Home owners often have many questions regarding water damage to their property, so we hope this page addresses some of these with some facts of water damage and its restoration. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Some steps to follow in case of water damage on your property:

1. First, turn off the water at the main to prevent any further hidden damage.
2. Before you do anything further, call a plumber to fix the problem of the water leakage.
3. Next, you should contact the owner of the property, the insurer or the real estate company.
4. Also call professional water damage restorers.
5. While you wait for help to arrive move furniture and other items away from the areas that are wet.
6. Use towels to try and control the spread of water.
7. Use a mop as soon as possible to dry up any hard floor areas that may have got wet.

How soon you need help depends on the type of damage

In the case of water damage occurring late in the day, many people wonder whether or not it’s okay to seek help the following day. The answer depends on the extent and type of water damage that has occurred, the water type, the extent of the damage area, type of carpet, sub floor, underlay and type of backing, wooden floor, the level affected and other things. When in doubt, contact a professional for advice.

All water damage claims are not the same

Every instance of water damage differs from the next. The size and sources of water damage vary from claim to claim. Also, the quality of water can be different in each case. Water can take as few as 7 days to change from clean to dirty water, depending on the bacteria levels in the water.

The restorers dry the carpet, the underlay and the sub floor

While the carpet can be dried in an hour or two in the best cases, it is important to remember the wet and damp will move from the carpet to the dry areas. Therefore, the underlay and the sub-floor must both be dried as well. In addition, they are in contact with walls to which the dampness may spread. Therefore, dehumidification is essential for further drying.

Part of the process may be noisy

The air movers can be noisy however the dehumidifiers are much less so. The quicker the area can be dried, the sooner the equipment may be removed. The other alternative is to leave the concrete to naturally dry itself, but this can take as long as four weeks for an inch of concrete.

In most cases, the carpets can be salvaged

Carpets can withstand a few days of damp and wet before de-laminating if it was originally in good condition. Therefore, restorers will usually be able to salvage it to its form before the water damage.

Stains may or may not be completely removed

The stains left behind by water damage to a carpet are known as Browning marks. This is caused by the backing on the carpet which is made of cellulose. Usually the chemical reaction can simply be balanced to remove the stain. Stains left by furniture may be harder to remove, and a qualified technician will have to assess it.

Costs vary

Cost of the process depends on the time it takes to dry. For carpets and underlay this time is brief. But for the sub floor it may be between one day and four weeks. This depends on how quickly moisture is released from the sub floor.

Carpets are steam cleaned as part of the process

They are also sanitised and dried as far as possible to the original state before the water damage. There is no need for additional carpet cleaning following the restoration.

A moisture meter detection unit is required to tell which area is dry

It is not easy to detect dry and moist areas without the aid of this device. They find the exact level of moisture in a particular area and this has to be compared with readings in the unaffected area. The two readings have to match.