Water Damage Restoration Tips From The Pros

Living room and Dining Room Flooded

About 40% of all homeowners have experienced a loss from water damage. Not only is it a scary situation, it can also contaminate your air, ruin your walls and damage your possessions. 

Water damage may result in structural faults and safety hazards in the home, such as unsound walls and mold growth.

While water damage can be very stressful for homeowners, it is possible to restore your home back to normal with the right steps. As you work with the GCPRO for restoration, it’s important to avoid any health hazards, secondary water damage, and problems with insurance. 

Watch Out For Mold

Certain mold strains are toxic to humans and pose serious health risks. Most of the time, mold can spread quickly after a water intrusion, so be on guard to avoid any health hazards. For small issues, you can cut out the affected area, bag it, and dispose of it immediately. However, with serious mold infestations, GCPRO Restoration will shut down any airflow to stop contamination and take steps to avoid spreading throughout the home. Oftentimes, mold can appear inside the walls or floors, so it’s important that this inspection is ongoing throughout the restoration.

Food and Water Sanitation

If your kitchen suffered was doused with clean water, you can proceed with the restoration. If you had a flood event from rain, or a natural dictator disrupted the water delivery, you need to take further precautions. Until your local water company, utility, or public health department declares your water source safe, purify your water, not only for drinking and cooking, but also for washing any part of the body or dishes.

• Water: Strain water through a clean cloth or filter; then boil water vigorously for a full minute; let cool. If boiling is not possible, use fresh unscented liquid chlorine bleach (8 drops or 1/8 tsp/gallon of clear water; 16 drops or 1/4 tsp/gallon of cloudy water); stir; let stand for 30 minutes. Iodine and purification tablets are not recommended.
• Food: Undamaged, commercially-prepared foods in all-metal cans or retort pouches can be saved if you remove the labels, thoroughly wash the cans, rinse them, and then disinfect them with a sanitizing solution consisting of 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of potable water. Finally, re-label containers that had the labels removed, including the expiration date, with a marker.
• Utensils: Discard flood-contaminated wooden cutting boards and spoons, plastic utensils, baby bottles, nipples, and pacifiers. Thoroughly wash metal and ceramic pans, utensils, and dishes with hot soapy water and sanitize by boiling them in clean water or by immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1 tsp chlorine bleach/quart water.

Insurance Claims

Although your immediate need is to stay safe, you also need to think ahead about submitting your insurance claim. As much as possible, your photos and videos should document structural damage (visible and suspected); standing flood water levels (both inside and outside); and damage to appliances and furniture. Document the condition before moving, removing or discarding anything. 

• Take a photograph of the make, model, and serial number: washers and dryers, hot water heaters, kitchen appliances, televisions, computers. 
• Contact repair services if the building’s electrical, water, or HVAC systems are damaged. It’s important to consult your adjuster or insurance company before you sign any agreement/contract with a cleaning, remediation, or maintenance contractor.
• Contact your community building department and floodplain administrator to get information about local, state and federal funds for emergencies. 

Full-Service Water Damage Restoration in Chicago

Connect with our water damage cleanup experts for “start to finish” restoration services. Unlike many disaster companies who only take care of cleaning and leave you to handle the repairs and reconstruction all by yourself – GCPRO Restoration is a full-service reconstruction company that can handle the entire project from start to finish. 

Over the past 12 years, GCPRO has helped over 5,000  households in the greater Chicago area whose homes were harmed by all sorts of disasters. The team has the knowledge, the people, processes and equipment necessary to provide you with the help you need.