Water Damage Sacramento - an illustrated guide

The complexities posed by smoke and water damage are often not understood by the average maid service or handyman. They think they can do it for less, when they really do not understand the variables involved. Once involved in a loss and the scope of work becomes apparent, quality or cost may suffer.

Professional restoration specialists are just that, specialists. They concentrate on returning both the dwelling and content to pre-loss condition quickly and cost effectively.

There should be no guesswork when handling water loss in a structure. There are many steps necessary to properly inspect, measure, and track the drying process to insure the restoration is complete. Using the proper instruments is your best assurance of the highest quality results.

When first entering an area affected by moisture damage, a professional restoration company will employ both trained and experienced visual observation and professional measuring instruments to determine the extent of the migration of water. Time is critical. The longer water remains in contact with building materials such as carpet, wood, drywall, and insulation, the farther it spreads and the more it is absorbed into those materials resulting in a greater chance of mold damage.

Water Intrusion-it's not how much you remove, but what you leave behind. Beyond rapid response to a water intrusion is the need for maximum extraction of water. Extraction involves removing standing, pooled, and migrating water as quickly as possible from hard surfaces, carpet, and other textiles.

A conventional carpet cleaning wand with six passes removes 42% of the water from the carpet and pad. PuroClean Home Rescue's weighted ride-on extraction equipment removes 92% of the water from the carpet, pad and subfloor. Extracting as much water as possible will quicken the drying time and prevent secondary damage.

In today's homes, finished flooring materials are becoming more popular than carpet. The success of the restoration process, as a result of water damage, may be dependent upon the following circumstances: response time, flooring type, replacement value, type of wood, type of finish, method of installation, amount of moisture, and the degree of damage already evident. A restoration professional will be able to properly evaluate the floor and implement a plan that will help to insure its salvageability.

A professional restoration specialist will continue to dry the hardwood flooring until the moisture content is reduced to within 4% of the dry standard of the floor. At this point in time, nature will remove the remaining water, although slowly

Today, the “science of drying” has improved significantly. Water-damaged carpeting, pads, and drywall often can be completely restored instead of replaced - sometimes in better condition than they were in prior to the damage.

A restoration professional will use Low Grain Refrigerant (LGR) Dehumidifiers to reduce relative humidity to as low as 15%, removing up to 15 gallons of water from the air per day of operation. Older dehumidifiers struggled to reduce relative humidity to 40%, pulling perhaps 5 gallons of moisture from the air per day. This disparity represents a vast improvement in efficiency, resulting in faster drying times (24 to 48 hours as opposed to four or more days with other methods).

There is a new process revolutionizing the water loss industry. The process -- called surface, vortex or top-down drying -- is enabling customers to get their lives back to normal quickly.

It has been documented that 50 to 60 percent of water damage claims are suffered due to fresh water intrusion. Are restoration professionals removing the underpad, and in some cases the carpet, as well, on these claims? If they are, they may be creating unnecessary expenses that can dramatically increase the cost of claims.

The trick to vortex (or top down) drying is to arrange the air movers along the walls at a 45 degree angle all blowing in the same direction. Place a dehumidifier in the center (low pressure point) and you will have created the ultimate drying pattern.

Knowledgeable restoration contractors such as PuroClean Home Rescue (866-722-7876) invest in the latest equipment and know the most effective and efficient ways to remove moisture and dry structures and contents. That means the home is returned to a pre-damaged state more quickly - minimizing all related costs and inconvenience, along with any additional living expenses for the insurance company and homeowner.