How can I prevent emergency floodwaters from causing permanent damage to my home?

4/21/2020 (Permalink)

We know how hazardous flood damage can be to your Fort Lee home. Call us right away at (201) 496-6024.

Road overflow, heavy rainfall, and flash flooding can cause thousands of dollars worth of losses in your Fort Lee home. Using professional restorers can help to keep losses to a minimum and reduce permanent damages. 

How can I prepare and prevent flooding during the winter season?

It is not uncommon for homeowners to experience flood damage in Fort Lee. These emergencies can be devastating and lead to temporary relocation as well as causing severe harm to your home. While flood emergencies can be sudden, there are some precautions you can put in place ahead of time to assist you. Checking your insurance coverage for all types of flood-related harm as well as inspecting drainage equipment in your home. Drainage equipment may include sump pumps for garages and basements as well as gutters or pipes, which are under significantly more stress during the winter months. 

If you are expecting heavy rainfall, you may want to install a vapor barrier in the crawlspace of your home. Vapor barriers can be very effective at reducing water issues by blocking any moisture in your crawl space from reaching the upper levels of your home. Keep an eye on local and government weather warnings throughout the winter period. You may want to put together a flood-preparedness kit. Ideas of what to include in your kit can be found on both federal and state websites. 

What should I include in a Flood preparedness kit?

- Essential documentation such as insurance papers, banking, prescriptions, as well as phone numbers. By sealing these documents in a watertight bag, you can ensure you maintain access to your accounts in an emergency. 

- Medicine both prescription medication as well as over the counter aids. You may also want to include freshwater

- Transistor radios

- Flashlights as well as essential tools

- Batteries

- Dry non-perishable goods

- Cash

I have been temporarily relocated from the area during a flood, what happens to my home?

Our team here at SERVPRO has extensive experience at dealing with properties when inhabitants are off-site or temporarily evacuated. This period is critical in the overall expense of your claim. Large amounts of standing water can degrade and migrate, which can, in some cases, result in severe structural damage to the home. You may need remodeling or rebuilding of some areas of the home. However, first, we need to provide a safe working space. 

Professional restorers can enter your property to perform vital mitigation tasks. Scoping the property, removing large volumes of water as well as deodorizing or disinfecting the affected area can all be essential to the mitigation process. These efforts can not only prevent secondary damages like mold growth or water degradation but also provide a clean working environment for specialist repairs. Contents can be moved to safe distances from the affected areas of your home. These may be on-site in unaffected rooms or taken to an external storage facility. 

How quickly can you remove floodwaters from my home?

Water removal is a time-sensitive procedure. Every second that moisture is in your home, it can migrate to previously unaffected areas, affect structural cavities, be absorbed by natural materials, or create the ideal conditions for mold growth. Our service teams work against the clock to ensure a significant reduction in standing water within the first few hours of arriving on-site. 

First, we assess what type of scenario we are dealing with, whether the water intrusion includes solid-waste, how we are going to transport it from your home as well as the standing water level. High-pressure pumps are just one type of removal equipment we can use with sufficient lift to pump water out from subterranean areas of the home. In most flood emergencies, a combination of extraction equipment, as well as pumps, is necessary to reduce water volume substantially in the first twenty-four hours. 

Once water removal is complete, what restoration services should be complete before it is safe to return to my home?

- Pre-cleaning and conditioning of fabrics such as carpets

- Replacement of affected drywall or other inexpensive building materials

- Wet and Dry-cleaning of contents either on or off-site

- Disinfectant of some areas of the home to return it to a sanitary condition

- Deodorization using Ultra-low volume (ULV) fogging equipment

- Refinishing of surfaces as well as base-coating for a uniform finish

We pride ourselves in returning a flooded property to its preloss condition. Our meticulous cleaning, refinishing, and deodorizing can ensure that when you do return to your property, it is "Like it never even happened." 

For all types of flooding emergencies, contact SERVPRO of Fort Lee at (201) 496- 6024 immediately.