Flood Damage and Flood Cleanup Guidelines

When your home is flooded, the water can cause physical damage to your property in addition to creating an unpleasant odor. Flooding can also present a number of hazards for you and your family's safety.

If you’ve experienced flooding, it’s critical to understand the steps for efficient water removal or flood damage cleanup and how the water mitigation process can help restore your property to its original state. This guide outlines essential actions to take during flood cleanup to protect your home and family.

When flood damage happens, it can be hard to know what to do next. Flood cleanup in Austin is not a task that should be taken lightly; if you don't take the proper precautions and gather all of the right materials, your flood cleanup will turn into an even bigger project than you bargained for! This blog post has helpful tips on flood damage and flood cleanup so you can get back up and running in no time.

Flood Cleanup Guidelines

1. Safety First 

In the aftermath of any catastrophic house disaster, the first priority should be to keep safe. If the flooding is severe enough, you may be compelled to evacuate your house. Assess your safety upon your return home to begin dealing with the fallout. Flood cleanup is often a dirty project, and if you're on your own, it will require serious time and effort to finish properly. Flood cleanup may be hazardous to your health if done incorrectly, so wear proper safety equipment when dealing with flood cleanup in your home!

  2. Stopping and Removing Water 

Flood water may have mixed with sewage, gasoline, or other chemicals. Flood cleanup in your home will be complicated by the fact that flood water can cause serious damage to your house, even after it has been drained away. Flood cleanup is a process that should not be rushed if you want to avoid further problems down the road. Flood cleanup may involve stopping the water from its source to prevent the water from entering the home. Stopping and removing water is important to prevent further damage to your home. After stopping the water, remove any standing water in your home. Standing flood water can carry contaminants into your house that can ruin things such as flooring, walls, and furniture.

  3. Completely Drying Out your Home 

Even after completely removing all the standing water in your home, everything will still be damp and wet. The next thing to do is completely dry out your home. If you have power, one way to quickly remove the humidity is by using a portable dehumidifier or small fans placed throughout your house. Another option would be opening your doors and windows to let fresh air come in.

  4. Call your Insurance Company 

Your homeowners’ insurance will vary depending on what policies you have, but many insurance companies cover flooding due to storms, which is why you should call them as soon as possible. While most insurance companies won’t cover water damage due to flooding, they will be able to tell you what needs to be done next and send someone out for proper assessment of the damage. But sometimes your insurance company can't come to you right away, depending on where your location is and if your flooding is part of a larger weather disaster event. In this case, you can document or take photos if possible, of everything from before and after the flooding to help your insurance company assess the damage.

  5. Flood Cleanup 

Once the water is gone and you have called your insurance company, it’s time to begin the flood cleanup. Flood cleanup should begin as soon as possible to prevent mold growth, because the longer you wait, the more likely it will grow. There is a lot of flood cleanup companies out there who can help with the flood cleanup if you would like professional help, but it is also possible to do it yourself. If you choose to do the flood cleanup yourself, make sure you wear rubber boots and gloves during your flood cleanup process. You will need to salvage anything valuable from the house and get all of the mold out of your home as soon as possible if you want to prevent more serious damage in your home. Once everything has been fixed and cleaned up, then you can begin rebuilding and repairing what was damaged by the flooding. Flood cleanup is definitely not an easy process since every step must be done in order to have a house that is in good condition.

  6. Rebuilding and Repairing 

After doing the cleanup the next thing to do is getting the flood damage repaired. This is a long process depending on how bad your flood damage was, but you will need to fix everything before anything else. Start with the flood cleanup and after everything has been brought up to code, you can start rebuilding or repairing what was destroyed during the flood. If you have broken windows and doors then you will have to replace them, if the floors are damaged then you will need to get new ones. If you can't do the repairs yourself then you can hire a contractor that specializes in flood damage repair.

What Happens if You Don’t Do Flood Cleanup After a Flood?

So what happens if you fail to do flood cleanup after a flood? There can be serious consequences that come from not doing flood cleanup. For example, mold and mildew may grow causing lasting health problems such as respiratory infections and allergies. Also, flood damage cleanup is very important, if you do it after the flood then the flood will not cause nearly as much damage. This means there is less cost for flood repairs or flood rebuilds down the line. You won't have to spend thousands of dollars repairing what the water has already destroyed.

Conclusion

When dealing with flood damage and flood cleanup, be sure to follow these guidelines to make sure your family is safe and can get back to normal. This will help you save lots of money in the long run. If you need any flood damage clean up services, we can help!

A Flood Cleanup Company Serving Texas

Call Texas Certified Restoration now at (254) 312-2692 for 24 hour flood cleanup, fire damage restoration, or mold treatment, or receive a quick quotation from our website. Our Flood Cleanup team will come to your Texas house in 30 to 60 minutes.