Water is an element that can find its way through cracks and along the floors and into spaces in your home where it seems to do the worst damage possible. Flooding inside your home can cause damage from toxins in the water and in the mold growth that occurs afterward, making it a difficult environment to clean up. Here are some recommendations to help you clean up after a water damage disaster in your home.
Clean Up Sewage
Anytime you have water enter your home from an outside flooding event, such as from a hurricane, a river overflowing its banks, or too much rainfall during a short period of time, the floodwaters cause storm drains and sewer lines to overflow, sending all their contents to combine with the floodwaters. For this reason, it is essential that you protect yourself from the bacteria and viruses that exist in flooding so you don't become sick as a result.
Flooding that saturates your home's carpeting, walls, and furnishings can all be contaminated with raw sewage, so contact a sewage cleanup professional to help you with the task. A professional clean-up service will have the right process and equipment to handle a situation that may seem overwhelming to yourself. Otherwise, you want to wear protective gear, including gloves, eye protection and a respirator along with rubber boots and protective clothing to keep the waste off your body.
Protect Your Paper Possessions
Many possessions, such as clothing, bedding, flooring, and dishes can be cleaned off thoroughly with a bleach and water solution or a soap and water combination. However, when your papers, important documents, and books become damaged in floodwaters, the cleaning process can be a bit more difficult. Freeze the papers or books to prevent mold growth until you have time to dry them out properly or to hire a water damage restoration professional.
Rinse off any dirty substances from the flood water that may be on your papers using a light spray of water. For books, open each page individually to rinse them clean. Place the books on their ends and run a fan on the pages to dry them a majority of the way. Close the books to flatten the pages and prevent wrinkling as they dry the rest of the way. However, open the books periodically to dry them with a fan before closing them again. You can use a warm iron to press the pages smoothly if they become wrinkly. Contact local professionals for 24/7 water intrusion restoration to help you restore and dry out water-damaged =books and documents.