Flood Water In My Home!
Unfortunately if flood water has entered your home you do not have much time to do something about it.
You should pump out and mop up the worst then once that’s done, you’ll still need to thoroughly dry out the water damaged structure, walls, and furniture. If not completed correctly you will suffer lots of secondary damage and serious mould growth.
If this matter has not been placed in the hands of your insurance company and you intend to deal with the damage yourself, you need to hire in the correct equipment. Most of the main hire companies in the UK will be able to help you in this area. Hiring commercial dehumidifiers and air movers should be your next step. Dehumidifiers are machines that work by removing moisture from the air in the room that it’s placed in. The dehumidifier takes in air from the room and drops the RH (relative humidity) collecting the moisture in either a tank that you need to maintain and or some machines pump out directly into a sink or other form of water proof container. It then returns dry air back into the room. This helps to draw out and evaporate the remaining water from your carpets, walls, and furniture and speeds up the drying process.
The amount of equipment required and length of time to deal with your flood will vary dependant no the time that the water has sat in your home or business and the number of areas/overall size of the affected area.
If you have not appointed a professional and do not have access to damp meters etc, one way of telling when the structures are dry or back to a pre incident condition is too measure the water removed each day. At some point you will notice that the volumes of water collected will significantly reduce, this could be the indicator that you have now removed the absorbed water from your structures. Dehumidifiers will always remove moisture from the air so do not be fooled by the fact that you are collecting water each day.
If you can purchase a small water meter that measures WME (wood moisture equivalent, or MC (moisture content) you can test to ensure that you have dried your home and structure back to acceptable standards. The WME from plaster boards and most structures needs to be below 15% to be deemed as dry, the MC readings from your concrete floor slabs should ideally be below 3.5% MC, again if you have these readings you can be confident that your home is back to the way it was before the flood hit.
Things to Consider When Drying Your Home and or Business.
Some things to consider when determining how long to run a dehumidifiers and air movers include
Area Size
If the leak/flood only affected a small area of your property a dehumidifier and air mover should only be necessary for a limited period. However the larger the leak / flood the more equipment you will require. As a rule of thumb each dehumidifier and a couple of air movers can handle a standard room (13 – 20m2) on its own, if the leak/flood affects multiple rooms, you need to multiply the amount of plant required using the above as a guide.
Humidity
The humidity of the home / office is very important. If the humidity is too high you will start to suffer from what is called secondary damage. This is when items that were not affected by the original flood now start to change shape, grow moulds, generally discolour and or rust, this is why you installed dehumidifiers and air movers, these do not only dry out your property they also reduce the RH (relative humidity) so reducing the affects of secondary damage.
Leave windows & doors open
Following a flood or leak you will likely have very high levels of humidity which as above will cause secondary damage. It is possible on some occasions to aid the drying by opening doors and windows, this is generally when it is warm and windy outside. By opening up your doors and windows the trapped moisture will evaporate quicker. However the opposite is true of wet damp days, during these times it is better to close all doors and windows. When you close the rooms down it is called a closed drying system the opposite is true when windows are open. You need to manage the drying on an hourly basis to ensure the quickest results are gained.
Should you wish for more advice please call us on 01375 847522 or go to our web site www.rainbow-internationa.co.uk We are happy to help