Structural drying, an essential component of water mitigation, is the process of drying building components of a structure once the water damaged building veneers are stripped away. In most instances, the freshly exposed building components such as studs, joists and sheathing for sub-floors are fabricated from wood. Wood being cellulose based is susceptible to microbial activity, which will assuredly take hold if the wood substrate is not properly dried following a water event.
Water activity is the amount of free water available on a substrate to support mold growth. Different strains of fungi have varying moisture requirements, the type of mold found indoors is dependent on the moisture content of the material supporting the mold colony` Healthy moisture content of wood is 8% to 12%, when moisture content exceeds 16% the wood surface can support mold contamination. The goal of Structural drying in water damage restoration is to avoid the onset of microbial activity by quickly and effectively drying water damaged building materials.
Water Damage & Moisture Readings
According to the ANSI/IICRC S500, which provides a specific set of practical standards for water damage restoration, structural drying should continue until moisture readings of the affected area are within 3 percentage points of a dry standard. When on a water damage restoration job, the dry standard is determined by taking moisture readings of similar materials in an unaffected area of the building. Every structure has a marginally different dry standard, making the drying goal slightly different on every water damage restoration project.
Daily moisture readings involve recording changes in the moisture content of water damaged building materials and demonstrating drying progress over time. Moisture readings are taken with a Moisture Measuring Device (MMD), which operates on the principle of measuring electrical resistance. Building materials will not readily conduct an electrical current when they are dry and intact. The addition of water to these materials increases the electrical conductivity allowing the MMD to measure conductivity of electricity through the water damaged building material.
Flood Restoration Professionals
Property Recovery 911 offers professional water mitigation and flood restoration no matter the source or scope of the water intrusion. We are prepared and on call 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to dispatch a quick response team who can be on your location within 1 hour protecting your interests. Contact us at (267) 808-7200 to prevent or alleviate the devastating effects of water damage and to safely dry, deodorize and disinfect the affected areas.