Flooded Basement
Property Recovery 911 was contacted by a homeowner early one Saturday morning to clean up and dry out a flooded basement resulting from a failed refrigerator water supply line. In this instance, the refrigerator was being supplied by ¼” OD polyethylene tubing, a product that has been the source of countless flood restoration jobs.
To avoid dealing with flood clean up services, refrigerators that are supplied water through ¼” polyethylene or copper tubing fed by a saddle tap valve should be proactively replaced with a braided stainless steel ‘no leak’ line and a high quality shutoff valve. Saddle tap valves offer restricted water flow that have been known to burn out water pumps serving a refrigerators water dispenser and ¼” polyethylene as well as copper tubing are notorious for a propensity to leak resulting in a flooded basement requiring a flood restoration.
Flood Clean Up
Our analysis of this flood restoration job revealed a Class 2 overhead spill that even though originating from a clean source, flowed through soiled building materials degrading the quality of water to Category 2. With our understanding of Water Damage Class and Category, sanitizing agents were a necessary component for a thorough flood clean up.
After discarding saturated storage boxes and safely relocating the contents, the flood clean up commenced with extraction of standing water and saturating the affected area with Benefect botanical disinfectant. Prior to deploying any structural drying equipment, conscientious flood restoration practices required we compartmentalize the area and activate an air scrubber to remove any particulate matter that becomes airborne in the flood restoration process.
Flood Restoration
Situated within the utility room and an adjacent closet, this flooded clean up was readily compartmentalized in a small area and separated from the living quarters. The structural drying phase of this flood restoration required a single Drieaz Revolution dehumidifier and a pair of axial air movers working in conjunction with the aforementioned air scrubber.
Over the period of three days required to complete this flood restoration project, we successfully attained the targeted dry standard by significantly decreasing the GPP (“Grains per pound” (gpp) is the unit used to measure the weight of moisture in air, the number of grains per pound of dry air expresses the specific humidity of the air) through air movement and dehumidification.
Prompt water extraction and structural drying is essential in any flooded clean up to reduce the progressive effects of water exposure. If left unchecked over 48 hours, microbial growth can ensue threatening the interior environment and the health of those within. Contact Us for prompt professional flood restoration, we are available 24/7 and can be on your job within 1 hour.