How Can I Remove Floodwater That Filled My Home?

9/9/2020 (Permalink)

Whether a Large Flood in Your Chicago Home or a Small One--Call SERVPRO for Water Extraction and Restoration

Prompt Floodwater Extraction Is Imperative - Call SERVPRO to Address Your Chicago Home for Rapid Removal!

Whether you have a little bit of water coming into your home from a flood or a lot, you need to remove it quickly to lessen the damage. After flooding from around your Chicago property starts to seep into the lower portion of your home or the basement, your interior is at risk from potentially harmful contaminants. Trying to tackle this contaminated water with DIY methods can leave you with a mess on your hands and costly secondary damage. Rather than going it alone, you can contact our trained water restoration technicians (WRT) at SERVPRO to remove water quickly.

Why Should I call Someone for Skilled Restoration?

Rapid removal and proven methods are the best way to handle a flooding incident on your property. When you call us for floodwater extraction in Chicago, our IICRC-certified technicians get to work quickly. Not only does this cut back on secondary damage, but we have steps in place that help to inhibit mold growth. Once we arrive on your property, our team will:

• Assess the Damage – The crew looks at the path of water migration and any building materials impacted by moisture. This allows us to carefully plan the right course of action to facilitate cleanup and water extraction.
• Standing Water Extraction – We use a broad range of tools and equipment to pull up standing water, such as submersible pumps and truck-mounted extractors.

Is There Something I Can Do Until SERVPRO Arrives?

There are several actions any homeowner can take until our Green Fleet arrives, including:

• Closing off the flood-damaged zone of your interior to the rest of your home.
• Check to see if you can shut off the power to the flooded area so that you can cut back on potential shock hazards.
• Never touch the affected area due to the potential for coming into contact with contaminated water.

Prompt Action is Critical!

Our motto is We’re Faster to Any Size Disaster, which means that we arrive within hours of your initial call for help. Once we arrive, we assess the damage, including testing the water coming into your home. This gives our crew insight on potential contaminants like chemicals and bacteria so that we can select the proper antimicrobial treatments.

Containment is another crucial step in the process, as this allows us to limit the amount of cross-contamination happening throughout the water extraction and drying phases.  We have protocols in place that include our crew wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Additionally, air scrubber equipment helps capture airborne particulates while improving indoor air quality throughout extraction and restoration.

What Makes Floodwater Dangerous?

In addition to various debris, floodwater also comes with a range of unknown contaminants. This is why DIY methods and household cleaning agents will not do the trick. Non-porous items within your home have the best chance of full restoration. Our technicians can use immersion cleaning techniques to achieve cleaning goals with many items and belongings that fall into this category.

It is important to note that within 24 hours of the floodwaters infiltrating your interior, mold, and mildew begins to colonize and spread. We have remediation techniques that allow us to work proactively to handle microbes before they can multiply out of control.

Issues that our flood-loss event clients generally encounter may include:

• Loss of all carpeting and carpet padding should all restoration efforts be exhausted
• Water wicking up through the sheetrock, which calls for partial replacement
• Delaminated resilient tile flooring or tack-down laminated flooring
• Hardwood flooring that calls for partial or complete replacement

Each case is unique, and our crew works to restore versus replace whenever possible.

What About Odor Control Throughout My home?

It is understandable you would worry about musty odors after encountering a flood incident in your Chicago home. We extract all water and look for hidden moisture pockets to lessen the change of lingering odors. To help battle odorous particles, SERVPRO uses specialized deodorizing and cleaning techniques that work to disinfect surfaces. All of the strong antibacterial and antimicrobial cleaners that we use are EPA-registered and safe.

Should odors still be lurking, our technicians use thermal fogging techniques to pull out embedded odors. Our thermal foggers heat solvents to create a fine mist that covers all areas that floodwater touched. Once the fog touches odorous molecules, it adheres and breaks down the odor chain to eliminate musty smells.

We can also employ hydroxyl generators that use ultraviolet (UV) rays to address odor-causing airborne molecules. Even though these powerful machines are tough on stubborn odors, they are safe for use around houseplants, pets, and your family members.

SERVPRO of Evergreen Park/South Chicago City is here to make floodwater extraction easy and hassle-free. If you have experienced floodwater in your home and need assistance, you can reach us by calling (773) 337-3900.