When dealing with water damage, time is of the essence. The quicker you can address the issue, the less damage will be done to your home or business. It’s important to know what to do if your property suffers from water damage because it could lead to a lot of problems if the issues aren’t dealt with properly before they worsen.
Turn off power to the house
If you have electricity in your home and water is coming in from a flood, turn off all power to your home. Electricity can be dangerous as well as deadly when water is involved. If you don’t have time or aren’t capable of turning off the power yourself, hire professionals to do this work for you.
Gather Important documents
Once you’ve determined that your property has a water damage issue, visit the flooded areas immediately and collect damaged items that can be removed safely. Don’t forget to take any paperwork with contact information on it (such as insurance papers and medical records) in case they were exposed to the floodwaters too long before being removed from the area of danger.
Make sure all of your most important documents are gathered in one place and easily accessible. If your insurance company needs something quickly, they can find what they need without searching through an entire home or office building.
Get to your water shutoff valve
If you know where your water shutoff valve is, turn it off. That’ll stop the water from flowing—until you have time to get a plumber over to replace the pipe later. You can also turn off individual faucets if you’re just dealing with one leak.
If there’s an earthquake that causes a major pipe break underneath your house, turning off the main valve will only prevent flooding until that larger break is fixed by professionals. But having access to these valves can help save lives and reduce damages when smaller leaks occur on their own (or when they happen at all). You can turn them off yourself if needed while you wait for help.
Document the damage with photos and videos
Documenting a water damage event is one of the smartest things you can do to protect yourself, your property and your finances. Use photos and videos to record the damage, including dates on all of them. These documents are invaluable when dealing with an insurance claim—and they’ll be even more important if they’re included with your policy documents before something happens!
Remove as much water as you can
As soon as you notice that water has seeped into your home, it’s important to remove excess water as quickly as possible. Use these techniques to help reduce damage and start cleanup.
To extract standing water or wet areas of up to 100 square feet, wet/dry vacuums can be used.
Towels and blankets can absorb small amounts of liquid in addition to absorbing humidity from the air.
Water damage cleanup is an important step to take right away if you have a flood in your home. But it’s also important to know that you shouldn’t try to tackle the water damage cleanup yourself. Of all the things that can go wrong or have gone wrong at your home or business, a burst water pipe is one of the most serious and can cause a flood of other problems. So be sure you know what steps to take if it happens, including calling Superior Contents for water damage cleanup in WA.