Immediate Steps to Take:
1) Call a IICRC certified firm. Firms that are certified by the IICRC generally have more training experience and are more familiar with the standards for taking care of water damage. You can go to www.iicrc.com to view certified firms in your area.
2)Move any furniture that is in the affected area to a dry place. Water can be absorbed by wood, fabric and other materials that furniture is made out of. This step is to avoid damaging the furniture.
3)Try to find the source of the leak to stop the spread of water. If you cannot find the leak you should shut the water off to the home.
4)Call a professional plumber, HVAC company or the proper professional to fix the water leak. We will also help find the leak when our technician arrives. We also have professionals that we work with that we can recommend if you do not know who to use.
ATTENTION HOME OWNERS:
Remember it is VITAL to take care of a water damage properly and take immediate steps to remove the water intrusion. This is to prevent microbial growth. ALSO you need to educate yourself to make sure that you know what steps should be taken. This way you will be able to know if your home is being taken care of properly. If it is not taken care of properly you can have serious reprocutions because of mold growth. This could have health affects on you and your families health, as well as could depriciate your home value due to a failed mold test.
There can be many places in your home that feel dry by touch, but can be holding large amounts of water in cavities (such as wall cavities, under hardwood floors and cabinets, etc.). Courtesy Care can detect areas holding hidden moisture using a variety of instruments that tell us where moisture is, even if we can’t see or feel it.
Advances in technology allow us to do and dry things that in the past were impossible. Our “X-treme” Extractor, seen in the picture to the right, allows us to extract up to 90% of the moisture in your carpet and padding without removing it. Moisture in wall cavities or underneath cabinets is removed using our Injectidry System pictured above. These are just some of the tools at our disposal that mean you will be clean and dry faster than ever!
Benefits of Top Down Drying:
* Get your home back in order quicker - we do not have to remove the padding so there is no hassle with putting new padding in and re-installation of the carpet.
* Better chance of saving the carpet - when carpet is wet it only has approximately 20-30% of it's strength, so the less manuvering of the carpet the better.
* Less cost - because there is no padding replacement and carpet re-installation.
When can Top Down Drying be used?
According to industry standards (IICRC S-100) top-down-drying can be used when it is a category 1 water loss. This means that the source of the water is clean (washer hose, ice maker line,etc). Also it needs to be adressed within the first 24 hours of water intrusion. Some other variables would also be the type of sub-floor, age of the carpet and pad.
When should top-down-drying NOT be used?
This drying process should not be used if the water loss is a category 2 or 3 such as overflowed toilet, sewer back-up or if the water has been there of more than 24 hours.