You can never predict when an accident is going to happen. A sudden overflow with your toilet, sewage backup, broken pipes, fire sprinkler malfunction or faulty water connection to your dishwasher can leave your home overflowing. Acts of God like flooding and mudslides can also result in your home suffering extensive water damage. Water damage clean up is a mammoth task and should be done with the help of trained professionals. Such damage would bring down your property value unless you act immediately.
Water damage clean up will depend on the type of damage that your residence has undergone. There are three major categories under which contamination and damage can be classified:
Category 1 – the type of contamination that does not cause substantial health hazard to humans is typified as clean water. For example if your supply pipes burst and lines are disrupted you, might face category 1 damage.
Category 2 – when the source of contamination contains substantial amounts of chemical, biological or physical contaminants the damage is categorized at category 2. The contamination can cause illness and distress to those who consume or are exposed to it. This is termed as gray water. Water damage clean up specialists will want to determine the type of contamination before they resort to restoration and salvage work. Gray water may contain microbes and bacteria. Toilet bowl overflow with no feces, discharge from faulty dishwashers, failure of your sump pump and seepages can constitute category 2 type damage.
Category 3 – heavily contaminated, unsanitary effluent is known as black water. It contains harmful microbes and bacterial contamination that are detrimental to human health and safety. Sewage backups, influx of seawater and contamination from rivers and streams can damage the indoor environment. When category 2 contaminations are allowed to stand stagnant for 48-72 hours it may be re-categorized as category 3 contamination.
When you engage water damage clean up, make sure your professionals have state of the art equipment to do a complete dry down service. The water damage clean up experts have a thorough and methodical approach to remove the contaminants from your property and restore it to full habitable and sanitary conditions. The professionals will provide the following services:
* Water extraction
* Structural drying
* Dehumidification
* Mold prevention
* Flooring removal
* Content manipulation
* Infrared examination
* Documented drying records.
For your protection and satisfaction, you should always engage professionals that are licensed, bonded and insured when hiring services for water damage clean up. Albany residents can find experienced service providers in their area.
