Wednesday, April 24, 2024
ASK This Old House | Preventing Plumbing Disasters
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Home Restoration Services - Different Types, Services and Precautions
- Water Damage restoration services
- Fire and Smoke Damage restoration services
- Mold Damage restoration services
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9189026
Thursday, April 18, 2024
How to Salvage Your Valuables After Serious Flooding
Heavy rain and severe weather can upend your life. And if you're faced with mucking out your house and tearing out saturated drywall, recovering keepsakes and family treasures might seem like a task for a later day.
But saving your valuables can be a race against the clock—mold can form within 48 hours. To help, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, cosponsored by FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution, has developed guidelines for how to salvage what you want and dispose of what can’t be saved.
The first step is to determine what type of water you’re dealing with—salty, dirty, or contaminated by sewage or chemicals. If your valuables have come in contact with toxic water during flooding, you might have to call a professional conservator because trying to clean them yourself can be a health risk. If the water was untainted, then take steps to reduce the humidity around your items as you work to clean and dry them. Here’s how from FEMA’s checklist:
Save Your Valuables
Prioritize. You may not be able to save everything after flooding, so focus on what’s most important to you, whether for sentimental or monetary reasons.
"We always hear about dollar-amount damages, but often the losses that affect us the most are the ones to which a dollar amount cannot be assigned," says Lori Foley, administrator of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. "What do you own that you’d miss terribly if you lost it? Photographs of loved ones in frames, albums, or shoeboxes? Books and paintings passed down through generations? Grandma’s recipe box?"
Air-dry. Gentle air-drying indoors is best. Weather permitting, open your windows to increase indoor airflow. If it’s too hot and humid, use fans, air conditioners, and dehumidifiers. Avoid using hair dryers, irons, ovens, and prolonged exposure to sunlight, which can do irreversible damage.
Handle with care. Delicate items can be especially fragile when wet, so be careful when you handle them. Separate sodden materials by removing photographs from damp albums and taking paintings and prints out of their frames. Place white paper towels between every few pages of wet books.
Clean gently. Loosen dirt and debris on fragile objects carefully with soft cloths and brushes. Avoid rubbing, which can grind in dirt.
Salvage photos. Clean photographs by rinsing them carefully in clean water. Air-dry photos on a plastic screen or paper towel, or by hanging them by the corners with plastic clothespins. Don’t let the image come into contact with other surfaces as it dries.
Cold storage. Damp objects and items that cannot be dealt with immediately should be put in open, unsealed boxes or bags. If you can’t attend to items within 48 hours, you can put photos, papers, books, and textiles in the freezer and clean them later.
"In general, you can freeze many items that cannot be dried out in 48 hours – photos, books, documents, textiles," says Foley. "Freezing stops mold from growing, ink from running, and dyes from transferring. Freezing items allows you to buy some time to devote to other activities. When you are able, you can return to the frozen items and recover them on your own time."
Dispose of the Debris
Once the waters recede, residents will be able to go back into their homes and start cleaning up, and piles of ruined household belongings will be put on the curb. Cleanup can take months if not years.
Because mold creates a serious health risk, it’s important to remove wet items from your home as soon as possible. FEMA recommends not waiting for your insurance adjuster before cleaning up. Instead, document the flooding damage on your cell phone or camera. Before dragging debris to the curb, check with your municipality on how it wants you to separate items for the garbage haulers. FEMA recommends sorting items into the following six categories:
- Bagged household garbage such as food, packaging, and paper.
- Building materials and furniture, including drywall, carpeting, and mattresses.
- Vegetation debris such as tree branches, plants, and leaves.
- Hazardous household waste, including batteries, paints, and cleaning supplies.
- Large appliances such as refrigerators, water heaters, and air conditioners.
- Electronics such as TVs, computers, and stereo equipment.
For more information and resources, see FEMA’s After the Flood: Advice for Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures.
Article Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/cleaning/how-to-salvage-valuables-after-flooding/
Monday, April 15, 2024
Videos show California flooding, storm damage
Friday, April 12, 2024
Why You Should Hire Professional Fire and Water Restoration Services
A fire can have a devastating effect on a family, causing several losses. We sincerely hope that the fire you might have experienced in your house did not have any casualties and it was only property that was damaged. Though even property loss can be pretty frustrating and disheartening, you should know that most fire damaged houses can be restored to their old self. Your best bet to tackle damage caused by fire and water would be to hire the services of a professional fire and water restoration company. A professional fire and water restoration contractor will have the know how that will help them assess the damage to your property and take the most appropriate steps necessary to restore it.
Unless the damage was very minimal, it is highly recommended that you seek the services of a professional fire and water restoration contractor for the following reasons.
Damage caused by fire can be made much worse by home owners who attempt to restore the damaged area without the proper knowledge. Your insurance company will also recommend that you choose a fire and water restoration contractor to carry out the repairs and no do it yourself.
The cost of services of a professional restoration company might be steep at first glance but you have to understand that they will have the best knowledge to save you money with the whole restoration process. Fixing things up on your own might seem much more economical although you will quickly blow your budget as you discover more and more problems that you have to deal with. Even if it means forking over a decent sum of money, it is highly recommended that you hire the services of an expert fire and water restoration company to carry out your restoration.
If water was used to put out the fire, you will have to be worried about water damage in addition to the damage caused by the fire. Fire and water restoration contractors deal with both types of damage on an everyday basis and will quickly begin work to minimize and restore properties affected by both types of damage.
Restoration companies will advice you on what is salvageable and what can be restored. If you didn't consult with experts, you could be throwing away furniture and furnishings that can be easily restored at a fraction of the cost that it would take to replace them.
The odors from a fire can easily penetrate the structure of the house and only a professional fire and water Restoration contractor will be able to use deodorizers and ozone to completely remove the odor of fire and smoke from a property.
Last but not the least, a professional restoration company will allow you to carry on with your life without having to leave your job or business unattended which is exactly what you would have to do if you were trying to restore your house on your own.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5764207
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Got Water Damage? Hire The Services Of A Professional And Reputed Fire And Water Restoration Company
- It is preferable that you only call for fire and water damage restoration companies that have a solid reputation in the field. Stay away from one man teams or free lancers who will promise you a great job only to give you a run around with poor results.
- Look for a company that will offer 24/7 services. Damage restoration is essentially an emergency service and a company that offers that service should ideally have service availability around the clock.
- Ask if the company has the latest equipment. Some small companies will often be short handed when it comes to quality equipment. A professional water damage repair company should ideally have state of the art commercial grade equipment such as dehumidifiers, blowers, truck mounted water extraction units, portable extraction units and other tools such as moisture gauges and humidity meters and emergency generators. If the water damage is significant, a good company will use a lot of equipment to bring about the best results in the fastest way possible. Hiring a small company that will have very limited equipment will mean longer water damage restoration times which will in turn greatly increase the related losses. When it comes to the effectiveness of a water damage repair company, their responsiveness and speed should be of utmost concern to you as it can save you a significant sum of money.
- Help with the insurance process - Fire and water damage restoration companies are not just important to fix up your house. They in fact play a very important role in your damage situation by helping you with the insurance process. Insurance, as you might already know, can be a very daunting process when approached on your own. You might not know how to fill out the forms correctly or you might ask for too little when you file a form. A good fire and water restoration company will appoint an insurance specialist or insurance consultant to your case. This person will then work with the insurance adjustor appointed by the insurance company. With the insurance consultant on your side, you can relax and be assured that a professional is helping you.
Guarantee on the insurance claim - There could be a situation where you might commission water damage restoration work before being approved by the insurance company. It can be a rude shock to receive a check for an amount that does not cover all the expenses of the restoration work. A professional water damage restoration will help you avoid that pickle of a situation by putting out an estimate that will be accepted by the insurance company. Also, they will guarantee their repair estimates in such a way that they will not charge you personally if the insurance company's check does not cover all of the expenses then the fire and water restoration contractor agrees to waive the additional expenses.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5771152