After days of harsh heat, you finally get a reprieve from it all. The rain comes in and starts to cool everything off. The problem? This nice bit of rain turns into a thunderstorm, and your home becomes more susceptible to flooding and water damage. Taking preventative measures ahead of time is fine. But you can’t always predict the kind of damage you’re going to deal with in the aftermath of a terrible storm. Today we’re going to look at how you can get your home back to normal after suffering storm damage.
Take a Look at the Damage
First, you need to assess the damage. This means you’ll have to go and find water damage throughout your home. Keep an eye out for damp or wet spots in the walls or ceiling. If you pick up a musty smell, that’s also a good indicator of water damage. In a big storm like this, your water damage will most likely be in the basement. Basements tend to flood, which can lead to serious water damage.
Remove Water-Damaged Items
Next, if it is safe enough, start to remove all water-damaged items from the area. We say “safe enough” because if the water flooded to a point where it’s become too deep to navigate or it’s in touch with something electric, you need to hire a professional to come out. If things are safe, then begin by removing things like furniture and other belongings that may have suffered water damage. Removing these items from the area makes it easier to take care of the damage without everything being in the way. It also minimizes the chances of mold growing and spreading through your home.
Start Cleaning
Then, you begin the cleaning process. This not only requires removing excess moisture but also getting in there and cleaning everything as well. This is a great reason to hire a professional like PNW Restoration to do the job. Contrary to popular belief, normal bleach isn’t going to get the job done when it comes to cleaning up mold. At PNW Restoration, we use industry-standard cleaners to remove all mold from the area and keep spores from spreading further.
Dry It All Out
After everything has been cleaned up, then the process of drying everything out begins. The most common way of doing this is running a dehumidifier in the room and letting it do all the work. This will pull off the remaining moisture out of the section and help dry everything out. This will also help prevent the further spread of mold. Since mold likes moist areas, drying everything with a dehumidifier gives mold nothing to feed on.
Hiring a Professional vs. DIY
So the question remains: should you hire a professional for all of this, or do you think you can handle it all by yourself? There are two things you should consider when deciding. First, how bad is the storm damage? If you find the tiniest bit of it somewhere, you might be okay with handling it yourself. But if your basement gets flooded and the water destroys everything in its path, then you should consider hiring a professional.
The other aspect to consider is safety. How much flooding is there? Is there a risk of being electrocuted? How bad is the mold? Will any of it affect your health or the health of others in your home? If these are all questions that cross your mind, you should call a professional to get the job done. You won’t be putting yourself at risk, and you’ll have an expert working on removing the water damage from your home.
If You Need Help with Summer Storm Damage, Call PNW Restoration
If you’ve recently experienced storm damage, call the team over at PNW Restoration. We specialize in handling all kinds of water damage and offer 24/7 service. Our team of experts is on call when it comes to water damage in your home. We can get to your home within an hour of your call to us.
PNW Restoration staff offers a high level of performance, leading to great customer satisfaction. We are also the preferred vendor for several major insurance companies. We go above and beyond for all of our customers in ways that others can’t. If you’re looking to hire PNW Restoration the next time you have storm damage to your home, give us a call at (971) 247-3381.
