Can You Handle A Flooded Basement Alone

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Among the many bad things that could happen to your home, one of the worst things is having to deal with the damage left behind by water. Your home is a big investment, and the majority of people will make this type of investment but just a couple of times in their whole lifetime. Even if the water damage seems minor, it might not always be as easy as it appears. A little bit of water goes a long way and can set up your home for even more damage later on if mold should start to grow.

Let us say there was a hurricane in your area, and the water that was brought inland was nothing major, but it was big enough where it left standing water in your basement. You have one of two choices. Your first choice is to clean it up yourself. You will need to make sure that the electricity is turned off and that there is no smell that would indicate a gas leak. Then you would need to wear the proper gear, open up all of the windows, and use a shop vacuum or some other machine that will suck out all of the water. While you are doing this, however, you need to keep in mind that the water has to be sucked up slowly because doing it too fast can actually cause your walls to cave in from the abrupt change in the pressure.

After spending anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours sucking up the water, you would then need to go through all of your belongings. Were there any rugs on the carpet? Were there any other belongings covered in cloth or some other material? How about old documents, photo albums, and books? All of these items will need to be dried and restored somehow to their previous condition. Laying documents open and allowing them to dry with the help of a fan will take a long time, but it will work. Then you will need to continue drying up your basement as best as you can, making sure that you get every last bit of moisture to prevent mold from growing and spreading throughout your whole home.

That is a lot of work, but that is the simplest scenario. Did you think about what you would do if the flood waters also brought in sewer water? Sewer water will contain sewage, wastes, toxins, bacteria, and viruses, and if that water has touched any of your cloth belongings, you will need to discard those immediately to prevent contamination. Cleaning up the basement will be even harder as you not only have to worry about drying it up well, but you also have to worry about disinfecting it so no bacteria is left behind.

There are two options, and we just discussed the first one. Your second choice will make your life much easier, but it could drain you financially if you do not have adequate insurance coverage. Contacting a professional water damage restoration team to dry out, disinfect, and sanitize your basement and to dry your documents would be anyone's best bet. Not only will they do all of the work and you don't have to lift a finger, but a reputable company will stand behind their work and guarantee that no further damage will result in this incident.


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