How Do You Recover From Flooding In Carol Stream?

8/6/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO of Carol Stream / East Bloomingdale can help ease the burden.

SERVPRO Can Help Manage the Restoration of Your Carol Stream School after Flood Damage for a Satisfactory Outcome

Whether a torrential downpour or a storm causes the flooding at your school, you have to make plans for the recovery, which in many cases, requires elaborate procedures to achieve the desired goals. SERVPRO can send a team of qualified technicians to your Carol Stream facility within a few hours to help perform various restoration tasks.

Which steps have a significant impact when addressing flood damage incidents in Carol Stream?

    •    Proper documentation of the loss
    •    Water extraction and moisture management
    •    Removal and renovation of deteriorated materials

A flooding incident in Carol Stream may only last a couple of minutes but still fill the classes, offices, or even the gym with significant amounts of water. In most of the rooms, the water drains out on its own when floodwaters outside the structure recede. However, you need to make plans for extraction in some sections of the property, especially if the floors are set at a lower elevation than the ground level outside the structure. Barriers such as wall panels or floor fittings can also prevent the smooth flow of water from the structure once flooding recedes in other areas.

Our SERVPRO technicians help facilitate faster water removal from the structure in many ways, including:
    •    Making flood cuts to release water from wall cavities
    •    Punching weep holes or vent holes
    •    Extracting it using state of the art water extractors

Why is it necessary to document damage from flooding?

Recording the extent of damages caused by flooding is essential for several reasons, including:
    •    Easing the process of seeking insurance compensation
    •    Establishing ways to flood-proof the property
    •    Helping trace valuable items after the incident

Once the floodwaters start rising inside your school structures, you may decide to take immediate remedial action such as moving file cabinets or other emergency steps, especially in a bid to save paper materials from exposure to water or excess moisture. However, making such moves before an adjuster arrives at your premises can complicate the process of claiming compensation.

Proper documentation can help you save your valuables while providing sufficient evidence to your insurer that the loss occurred. You can also tell exactly which areas the water reaches for other purposes, such as decontamination. Our SERVPRO technicians help with such documentation by taking photos and videos of the entire loss site. We start with photos taken at the entrance of the affected structures before we capture specific areas inside the property.

Which flood proofing steps can help prevent future loss?

Some flooding situations, such as rising groundwater breaching the property, are difficult to prevent since they affect vast areas. However, if the water infiltrates the property because of poor landscaping or problems with gutters, you can make changes that help prevent future loss. Perusing photos showing the buildings submerged in water after the incident is resolved can help you decide where to make changes.

What level of decontamination is necessary?

Floodwaters introduce a wide range of contaminants, including biohazards and chemicals, into the buildings they affect. For a learning institution, such contaminants can pose grave risks considering the learners make contact with the affected surfaces frequently, especially when playing. Sanitizing all the areas affected by the floodwater is necessary to remove all traces of the contaminants.

Decontamination may require several steps depending on the materials you have and the condition of the water that affects the property. Our technicians help clean heavily soiled surfaces such as tiled floors to remove contaminated residues. If drywall and other porous materials are soaked in the floodwaters, we perform controlled demolition of the affected section to remove the contaminated material.

In addition to removing the visible soils, we also take care of invisible contaminants, such as traces of bacteria deposited by the floodwaters around the affected surfaces. We use chemical agents such as antimicrobials, which inhibit the microbial growth, and disinfectants such as phenols or alcohols, which kill 99% of the organisms they contact.

One challenge that you might experience when trying to decontaminate surfaces is the poor distribution of the chemical agent used. Most agents require physical contact with the targeted substance for at least 10 minutes to neutralize it. When dealing with vast areas such as classrooms or halls, it is possible to miss some areas. Our technicians overcome this by using equipment such as pump sprayers or fogging equipment to deliver the product in a mist that spreads evenly in all affected areas.

The road to recovery might be daunting when your institution in Bloomingdale, Glendale Heights, or Addison is affected by a flooding incident. SERVPRO of Carol Stream / East Bloomingdale can help ease the burden. Call us at (630) 830-6236 to help. We’re Faster to Any Size Disaster.