A flooded floor may cause panic in any household. You may begin drying, cleaning, and sanitizing floors as soon as possible to try to minimize water damage. Follow these steps to restore flooded flooring to their former brilliance.
First and foremost - safety!
Before you begin, make sure your electricity is turned off in the flooded area to avoid electrocution concerns. If the electrical box is in a wet or flooded location, contact an electrician for assistance.
Before you begin water damage restoration, you should also put on safety gear such as sturdy boots, gloves, goggles, long trousers, and a mask.
Remove the Water
If you have standing water, you must remove it as soon as possible before it causes major water damage to your flooring and the rest of your home. If there is extensive flooding, contact a local water damage restoration company instead.
- Bucket: Begin scooping up the water from the flooring with a plastic bucket.
- Wet-Dry Vacuum: A wet-dry vacuum can remove around 5 to 10 gallons of water each minute. Regular vacuums should not be used for sucking up water since they are not intended to handle water and offer an electrocution danger. If there is considerable flooding, you'll need to accomplish this in stages or risk collapse, therefore it's better to hire a professional.
- Squeegee: Once the majority of the water has been removed, use a squeegee to push minor puddles of standing water outdoors or towards the wet-dry vac for collection.
- Mop: then, use a mop to soak up any remaining water on the flooring.
Subfloors and Dry Floors
Water damage can develop within one hour of a flood, and mold growth can begin within 24 hours. It is critical to dry out the space as soon as possible in order to save wet floors. Let fans, dehumidifiers, and the air conditioner to run continuously to help dry out the space.
Open the windows when the weather is nice, ideally dry and bright, to assist circulate fresh air.
- Air Conditioners: Air conditioners do more than just keep the air in your home cool. They can also dry up the air.
- Switch on the fans to circulate the air.
- Dehumidifiers: Dehumidifiers help to dry the air.
Start cleaning
After you've removed the majority of the water and dried the flooded area, you should start cleaning your flood-damaged house to remove any mud, dirt, or other debris. If the floors are muddy as a result of the floods, shovel it out before you begin cleaning them.
Carpeted Floors
Remove the carpet as soon as possible to avoid mold development and subfloor buckling. Sadly, if interior carpets and padding are flooded, they frequently absorb toxic water and must be replaced. Outdoor carpets or basement carpets installed over concrete subfloors may be salvageable.
- Soak up as much water as possible with a wet-dry vacuum.
- Remove carpets to allow them to dry or repair the padding beneath them.
- On carpets, use extraction or steam cleaning. Instead, for the most thorough cleaning, employ a local professional carpet cleaner.
- Disinfect using a disinfectant spray.
Hardwood floors
Dirt and debris can remain on the floor after draining water. After washing the flooring, you may need to examine them again for any buckling or broken boards.
- Scrub dirt off the floors using a non-sudsy disinfecting cleanser and a gentle brush.
- Vacuum the floors with a wet-dry vacuum.
- After that, use a wood floor cleaner to remove any disinfectant cleaning residue.
- Rinse the wood floors to remove any remaining dirt or cleaner.
- Using a wet-dry vacuum and continually running fans, dehumidifiers, and air conditioner, fully dry the flooring.
Flooring made of vinyl, linoleum, or laminate
Following a flood, these types of floors can retain water, causing water damage to the subfloor. Before cleaning these floors, you should remove them to check the subfloors and allow the subflooring to dry fully. When the subfloors have dried, you may install new replacement vinyl, linoleum, or laminate flooring. If the vinyl, linoleum, or laminate flooring were not harmed by the water, you can thoroughly dry them out before cleaning and replacing them.
- To remove grime, use soap, warm water, and a scrub brush.
- Rinse well with water.
- Using the wet-dry vacuum, fully dry the area.
Tile Flooring
Since tile floors are somewhat water-resistant, cleaning flooded tile floors is an easy task. You may need to remove one or two tiles to inspect the subfloor for water damage, but the tile and grout will normally keep water from seeping into the flooring.
- Use soap and warm water and scrub the floor.
- Rinse the soap solution with water.
- Dry-mop the flooring to remove any leftover moisture.
Mold Prevention
The key to preventing mold is to dry soaked flooring as soon as possible. Lift up the floorboards to dry out the subfloors, which may become a breeding ground for mold if they are moist. If your subfloors have significant water damage, you should repair them to avoid mold growth beneath your flooring.
- Use a wet-dry vacuum and fans, dehumidifiers, fresh air, and air conditioners to dry the flooring.
- Floors should be sanitized with diluted chlorine bleach (1 cup bleach to 1 gallon water).
Prevent water damage
As you see, dealing with flooded floors may take a lot of time, effort, and, of course, money. Flood prevention comes out much easier and cheaper. That is why experts highly recommend investing in quality flood control solutions for any property to avoid the risk of water damage and inevitable losses that it causes.
Here at Dam Easy we have vast experience in dealing with all sorts of floods and offer innovative flood control solutions for businesses and households worldwide.
Contact us today and discover our flood barriers, anti-flooding gates and flood sacks among lots of other modern devices that keep thousands of homes and businesses safe in the face of the most severe floodings worldwide.
Contact Dam Easy today and get ready fo the upcoming flood season with the help of professionals.
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