How to Repair A Wet, Flooded, or Water Damaged Basement
Clean Up and Restoration

Water Damage or Flooding of your home or business is the number one property loss in terms of total cost in America today. Many people only think of serious water damage as hurricane or river overflows. Although these are obviously the most devastating they are not the most common. Here in the Midwest a broken sump pump, frozen water pipes and backed up sewer lines are the most common causes of home and business flooding. There are others such as broken water heaters, dishwashers and washing machines which are some of the more common culprits. In either case the situation really does require a good understanding of the situation and preferably an immediate handling.

Types of Water and Water Damage

First there are three types (categories) of water.

• Category One is clean water coming from a broken water pipe, hot water heaters, etc. It’s clean water.
  
  
• Category Two water is slightly contaminated, such as ground water from sump pump failure and used water such as bath or washing machine water. It is defined as mildly contaminated, containing elevated levels of bacteria not high enough to pose an immediate health risk to humans or pets. Category One water, if left standing, can turn to category two within two days.
  
  
• Category Three water is severely contaminated water containing elevated levels of bacteria and/or pathogens that could or do pose an immediate health risk to humans and pets. Category Two water, if left standing will turn to category three within two or three days if not properly handled. Category three typically comes from sewage or water backing up from sewer lines, and would include water from lakes, rivers and ejector pits.

Water Extraction Procedure

When a Trained Water Remediation Technician addresses a flooded building or basement, one of the first questions they should ask is “What is the source of the water?” This helps them to determine the category. This is important information because the handling varies with each of these. Equipment and procedures can include extraction of water with extraction equipment, several types of dehumidifiers, specialized blowers, air injection systems (on walls, ceilings, and floors), odor treatments, sanitizing, disinfecting, etc. Read the testimonial...

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House and Basement Flooding

What to do when you have a flooded basement or business?

First, the source of the flooding is almost always a problem to do with plumbing, so you should call a plumber.

Secondly try to determine where the water is coming from to see if there's something you can do immediately to help alleviate the problem.

Example: if your basement is flooding during or immediately after a rain storm there is probably nothing you can do because either the sump pump is out, or the city sewer is backing up through a floor drain in older houses.

But, if water is pouring through the ceiling or walls it's pretty certain that it's a broken pipe and you need to turn the water off to the whole house. If you're on city water the main shutoff valve is almost always in the front of the house by the water meter, in the lowest level of the house. It also helps to open the faucets in the house to drain the pipes.

Next, call a water damage company such as ProTech Water Damage (the response time is 90 minutes or less in most cases). They can quickly dry out a wet basement or business, and prevent or minimize the extent your property is damaged by the water and prevent mold growth. The key to water damage remediation is speed and thoroughness of the . Now, if you can, get your belongings out of the water, specifically porous (able to absorb water) materials and small personals etc. that are standing in the water. The longer things sit in the water the more water they will absorb, and thus the more water damaged they will become. The exception of course is, if its Category Three, sewage, wait for the technician to arrive.

WARNING: Do not go into a basement with several inches of water!! There is a real possibility of electrocution.