Chicago Water Damage Repair

After a flood has made its way through your home, you are going to be doing a lot of wondering about what you need to try and repair and what needs to be just thrown away. There are a number of items in your house that are going to be better off thrown out instead of you trying to repair them or refurbish them in any way.

One thing that is going to need to be definitely thrown away is food. Any foods in your home will need to be thrown out, including everything in the refrigerator and in the cabinets, even if they did not come into contact with the water directly. If the home was under water for more than 48 hours, the humidity in the home will have gotten so high that it is likely that they have started to mold or at the very least, have become contaminated.

Items such as bedding that is full of padding, like pillows, will most likely need to be thrown out. These thick items are difficult to disinfect entirely and dry out. Not only bacteria have likely contaminated these items, but sewage and other chemicals, as well. Trying to clean these items is probably going to be more trouble than it is worth in the long run and simply purchasing new bedding may be more efficient.

Children’s toys that are porous such as stuffed animals will need to be thrown out. Items contaminated with sewage and chemicals like this or have been contaminated with mold will need to be thrown away because getting them completely safe to be played with again is very difficult. The padding inside these items soaking up soil, sewage, and other chemicals is what makes them so difficult to clean. Plastic toys can be disinfected with cleaners such as Lysol or bleach.

Wooden furniture may become molded if the flood water and the chemicals that it may contain penetrate the finish. These will need to be disinfected and refinished after the flood is over.

Upholstered furniture will usually need to be thrown out if it has been sitting in flood water for more than 24 hours. Soil and sewage will penetrate the outer fabric after a while and be extremely difficult to clean. Much like carpet padding, it will need to be thrown out. Upholstered furniture can be re-upholstered, but this usually comes at a great expense and it is often much easier to just buy a new couch or chair.

Westchester County Water Damage Repair
Elizabeth NJ Water Damage Repair
Manhattan Water Damage Repair

Miami Hurricane Flood Cleanup

The prevention of water damage in most areas of your home is fairly easy, it just usually takes a bit of diligence on your part to make sure that the rest of your household helps you in this task.  Preventing this damage from occurring is typically much, much easier to accomplish and cheaper than having to repair the damage after it has happened.  Whether it is the discoloration of drywall from steam, damaged floorboards due to cracked tiles, or replacing vanities because of leaks under the sink, the cost of actually preventing this damage from happening usually hovers around zero.  Since the bathroom is one of the most valuable areas of your home, you should do what you can to safeguard it.

Keeping an eye on the water junctions in your bathroom is something you will definitely want to do to protect the investment that is your bathroom.  These junctions are the shower, bath tub, sink, and the toilet.

The steam that comes off of the bath tub and shower can cause damage to the upper walls and ceiling, so installing an exhaust fan to get rid of this excess moisture buildup is a pretty good idea.  Any room in your home that has moisture buildup like this should have an exhaust vent so the vapor does not become absorbed by the ceiling.

Tile that has missing grout or tile that is cracked should be replaced as soon as possible, because this allows water underneath it and will cause damage to the floor boards.  This can eventually become so bad that the floor underneath has to be replaced, so replacing a few individual tiles or filling in missing areas of grout is much easier than doing that level of repair.

Look for signs of moisture on the walls of your bathroom, since this could mean that there is a leak in the plumbing in the wall. 

Even though you may not see these every day, keep a watch on the plumbing that is underneath your bathroom sink.  Having leaks in these pipes can cause the bottom of a vanity to rot and need replacing or if the pipes are not hidden by a cabinet, you will have visible standing water on the bathroom floor.

You should also do what you can to make sure that the toilet does not get stopped up with excess toilet paper, feminine napkins, or other things that do not belong there.  Toddlers are notorious for putting items in the toilet like toy cars, so purchasing a lid lock may be a good idea if you have any of these in your home on a regular basis.

Fire Damage Restoration
Manhattan Water Damage
Chicago Water Damage Repair

Mold Remediation Company

The health of children is probably the most important issue for the majority of parents across the nation and as time goes on, we are seeing more and more potential threats to it. Whether it is asthma, the flu, bronchitis, or any other type of illness, all parents are concerned with the long term effects of these conditions and what causes or aggravates them.

Mold has somewhat taken center stage in the list of things in your home that can cause adverse health effects for not only children and the elderly, but anyone else living in your home at the time, as well. Not only can mold cause the aggravation of allergies and respiratory conditions such as asthma and emphysema, but it can also be toxic and cause long term medical conditions that can even end in death in some severe cases.

Due to their underdeveloped nature compared to adults, children are much more at risk to face the health effects of mold exposure than their adult counterparts. If your child has allergies, you probably keep an eye on their exposure to them on a daily basis, as well you should, but have you had your home tested for mold? If you have not, then you probably should.

Your child’s immune system is in development in the early years of its life and you should do what you can to make sure that the natural maturing process is not disturbed. Educate yourself about the different symptoms that can be caused from mold exposure, since many doctors are not particularly aware of the complex symptoms that can come about from the exposure. If you believe that your home has mold and your child is sick, relate this to your child’s pediatrician.

Infants are the most at risk, obviously, and if you suspect there is mold in your home anywhere, you should remove the child from the environment immediately and have tests done to determine if the mold is cosmetic or not. Hemorrhagic pneumonia can be caused by mold exposure in an infant and deaths have been reported.

If your home has been flooded and your child’s toys were exposed to flood waters, anything porous needs to be thrown away. This includes stuffed animals, pillows, and other bedding. These are no longer safe for your child to play with. Even mattresses need to be thrown out and replaced, because of the recent link between mold, crib mattresses, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Houston Water Removal
Orlando Flood Damage Clean Up
Miami Fire Damage Cleanup

Emergency Water Damage Restoration

We all have valuables that we need to have protected, whether it is from a burglar, nosy child, fire, or floods. Documents, jewelry, or anything else that may be valuable to you can be put inside and safe and be almost completely protected from anything that might have happened to them outside of it. Making an investment in a safe can possibly save you thousands of dollars, simply depending on what you choose to keep inside it.

Depending on your situation, there are a few different kinds of safes that you can consider. Do you need a waterproof safe because you live in an area prone to floods or hurricanes? Or an area prone to wildfires? Or do you want a combination of the two? Both kinds of protection are good to have, since water damaged documents can be a hassle to deal with and a fire can do away with them completely.

Safes that are fireproof have the feature of having a positive pressure inside them that will keep water from getting inside, but unfortunately if there is not a fire present to create this pressure, water can get inside these and cause damage to your items. If possible, try to purchase a safe that is both waterproof and fireproof.

There is also the choice of where you want your safe to be located. Portable safes are good if you do a lot of traveling and want a thief to have a hard time getting to your valuables, even if they can pick it up and take it out of your room. It will take them a while to get your belongings out of the safe, to be sure, and it is very possible that the police will catch them before they have a chance.

A floor safe is just what the name implies: a safe that you install directly into the floor. You can cover this with a rug or a piece of furniture to make sure that no one sees it. A safe installed into the floor should be waterproof, since the floor is the first thing that flood waters will reach.

A wall safe offers the same kind of concealment that a floor safe offer and you can cover these with tapestries, mirrors, or photographs. Make sure you choose the correct depth for it, however, so you get the right one for your wall.

SEO Company
water Damage Restoration
Pest Control

Water Damage Restoration

Allergies are an inconvenience for everyone who has them and there are billions of people in the world who suffer from them every day.  Whether it is an allergy to pollen, grass, pet dander, or mold, the symptoms are usually about the same.  They can be anything from a runny nose and a pair of itchy eyes all the way to swelling of the face and neck or even the entire body.  Most allergy symptoms are only prevalent from the spring to fall, but allergies that are caused by things like pet dander and mold show themselves the whole year because they are not related to the outdoor growing season.

Mold living in your home does not freeze and lie dormant like it does in the outdoor environment and can pose a serious health risk for anyone, not just those members of your household that have allergies.  People that have allergies, however, are more likely to feel the affects of mold exposure sooner than the rest of us.  Mold exposure tends to aggravate allergies and respiratory conditions that already exist, like emphysema or asthma.  You need to be particularly careful if you have an infant or a small child in your house when there is mold, since their immune systems are currently still very much in development.  Disturbing this natural development process can damage the child’s immune system irreparably, so removing your child from this situation until the mold is removed is the best thing to do.

Infants exposed to mold have been known to develop a disease known as hemorrhagic pneumonia (bleeding in the lungs) and many times this ends in death. 

Those who have allergies and are exposed to mold growth in the home or elsewhere will usually show an intolerance to certain foods that contain fungi, such as yeast, mushrooms, or mold.  Cheeses such as blue cheese or Roquefort, bread, beer, mushrooms, and etcetera will typically make the normal allergy symptoms of the person even worse. 

Note if the symptoms lessen or go away completely if you leave the home.  This will be a sign that there is a problem in the home that is causing the symptoms to become worse and you may need to call a professional mold inspector if there is no visible mold issue.

Coming into direct skin contact with the mold will often leave rashes on even those who are not allergic.  Take a good look around your house, especially in areas that are inherently moist like the bathroom, kitchen, basement, or laundry room.  These are the areas that are most likely to harbor mold growth in your home.

Fire Damage Restoration
Manhattan Water Damage
Chicago Water Damage Repair