The Water Damage Team Provides Advice On Drying A Flooded Basement

Oct. 15, 2009 - PRLog -- Wake Forest, NC – The restoration experts of the Water Damage Team are hoping to help Americans across the country by offering advice on how to dry a flooded basement.

“Opening the door to your basement only to see your new downstairs swimming pool is never fun,” notes David Beavers of the Water Damage Team. “However, now is not the time to sulk, you need to take quick steps in order to save your home from possible thousands in water damage. To help our readers wondering just how to dry out a flooded basement, we have created the following entry.”

1. Prep Work:
When dealing with floodwater, you should always turn off the electricity first. Then, before you can remove the water, you need to take all items on the basement floor and put them up on shelves, or out of the room entirely. If there is any chance of sewage water intermingled with the floodwater, you should properly gear up in gloves, boots, and a facemask. Keep children and pets away from the floodwater while you are working.

2. Ascertain the Damage:
The first step to drying a flooded basement is ascertaining the damage. In some cases, the flooding is mild and requires no more than a mop and a few fans. However, if the water in your basement covers the whole floor you will need to act quickly to get it out as quickly as possible.

3. Extract Water:
Several problems can occur from water damage in your home, which is why getting the water out of your basement ASAP is so important. Depending on the amount of water, you will want to choose from several extraction methods.

4. Extraction Tools:
If you have a sump pump installed that did not full work, you could connect a hose to the pump and lead it out of the home to extract the remaining water. Another method would be to use a wet vac, which is much like a regular vacuum but intended for use with liquids, and does not run the risk of electrocution. This method works fine, but the vac will need to be emptied often, which makes it inconvenient. If the flooding is too major for this equipment, it may be in your best interest to call a water damage specialist to extract that water quickly and efficiently.

5. Ventilate:
Open up any doors or windows in the room and house, to get a steady airflow going. You will want to do this as soon as possible, in order to get the room as dry as possible.

6. Dry:
Once the water has been extracted, you will want to dry up any remaining water on the floor, and on the walls. Take dry rags or towels, and mop up what you can. This will make the drying process more streamlined. Then, find or borrow as many fans as you can and position them around the room. If you do not own fans, or have already called a water damage specialist to help handle extraction, those experts could also be commissioned for this task.

7. Future Prevention:
After doing this one time, you will probably be most interested in how to prevent it from happening again. The best way to prevent flooding in a basement is to install a sump pump to handle any flooding that may happen. Also, checking for leaks from the outside that may be letting the water in to the basement and sealing them off will help prevent future leaks.

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The Water Damage Team is a nation wide disaster restoration company, with years of experience in water removal and water drying. As well as storm damage clean up, contaminated water removal, structural drying, debris removal and mold remediation.