How to recover damaged items after flooding

10/30/2023 (Permalink)

It’s essential to dry items within 48 hours after a house flood, if you want to salvage your goods.

If you’ve ever experienced a house flood, you might have lost a few items, or maybe you lost most of your possessions depending on the extent of the waters and how long you waited to dry your furnishings, accessories and trinkets.

If you want to salvage your goods after experiencing a flood, it’s essential you dry items within a 48-hour timeframe.

We want to offer some tips & suggestions on how to salvage your items:

• Improve air circulation! Don’t contain the moisture. Instead, open windows and doors. If there are no windows or doors leading outside in the particular room, open closet and cabinet doors.
• Turn on a fan! It can either be a ceiling fan, a floor fan, or both. However, please do not plug a fan into an outlet attached to a wall that is wet or has water behind it. That’s an easy way to get electrocuted.
• Use a dehumidifier. These remove water vapor from the air. To be effective, it must be used in a contained area. Be sure to shut all doors and windows during use to prohibit more humidity from entering.
• Use a sump pump. These remove water out of house or office through a hose or pipe. They’re useful when the floodwater level is more than a couple inches deep. 
• Got soaked items? Quick! Take them out of your house. Allow them to dry off in the sun. Keeping them indoors will ensure nothing ever dries up as their excessive moisture will travel to surrounding objects.
• Try a wet-dry shop vacuum. Never use a regular vacuum cleaner. A shop vac is specifically made for wet conditions.

At SERVPRO of Rockville-Olney and SERVPRO of Silver Spring North, we are water damage restoration experts. With the latest, state-of-the-art equipment and certified technicians, you can trust us to clean up and restore your property back to how it used to be! We also offer content restoration, as oftentimes our customers want to salvage and not discard their valuables, even furniture and paintings... Ask us about content restoration!

You can review our water damage restoration process here:

https://www.SERVPROrockvillesilverspringnorth.com/water-damage-restoration

Give SERVPRO Team Gutierrez a call at 301-340-1313 if we can help!