Water Damaage Restoration Do's and Don'ts 101

Water Damage Restoration
You come in and find the place looks like Niagara Falls and you are thrust into the water damage restoration process. You now find yourself in a position in which you need to assess the value as well as the importance of each and every item effected by the water damage. When the majority, if not all, of your belongings have been destroyed by such water damage, it may be emotionally difficult to determine which items you want to salvage. Intellectually you know that keeping water damaged things that are beyond repair or water damaged things that may not have any further use is impractical and will just cost you a lot of storage space and money but the personal value of family heirlooms is priceless. Still you should strive to be extremely practical throughout the water damage restoration process so as you will be able to quickly and effectively reorganize your life back to its pre-water damage normalcy.

Foods And Perishables
Water damaged foods and other water damaged perishables that have been soiled via direct water contact, in most cases, should not be consumed and must be disposed of properly. Broken tableware including cups, glasses, and other kitchen tools that have come into contact with black water damage should be discarded as the affected item is, most likely, not fit or sanitary enough to be used.

Avoid These Items
Do not operate any of your electrical appliances when dealing with water damage. It can be extremely dangerous to operate any of your electrical appliances while standing on a wet carpet or water damaged floors! Your Blu-ray and HD television(s), DVR, TiVo, Google or Apple TV, Microsoft Windows and Apple computer(s), iPad(s), AT&T or Verizon iPhone(s), iPod(s), Amazon Kindle, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft X-Box, Kinect, Sony Playstation, recent E-Bay purchases, and the rest of your electrical appliances need to be checked first by a professional technician before you are able to determine which still function and can be kept and which items need to be replaced. Likewise, you should check your annual passes to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, and Busch Gardens and your advance or one day tickets to the Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil to ensure these items did not succumb to the water damage else you may have to call their customer service lines for replacements.

Don't Clean Anything
Do not try to dry your house or building with a blower or any heat inducing item. Rather than eliminating or removing the standing water or excessive moisture that originated from the water damage, this do-it-yourself method will be the catalyst for the uncontrolled growth of mildew and mold and can spread the water further into the building which can result in even more moisture damage and a more entailed restoration process.

---

All product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. Emergency Response Restoration is not, in any way, affiliated with any of these products or companies and Emergency Response Restoration does not receive any materiel benefit or compensation from any company or product mentioned herein. These marks and their use are, thereby, duly governed by the respective owners and any and all rights in connection with the same are entirely reserved.

The Benefits of using an Independent Restoration Company to Fix your Water Damaged Asset

It happened. You arrive and you find your home or office is flooded and has suffered water damage. The list of potential causes reads like a Letterman comedy list but this is no joke. Regardless if the water damage was caused by a broken pipe, a flood, a hurricane, a faucet left running, or if the fire department shot a tonne of water through the building in order to extinguish a fire, it happened and it needs to be fixed.

The first emotion many people have is panic and a overwhelming sense of loss. This is an understandable and justifiable reaction as despite overall shock at witnessing the water damage, the most fearful aspect for many people comes when they call their insurance company to start their claim. You wonder who can help, how long it will take, and how much will the restoration effort cost. Your insurance adjustor assures you that everything will be alright and they are dispatching their restoration team to fix your home. The reassurance sounds good but what is the value of this service?

The first thing you need to know is that the insurance adjustor works for the insurance company and their job is to save the insurance company as much money as possible by manipulating every sneaky trap and technique they are trained to use and can imagine to find a way to reduce or deny your claim. Knowing this, you must also realize that the restoration company your insurance adjustor dispatches is the restoration company preferred by the adjustor for reasons of saving the insurance company money not for reasons of job quality or customer satisfaction. For you see, rather than having your best interests at heart, the restoration company your adjustor prefers and dispatches, has the interests of the insurance adjustor in mind. So then when this insurance adjustor preferred restoration company arrives, they are the eyes and ears of the adjustor and they have a laundry list of exclusions they are seeking to match your claim to in order to reduce or deny your claim. They know and now YOU know that any work this insurance adjustor preferred restoration company completes will be at the lowest possible profit margin so this “restoration” company will, like their insurance company masters, cut every corner and use the least expensive equipment and materials possible to pacify your emotions and claim. Many times, however, this pacification is truly only a thinly masked surface repair and the work fails across the board when an independent industry expert reviews and evaluates the completed work.

Here is a secret the insurance adjustor does NOT want you to know...

you have a CHOICE!

You have the right to choose your restoration company. You have the right to competent and professional service. You have the right to have your home, office, or asset professionally restored to its preloss condition by a company who holds YOUR BEST INTEREST at heart. You have the right to choose an Independent Restoration Company.

An Independent Restoration Company is in business to serve the customer. The Independent Restoration Company gets it business and stays in business through ongoing professional industry education and certification; rapid, quality work; and fully satisfied customers. In most cases, the trained professionals who operate an Independent Restoration Company will make every effort to do everything possible to make this challenging time as pleasant as possible by using the same top quality equipment and materials you would use, and you expect to be used, if you were doing the service yourself. The true industry professionals found at your local Independent Restoration Company are Consumer Advocates who are not satisfied until your home, office, or asset is dried and restored to Industry Standards. In many cases the Independent Restoration Company can bill your insurance company directly so there are no headaches for you. With all of the benefits outlined herein, it is clear that the best benefit of using an Independent Restoration Company to Fix your Water Damaged Asset is the piece of mind you get when you make the call to hire one.

Hopefully you never have to use the information provided herein but should the need ever arise, you now know you have a choice in who handles your restoration and why your choice should be to use an Independent Restoration Company.