It’s been a tough couple of months for Mother Earth! We saw earthquakes, we saw torrential downpours, and we saw hurricanes, which displaced millions. While it’s been heartbreaking to watch, it puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it? Here at Victorian Foundation Repairs, our goals stem from educating properly about healthy levels of risk. A big piece of this is disaster-readiness, and ensuring that our valued customers know how to handle anything that’s thrown their way. That’s why, today, we’re discussing what to do, after water damage has taken place.

But first, let’s talk about what to do before water damage. Early awareness and consistent education are keys to prevention. You can’t really stop a flood from entering your home, but you can ensure that you’re equipped with the tools to make it through the storm. Get together with your family or roommates and discuss exactly what you would do in any stressful scenario. Having a plan in place, and ensuring that you’re all on the same page is key. We’re also passionate about double-checking your insurance coverage. There is such a thing as “underinsured”.

Fast-forward, post water damage – what are you to do? It’s time to clean up. Safety is paramount here. You want to be vigilant about broken items and floating debris, but you also want to be award of the mould and bacteria, which may be present in the water. If you can’t call in the experts, at least make sure that you’re wearing protective gear like work boots, thick gloves and masks.

Next up, it’s time to remove the most cumbersome items. This can be challenging emotionally and physically, but we prioritize it because these items can be so time-consuming to remove. Know that family, friends and loved ones all come together in a time of crisis and you can easily lean on them for support.

Now, you’re probably wondering- who is going to remove the water? Sometimes, it’s just too dense or accumulative to handle yourself. If a room is more than halfway under water, please make sure that you’re working with an accredited company or contractor. There are DIY situations, however, where you can save yourself a pretty penny. If the water removal is minimal, you may be able to do it, using a shop vacuum to extract the water.

Once the water is out of the space, we’re sure that you want to decompress a little bit. But it’s time to disinfect. As mentioned above, any flooded areas are ground zero for bacteria and mould. Scrub your floors, walls and ceilings using a disinfectant. Then, do it again. There’s no such thing as overachieving during this step.

Finally, it’s time to rebuild. In the most literal sense of the word, you may have elements of a room, which need to be completely rebuilt. But it’s also time to get excited about the future ahead. Maybe you were thinking about redesigning that room anyways. It’s time to begin your next chapter.

Questions? Comments? Reach out to our team, and be sure to check out our blog for more information about taking care of your home.

Although it would be so much more fun to only share positive and uplifting information on the Victorian Foundation Repairs blog, let’s be honest- it’s not realistic. One of our most prominent goals as a company, is to ensure that we’re arming our valued customers with the know-how to make the right decisions for you, when it comes to your home. This means that you need to know the good, the bad and the ugly. In our last post, we covered an equally negative intruder- asbestos. Today, we shift focus and talk about water. Here’s the difference… asbestos is objectively a very negative intruder to your home or business. Water… well, she’s a bit more subjective. Though she does a lot of good in other areas of your life, let’s talk about the adverse effects that she can have on your home, and how to potentially circumvent these situations.

If we were to ask you to call out examples of water damage, we’re pretty sure that floods would top the list. Floods in homes, caused by standing water, are indeed one of the worst adverse effects that water can have on the structure of your property. Depending on how long the water is standing before the situation is mitigated, there can be a domino effect of other challenging situations.

But there are also other dangers, which are a direct result of water. The first is an obvious irritation for the team members of Victorian Foundation Repairs- damage to the structure of your home. When we reference the structure of the home, we’re referring to the foundation and all of the beams that support the floors, walls and roof of your property. After all, if you get any material wet, it will most likely not retain the same level of strength and fortitude. The same is true for most building materials, when they’re inundated with water. You immediately say goodbye to the integrity of the structure. You also open the door to microbial growths.

Next up on the list- mould. It’s important to note that mould’s unsightly look and smell are not the full extent of the damage that it can cause. Mould can have extremely negative impacts on your health, leading to irritation of the skin, the nose, the throat and the eyes. You’ll never be able to be able to get rid of 100% of mould spores, because they also travel through the air. But these spores are far less dangerous. It’s the mould spores that land on standing water, that are the real troublemakers. When you eliminate excess amounts of standing water, you can check mould spores off of your pesky to-do list.

Finally, you’re going to notice aesthetic damage. Aesthetic damage can mean any number of things. It may mean that the standing water has impacted the fresh coat of paint that you just applied to the exterior of the structure. It can also mean washing away landscaping design and fixtures. It can even mean additions like fences or window pains, will suffer the consequences.

Today, we hopefully piqued your interest with the warning signs. Stay tuned for future posts, on ways to avoid these scenarios!