7 Essential Ways to Renovate Your Home After Water Damage
Water damage isn’t a new phenomenon. There are plenty of real-life instances where houses get flooded due to heavy rains or leaky pipes.
Whatever might be the cause, once your house is damaged by water, you need to clean up and renovate as soon as possible to avoid any further damage.
Thankfully, plumbing has come a long way and even those who can’t tell the difference between a wrench and an auger can reverse the damage caused by water with barely any effort. Once you find out the source of damage, it’s much easier to find a fix.
So, here are seven essential ways in which you can renovate your home after water damage.
Water leakages can have a devastating impact on your house
1. Locate the water source
Begin with the basics. Try to locate the source of water damage in the home. Typically, there are three sources of water flowing at homes.
Clean water comes from rain or leaky pipes, gray water comes from appliances like washing machines and dishwashers, and black water originates due to sewage leakage.
If a house is damaged due to clean or gray water, you can try cleaning it up yourself, but black water removal needs professional help.
2. Dry the area soon and look out for hidden moisture
Mildew growth can follow if water remains standing for more than 24 hours.
Therefore, you need to relocate the furniture and every other possible item in the house to a safe and dry location and try draining as much water as possible.
Once most of the items are taken out of the house, inspect every corner to look for hidden moisture.
Check out floorboards, spaces underneath the carpet, door frames, ceiling, and the areas near the bathtub or sink to see if they require any repairs.
3. Inspect for mold
Check the water-damaged areas for mold. If you find slight mold growth on wood or carpet, you need to either treat them with a bleach solution or cut out the areas and replace them with new ones.
Some molds are toxic for humans, so if the mold growth seems extensive, seek help from a mold remediation professional for the best solution.
4. Disinfect the house
Once the damaged materials have been removed, disinfect the house, especially the affected areas, before you start to renovate personally or professionally.
This is a crucial step to ensure that no mold or bacterial growth is lingering in the water-damaged areas of the house.
Major renovations such as roof or flooring should always come first
5. Renovate critical areas of the house
Once the house is disinfected, create a checklist of areas to be renovated. It helps if you prioritize in terms of what adds value to a home.
For example, if a house has gone through significant damage due to a flood, you might want to consider fixing the roof and flooring first.
After that, you can move to repairing the doors and windows and other areas of the house, such as the bathroom or the laundry room.
6. Get plumbing inspection done at the earliest
If it’s a water leak that’s the source of damage in the house, it is always advisable to get a plumbing inspection done once the water subsides.
This will prevent further damage that may arise due to leakage issues in the house.
7. For critical damage, check with your insurance agent
Water leakages that stem from natural calamities like rain storms or floods can have a devastating impact on your house.
It can cause severe damage to your home, costing thousands of dollars. In such a scenario, you should call your insurance agent to see if you are covered under homeowners insurance.
If you have homeowners insurance, you could be saving a lot of money from shelling out from your pocket and get the necessary repairs done for your property.
In many cases, the water damage may be too much for you to handle on your own. A water damage restoration professional has the training and equipment to remove standing water, dry affected materials, check for mold growth, and clean and restore the areas.
Make sure you call for a water damage restoration professional immediately after water damage occurs in your home.
About Vince Sandri
Vince Sandri is a content writer and blogger with more than 12 years of experience. His expertise is in creating content related to disaster restoration, including information about preventing and reacting to natural disasters like flooding, water damage, fire and smoke damage, mold growth, storm damage and more.
Vince has been the main contributor to RestorationMasterFinder.com since 2014. Over that time, he has written numerous service pages and blogs for disaster restoration providers featured on RestorationMasterFinder.com. Vince has done extensive research and covered a wide range of topics relating to disaster restoration to help homeowners, business owners, and property managers better protect their property. He understands the problems that disasters like flooding, fire, smoke, and mold can cause as well as the best ways to respond to these issues to limit the damage.
Vince completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Aurora University and his master’s degree at DePaul University. He has been writing SEO website pages, blogs, and press releases since 2012. Vince is also a musician and can be seen playing in the Chicago, IL area.
