Flood Damage

Last week I received a call from Mary Ann who lives near Clark Fork. She said a pipe had broken in her home. Her insurance company set out a restoration company from CDA to address the problem. She said when they arrived, they used wet vacuums to extract the water, then they installed several small dehumidifiers and fans to finish the drying process. After four days they returned, said her home was dry and removed the equipment. The reason she called was because her home was starting to smell and some of her carpets felt damp.

I took down her address and told her I could be there within 2 hours. When I arrived at Mary Ann’s home, she greeted me and escorted me and my apprentice to the area that had the problem. On entering the home there was a very distinctive smell of high humidity and an odor of fungal growth. I took out my meters and started to take psychrometric readings. The temperature in her home was 73 degrees, humidity of 64%, which made the grains of moisture per pound of air was 77.05, her sub floor measured 29% moisture content (Very Wet). I called her insurance adjuster and explained the problem. Mary Ann told him that she did not want that company to return for a second chance.

To make a long story very short, we dried her home to manufactures recommended levels within four days and took care of the odor problem.The reason why I bring up this issue is because there is a true science behind drying homes that have been flooded. Competent restoration companies use psychrometric readings to determine how wet the environment is and then determine what type of equipment is needed to effectively dry the home.In the restoration business the use of proper equipment is essential, for example, proper extraction removes water 1,200 times faster than dehumidification. A typical extractor will pull 20 to 25 gallons of water per minute, while your best dehumidifier will only pull 30 gallons a day.In a 1400 square foot home, after proper extraction, the restorer leaves about 1 gallon of water for every yard of carpet which equals to about 233 gallons of water to be removed by dehumidifies. If small dehumidifies are used it could take hundreds of hours to dry the home. Competent restoration companies will use extraction and focus drying (heat, high pressure air movement, and dehumidification) to dry a flooded environment. The company should also treat the area to prevent fungal growth.

This article was written by Edmond E. Madan, Certified Forensic, Fire, Flood, Mold Inspection & Remediation Contractor. Ed is the CEO of Northwest Executive & Environmental Services, Inc.