What are Some of the Biggest Problems With Flooding in My Reading, PA Home?

4/17/2020 (Permalink)

When a pipe break in your laundry room floods your home, time is of the essence. Contact SERVPRO for effective water removal services.

SERVPRO Professionally Handles Flood Damage to Your Home and Belongings

When floodwater rises faster than natural barriers or storm drains can stop it,  homes often suffer an incredible amount of damage to their furniture. The standing water stains furniture fabrics warp wood and ruins furniture finishes like varnish and stain.

Flooding can invade your Reading home from weather-related disasters or an outside crisis like the break of a water main. The breakdown of water-using appliances like a water heater, dishwasher, or laundry equipment can fill the lower levels of your home with gallons of water. Some of the water that floods in comes with a complement of hazards and contaminants from flowing overland or backed up sewage. Even clean water turns foul after just a day or two.

Flood Damage Restoration

Completely restoring Reading homes after flood damage means understanding how it happens, and what steps are needed to put it back together. In each home, SERVPRO restoration teams first raise furniture and other property onto pallets or other stands while removing the standing water from the home. This action lets soaked items begin to drain excess water and dry in the open air.  

Common Issues 

Color Bleeding 

Color bleeding happens when fabrics absorb too much floodwater. Curtains, drapes, and items like armrest cover sag or fall to the floor, allowing the color to stain wooden floorboards or carpets. Our technicians lift the property out of the water and then use a combination of air movers and dehumidifiers to force warm air over the surfaces and draw moisture from the property and surrounding air to dry them as quickly as possible.

Mildew Growth

Mildew growth occurs when the owner does not bring a professional agency like SERVPRO to remove standing water immediately. The first sign of mildew is a thin, white layer of fungus that grows across soaked wood. To stop further growth, our technicians use the same air movers and dehumidifiers to remove moisture and then apply an anti-fungal cleaner from our inventory on surfaces already showing mildew.

Furniture Swelling

Swelling in wood furniture is a typical reaction to absorbing floodwater. The framing in sofas and upholstered chairs can crack, and the joints weaken and separate. If the glue holding the frame together is exposed, it becomes thinner and quickly loses strength. If the swelling is minor and the glue has not thinned too much, team members can reduce and eliminate most of the damage by installing one or more dehumidifiers around the affected items. The devices remove not just the moisture from the wood and surrounding air; they also harden the glue to increase the structural integrity of the frame.

Water Spotting

Water spotting happens when the flood water splashes a surface like a sofa cushion but does not cover it. To eliminate spotting, technicians wet the entire surface and then evenly dry it with air movers and fans to increase air circulation.

SERVPRO Can Help Even if the Power is Off Due to Flooding

Using our professional flood damage crews for your Reading water emergency makes sense for so many reasons. Our familiar green service trucks arrive with all the pumping and extracting equipment onboard, ready to begin the work planned on-site after assessment by our crew chief. Even if the flooding results in a temporary loss of power, our truck-mounted water removal tools get to work using generators also on board. We pump water more than two inches deep and then move to the wanded water extractors to pull moisture off floors, out of carpeting, and from hidden recesses behind walls and in other cavities.

Mold Prevention

SERVPRO uses sophisticated moisture meters and scanning devices to establish how much floodwater remains in structural components. This helps establish the drying goals we need to meet to ensure the flooded areas are not at risk of secondary damage such as mold damage or continuing deterioration. We set up air movers, heaters, and dehumidifiers to pull moisture from the building materials, continuously monitoring until levels are normal. Our crews might recommend moving personal possessions before or during water removal and drying to evaluate what we can save and what would be best discarded.

Types of Flood Waters

Floodwaters are typically considered gray or black, levels of contamination the might require special handling according to local regulations. SERVPRO keeps current with the disposal requirements of the communities we serve. The care we take containing dirty water protects your family, your possessions, and the structure of your home. To be certain that your living space is sanitized and safe after we remove flood water potentially containing pathogens we apply EPA-registered disinfectants to affected surfaces.

SERVPRO of Reading has the skilled technicians and commercial-quality equipment to handle flood damage in your neighborhood. Call (610) 779-8189 to set up an assessment that will solve your flood water woes.

Learn more about Reading.