How to Properly Clean Your Home after a Flood

Water damage in your house is always a pain to deal with. It can literally ruin people’s lives, besides just furniture and electronics. As hard as it can be, the damage is already done.

The best course of action is to act quickly and see what can you do to resolve this terrible situation, and try to salvage as much as possible without putting yourself, or your family in danger.

We’ve talked to guys over at KIC Restoration to give us a few hints and advise us on what to do if our home was a victim to water damage.

Shut down the power

This is important to do first because you know how dangerous it is when electricity and water are in contact, the affected area needs to be safe to re-enter and eventually start the salvaging process.

After you’ve shut the power off you can take out some appliances close, if possible, but depending of the amount damage they suffered, and time they’ve been underwater, you shouldn’t hold your hopes up too high. Focusing on saving electronics is by no means a priority.

Remove the water

This is where the restoration processes actually start, and this is the most important part. All the water needs to be removed from affected areas.

The safest way is to shut down all the power and then manually remove the water using buckets, towels, cans, shovels, whatever item you can find in your vicinity that might help.

If it is safe to switch the power on you can use a vacuum, and if levels of water are too big in some areas, then you can use a pump. Be very careful when using electricity around water, and if you are not sure yourself, you can always contact a professional to help you out.

Drying process

After you’ve made sure that all the water was removed from the premises, it’s time to start the drying process. Open all the windows and doors to let the air flow, and you can also use a dehumidifier or any other item that can blow air.

The goal is to dry the house as quickly as possible to prevent the development of mold, or further damage to the property and potentially your health.

Disinfection

Unfortunately, you are not done when the water is removed and the place dried out, your home is now ideal for the development of mold or bacteria from sewer water.

This space is now probably crawling with infestation and needs to taken care of by disinfecting every corner, from walls, floors, ceilings, to furniture you decide to keep and restore later, etc.

Mold

Another pest you need to deal with. Mold loves humid places, and your home after a flood is susceptible to mold growth which directly affects your health and needs to be removed, ideally by a company offering mold remediation services.

You can buy chemicals designed to deal with this sort of ordeal and just spray the entire house, including furniture. Let the agent overnight and destroy the mold, and now all the conditions for reentering have been met, and it is safe to slowly return to normal life.

Salvaging and Disposal

Finally, you need to deal with the household inventory and estimate what you can keep and what needs to go away. Things you decide not to keep should be disposed of properly.

We recommend recycling everything you decide to throw away. Whether it’s furniture, electronics or anything that falls into the category.

Stuff you decide to keep can be repaired and refurbished, especially if it’s some old piece of furniture with big sentimental value.