Let's take water damage, for instance. Proper drying techniques most often require some maneuvers that can seem pretty shocking to the untrained eye. After all, this is your property. You've spent good money to buy it, and perhaps even more money and time renovating or decorating it just the way you want it. Then a disaster happens, and what comes next is almost excruciating to see.
Imagine the unpleasant sight of baseboards being removed from your walls and holes being drilled; sections of ceiling being removed; once-beautiful flooring being taken up; expensive cabinets being removed; and your belongings being shifted around from one area to the next. I'm also talking about a lot of loud noise from the drying equipment, and extension cords being taped to your floor. In addition to that, there's the plastic sheeting erected as a containment barrier throughout your house, and people you just met going in and out of your home. I can see how it could be kind of unsettling.
But if you think about it, you'll quickly realize that all those things have to happen. When moisture is trapped inside of walls and ceilings among all the wood, drywall and insulation, the environment is ripe for additional damage. Leaving it wet will eventually lead to deterioration, mildew, and maybe even (oh, no!) mold. There's only one way to get it dry. We have to blow high velocity air in there to cause evaporation, which will then be collected by our dehumidifiers. The only way to blow air into those spaces is to open them up. That's called demolition, and it makes most people cringe, regardless of how prepared they might be for it.
Demolition may involve removing baseboards along your walls and making holes along the bottom about the size of a half-dollar every couple of feet. It might involve drilling holes in the base of your cabinets, or even removing your cabinets altogether until the areas behind them and the cabinets themselves are dry.
Ceilings also sometimes require demolition. When they're saturated with water, they begin to deteriorate fast. The drywall becomes spongy and starts to crack, and then it's only a matter of time before it starts to sag and then fall. After all, there's typically a bunch of heavy, wet insulation sitting right on top of it. So you can understand why we sometimes have to cut a big square out of your ceiling. Either way, a hole is going to be there eventually; we might as well beat gravity to the punch and make the area safer and cleaner. Besides, we have to blow air in there, too.
Where floors are concerned, carpet is usually the easiest. Almost everyone knows we have to dry under the carpet, so they usually expect to see it pulled up. Seeing the pad underneath being cut out might be a bit cringe-worthy, but carpet pad is cheap to replace. Of course, sometimes the glue that holds the carpet fibers to the backing breaks down from too much moisture. That's called delamination, and when that happens, the carpet itself must be replaced.
As for wood floors, there are a lot of factors that determine what needs to happen when they get wet. If there's moisture below, it can sometimes be extracted with heavy suction using rescue mats, assuming it's a "nail down" floor. If it's a "glue down" floor, it'll usually have to come up. The glue blocks the water trapped beneath, and the suction from the rescue mats can't suck it out. In any case, regardless of the installation method, most of the wood floors we encounter have to be replaced. It's almost impossible to get wood floors dry quickly enough to prevent them from buckling and warping. It all depends on how wet they got and how long they stayed that way. By the way; laminate floors never stand a chance against significant amounts of water. We typically recommend removal if water has gotten below their surface.
Finally, let's address the noise. Our equipment is loud. The technology to create high velocity wind without making much noise doesn't yet exist (and probably never will). Those loud noises are annoying, I know. They disrupt your peaceful environment and drown out the sounds you're used to hearing, but they're necessary to get your home dry and prevent further damage. Think of that noise as the key indicator that those machines are doing what they were built to do; save your house. The same goes for the unfamiliar people milling about your home. They just want to help you get things back to normal as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, someone with a lot of foresight created what we call "Master Moments." Master Moments is a booklet that explains our drying techniques and equipment in detail. It has a section of frequently asked questions, too. At the beginning of each job, we briefly go over the booklet with our customers, touching on the highlights so that we can set proper expectations. We then encourage them to read through the booklet in more detail at their convenience. Of course, our technicians are always happy to try and answer any questions, too.
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| Master Moments Recovery Guide |
So if you have a disaster in your home or business, stay calm, call ServiceMaster by Cornerstone, and try not to be shocked by what happens next.
