Home Flooding

Imagine walking into your home to find inches of water throughout the house, soaking your carpet, staining wooden furniture legs and ruining irreplaceable precious items.

In the weeks that follow, imagine the mold growing up the inside of your walls as you and your family unsuspectingly inhale the harmful indoor air.

Unfortunately, such a scenario does happen though in many cases it could be prevented, say local flood restoration specialists.

Causes

Home flooding is usually caused by plumbing breakages, said Chris Nossason, general manager at Sun Country Restoration. The broken part is often something that would have been cheap and easy to replace, such as the mechanism that keeps water from overflowing in a toilet tank, he said.

Or "it could be anything from a washing machine to a dishwasher to the ice maker line that goes to a refrigerator."

Certain items tend to have a higher failure rate, said Stan Ramey, owner of A-1 Flood & Fire Restoration. They include rubber washing machine hoses, toilet supply lines, reverse osmosis systems and ice maker lines, he said. An ice maker line has a small line, "but just running a few hours can get you a whole house full of water."

Damages

Home flooding can result in damage to the home and personal items, inconvenience to the family and costs ranging from a couple of hundred dollars up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to both Nossason and Ramey.

"When it does occur, we can go in and dry things out, in particular, walls, cabinets, different areas you might not even think are wet," Nossason said. Many times, people mop up the floor and think that's the extent of the problem, he said.

But oftentimes, what they can't see is water wicking up the inside of the walls, where mold will attach and grow, he said. Besides walls, water also gets into cabinets and inside cavities that homeowners may not be able to get to, he said.

Wooden two-by-four studs inside a wall and even concrete needs to be dried out to prevent or minimize water damage, he said.

Restoration

Restoration specialists respond quickly to home floods and use specialized equipment, such as dryers, dehumidifiers, moisture meters and infrared cameras, to detect and minimize damage, Nossason and Ramey both said.

One of the first things Ramey's company does is to get people's "precious items" up off the floor. "If some things get wet, they're not harmed," he said. "If other items get wet, they deteriorate very rapidly ... We lift wooden furniture onto Styrofoam blocks so that the water does not damage the bottom of the furniture and also to keep the furniture stain from transferring into the carpet and leaving permanent stains in the carpet."

Nossason said if a clean water flood has been quickly discovered, his company can have the water extracted and cleaned up in 24 hours.

However, if unseen moisture in walls is detected with moisture meters and infrared cameras, restoration can take longer. If walls contain moisture from clean water, his company can use dehumidifiers and dryers to dry things in place without disturbing wallpaper or sheetrock. That process may only take between two to five days, he said.

But if a home has been flooded for a period of time, or if it's contaminated with dirty water, then sheetrock, cabinetry and other things would have to be replaced, he said. Basically, the home would require remodeling, which would be much more costly and time consuming, he said.

Homeowners may be temporarily displaced while fully flooded homes are being restored, but they can sometimes stay in the unaffected area of a partially flooded home, Nossason and Ramey both said.

Restoration could take anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days, depending on the extent of the damage, Nossason said. "Whenever any type of damage occurs, it's an inconvenience. The sad thing is, it can usually be prevented."

Prevention

To prevent plumbing breakages, Nossason recommends scheduling regular plumbing inspections by licensed, accredited plumbing companies that are members of the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association. "Even though plumbers are very expensive, it saves (homeowners) a lot of money in the long run."

Check insurance policies to ensure they are up to date and that they cover water and mold damage, he said. And get a contents inventory of everything in the home. The cost to replace furnishings and personal belongings can sometimes far exceed the cost of replacing a whole home, he said.

Ramey recommends checking washing machine hoses once a month, and when they start to swell like a knuckle, replace them. Also check various water supply lines for rust or corrosion that indicates seepage, he said.

It's a good idea to shut off the water supply to the house before leaving on trips, he said. However, that may not be an option if a swimming pool or irrigation system is connected to the same source, he said.

In that case, water supplies to indoor fixtures and appliances could be shut off, he said. But be careful shutting them off because valves with plastic stems sometimes break, he said.

Ramey also said to find out where the emergency shut-off valve to the house is, so water can be shut off if there's a leak. "Exercise it once in awhile so it will work if you need it."

Sun Country Restoration can be reached at 783-5663 and is located at 1275 W. 9th St.

A-1 Restoration is located at 2896 E. 16th St., and the number is 783-0307.