What Can I Save After A Flood?

You may not be very sure what you can save after a flood wreaks havoc on the interior and exterior of your home, but there are some definite things that you can save and things that you will have to throw away.

Certain items that have been soaked in dirty flood water for many hours will probably not be salvageable. Wooden shutters, aluminum, wooden blinds, things made of vinyl, and etcetera can usually not be saved. Metal items will corrode and wooden items tend to warp over time, since it is porous and soaks up water easily.

Any pillows that were in the flood water need to be thrown out, since it will be hard to get rid of all the dirt from the material. It will also be difficult to completely disinfect them.

When you purchase a disinfectant, you should make sure that it is approved by the EPA and that it has a registration number somewhere on the label. This will assure you that the cleaner meets the EPA’s requirements. Having the correct disinfectant for the task at hand is also important. Some disinfectants are only effective on hard surfaces.

Before you begin washing your clothing and other fabrics, you should make sure that the water is safe to use and it not contaminated. If the tap water is safe to drink, it is safe to wash your clothes in. You also might want to make an effort to sanitize your washing machine before you use it. You can do this by running some detergent and bleach through the washer using the most water it can handle.

You can use a water hose to get rid of mud and dirt that is still on the floors of your home and on the furniture. Dried mud and dirt can be scraped and shaken off of most textiles.

When you are dealing with water damaged furniture, you have only a few options. If flood water reached the fabric, it may be stained and if they were in the water for more than a few hours, the silt and dirt that was in the water probably got through both the fabric and the padding. Unfortunately, padding will retain water and allow mold to grow. The majority of the time, your best bet will be to simply discard the upholstered furniture altogether. Restoring this furniture will mean stripping everything down to the frame.

If water gets through the finish on some wood items, it will mildew and the joints in the wooden frame of the item may also become loose.

Mattresses or box springs can be saved if they have come into contact with only a minimum of clean flood water (such as broken water pipes), but mattresses that have been come into contact with dirty flood waters cannot be due to the biological and chemical hazards that exist in them. You should not use a mattress that has a musty odor after it dries, since this means that mold is present. Have this item sanitized by a professional.

Water Sanitation Using Heat And Bleach

When you are having to sit a hurricane out in your home or other building, the most important thing that you need to have plenty of is clean water. Hurricanes are often something that we can prepare for in the United States, since we can typically see them coming, but failing to pay attention to the weather reports during hurricane season does happen to some of us.

You should have on hand about a gallon of clean water for every person staying with you. This will be used up in a day’s time, so having one gallon for every person for every day you expect the storm to last plus a few is a good idea.

Having a gas powered electricity generator is something else that you might want to have on hand, especially if you might not have enough water. If the electricity goes out and you run out of water, you will not be able to boil any water to make sure that it is sanitary before you drink it. During storms like this you should never assume that the tap water is alright to drink. Local water treatment plants could be contaminated with all kinds of things during this inclement weather and you should never drink it until the storm clears and your local government okays it.

Boiling water is the best way to sanitize it if you have no other means of doing so, such as a high quality water filter. Bring the water to a boil and keep it like this for about 5 to 10 minutes. Covering the boiling pot of water should shorten the time necessary to get the water boiling and will help you save fuel.

Liquid Clorox bleach can also be used to sanitize water. It can be used to purity tap water and make it safe for you to drink. This will kill any bacteria and microorganisms living in it and the process is fairly simple.

Any water should be let to stand in a container until any debris or sediment settles to the bottom. The clear water should be poured into another container, leaving the water still containing sediment in the bottom of the first one. You only need to use a couple of drops of bleach per quart of water.

As a backup for boiling and bleach, you can also purchase water purification tablets at most outdoor supply stores. People who go camping or hiking often take these with them in case they need them, but you can also benefit from keeping a few on hand.

Are You The Victim Of A House Fire?

The fire damage done to a home can be quite extensive and hard to deal with for a landlord or a homeowner, but it does not have to be an extremely difficult task if you are careful and do a little research before you begin the remediation of the property. Small fires are the easiest to deal with, obviously, but the damage of some even larger fires can be dealt with by you as long as they do not do much structural damage to the home. Structural damage will need to be dealt with by a professional who is trained in these things, but the majority of the cosmetic damage that gets done to your home can be fixed by you.

When the fire marshal tells you that it is okay to go back into your home, there are a few things that you should know. If you evacuated pets from the home at the time of the fire, then you do not want to let them back into this environment yet. This is especially true for birds, since avian species are sensitive to environmental changes. If you have a bird that was exposed to the smoke, take it to a vet as soon as possible.

The electricity to the home should be off before you go back inside, since the fire truck responding to your house might have left quite a bit of standing water inside. It just depends on the size of the fire. Get rid of the standing water as quickly as you can to help prevent water damage to the floors and mold growth.

The windows and doors of the house should be opened so air can get in and out of the house easily. This will help rid your home of the smoky smell. Electrical appliances in the house that were exposed to the smoke and/or the heat will need to be checked before using them. You will be tempted to use a stand-up vacuum cleaner to vacuum the soot off of your floors, but the brushes on it will only drive the soot further into the carpet. You will want to use an attachment without brushes for this, if you have one big enough.

Wash the leaves of any plants in simple water to remove soot.

Porous surfaces like your walls and ceilings will have smoke damage, but these will have to be painted over. These stains cannot usually be cleaned.

Any containers of food that were open at the time of the fire should be discarded.