When you have water damage, doing it yourself is never a good idea. Call the experts at SERVPRO of Alachua County West.

3/30/2018 (Permalink)

Water damage from driving rain. The homeowner dried it up themselves with a vaccum and towels, and had to call us for proper drywall days later.

At one time or another, as a homeowner or renter, we have all had a disaster.  Sometimes it’s an easy clean-up and sometimes we know that we are in over our heads.  Many times though, homeowners have a water damage and with a little elbow grease, a shop vac and some towels they try to mitigate the damage themselves.  Unfortunately, some time later they end up calling the experts for more costly repairs due to damaged materials from improperly drying their home and even mold.  Here are some facts about water damage.

• It is 1,200 times easier to remove water than to evaporate it? That’s why proper extraction of standing water is key to the dry out of a structure.  Many times shop vacs are unable to do a sufficient job quick enough.
• Drywall exposed to water can wick up the wall at a rate of one inch per hour for the first 24 hours. If left for a few days while you are out of town it can wick all of the way up the wall to the seam at 4 ft.
• The insulation in your walls will wick water from the drywall as well. Without proper weep holes drilled to allow air flow you walls may seem dry, but you have insulation still festering with moisture and eventually mold.  Insulation also loses its R-Value (its ability to insulate properly) when it is wet.
• Improperly dried drywall becomes brittle and weak causing it to break apart very easily. Interestingly it seem that drywall that is dried properly can actually become stronger which was discovered by water restoration companies that used what they call “flood rooms” for training.  Each week the rooms are flooded and used for training proper dry out techniques.  They found after about five “floods” the drywall had to be replaced because it would no longer allow water to wick up the walls.
• Mold will start growing immediately after spores are attached to an item and it has food and moisture. It can easily grow within 24 to 48 hours and will colonize in 1-12 days. 
• Mold releases its spores when it is disturbed, so without proper removal you can spread it throughout your home trying to get rid of it.

These are just a few reasons you should entrust your water damage to the experts at SERVPRO of Alachua County West and save yourself the time, money and sanity of having to restore your home more than once despite just one single water damage.