After severe weather blows through your area and the heavy rains recede, your problems may be just beginning. The water damage your home has sustained has to be addressed as soon as possible, as it can quickly lead to mold and pose serious health risks. You’ll most likely need a professional who’ll do the job for you, especially if health and safety is a concern. It’s important to call the right people who you can trust, such as our residential remodeling team at Kingdom Restoration.

Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Mold Growth

In your home, mold and mildew will grow in places with a lot of moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, plumbing and where there has been standing water. Mold grows well on cardboard, paper products, ceiling tiles and wood. Mold can also grow in paints, dust, wallpaper, drywall, insulation, carpets, fabric and upholstery.

Exposure to damp and moldy environments may cause a variety of health effects, especially in people who are already sensitive to mold and upper respiratory conditions. In fact, it’s been proven with sufficient evidence that indoor exposure to mold can cause upper respiratory tract symptoms, coughing and wheezing in healthy individuals, as well as evidence suggesting a link between indoor mold exposure and respiratory illness in otherwise healthy children.

How Mold Grows After a Flood

Microorganisms that turn into mold colonies are always be in the air around us, and with added moisture and water exposure, mold growth will start quickly within 24 to 48 hours. Mold will continue to grow as long as the moisture level is high, and is usually most fond of wood and drywall in your home.

In nature, mold is found in the air and on many organic surfaces. But mold growth indoors is an unusual condition which results from excessive moisture accumulation. When the problem remains unaddressed, it could even affect the health of your family. This is why knowing how to prevent mold after a flood is important to your health.

How You Can Prevent Mold Growth

Right after flooding, the only way to prevent mold from growing is to dry the affected areas immediately. You’ll need to open up your home once it’s less humid outside and remove all wet debris and items inside. As trusted disaster restoration and residential remodeling contractors, we recommend cleaning the affected areas with sanitizers and disinfectants as well.

Get rid of any other porous materials that are still in the area such as papers and carpets. If you can’t get rid of your carpets immediately, use fans to circulate the area and speed up evaporation. You can also use a carpet extractor if you have one, or just a wet/dry vacuum.

If your basement or crawl space was completely submerged, you’ll need to have a disaster restoration and remodeling contractor pump out the water gradually, at least around one-third of the water per day, to avoid structural damage. Pumping out the water completely in a short period of time will affect the pressure from water-saturated soil on the outside and could cause basement or crawl space walls to collapse.

Wood and upholstery can also trap mold easily, so you may need to discard these items especially if they were submerged completely below the waterline. As for glass, metal, plastic and other non-porous materials, they usually just need a thorough cleaning before they can be reused.

Use a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers can actually help reduce the moisture content of the air and help things dry more quickly, especially in closed areas. Using a residential dehumidifier may be enough for most homes; as for large spaces and moisture-saturated areas, you’ll need an industrial/commercial dehumidifier, or even a specially designed restoration dehumidifier to get the job done.

Professional disaster restoration and residential remodeling contractors know that the most effective way to use a dehumidifier after a flood is to let it run until porous surfaces in the space have dried out completely. For a flood-damaged home, this can take anywhere from a couple of days to around a week or more. Unless everything is completely dry, mold can still continue to damage your home. Keep in mind that materials like plaster and insulation will take a long time to dry, so it may be better to replace them entirely.

Other Mold Cleaning and Prevention Tips

There will also be some instances wherein a trusted residential construction professional is needed, as they can simply do wonders on your home cleaning that you may otherwise won’t be able to achieve on your own. Ask your hired professional to:

  • Install check valves in plumbing to prevent the flood from backing up into the drains of your home.
  • Raise your furnace, water heater and electric panel to higher floors if they are in areas of your home that may be flooded. This will prevent damage. An undamaged water heater may be your best source of fresh water after a flood.
  • Seal walls in basements with waterproofing compounds to avoid seepage through cracks. But if your basement is partially or completely submerged, have the water pumped out properly first.
  • Construct barriers such as levees, berms and flood walls to stop flood from entering the building. Note that construction permits for such barriers may be required by local building codes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers these additional tips while dealing with the aftermath of a flood:

  • Put on protective equipment to safeguard your eyes, nose, mouth and skin.
  • Open all doors and windows while cleaning.
  • Don’t mix cleaning products like ammonia and bleach; this can create toxic vapors.
  • Remove all the mold you can see with water and detergent, and dry surfaces right away.
  • Have your damaged septic tanks, cesspools, pits and leaching systems serviced as soon as possible, as these can become serious health hazards.
  • Throw out all food, beverages and medicine exposed to flood waters and mud. When in doubt, throw it out. This includes canned goods, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples and containers with food or liquid that have been sealed shut.

When it comes to high-quality residential construction, Kingdom Restoration is the name to count on. Call us at (941) 263-8715 or fill out our convenient contact form to get in touch with us today!