One of the biggest fears of any homeowner is water damage to your walls, floors, and furniture. Whether your basement flooded from a natural disaster, or you have a faulty and broken water pipe that burst and soaked portions of your home, you need to look for ways to repair and restore your home to its original shape.  

When you have water damage inside your home, you should hire a service specializing in water damage restoration in Portland to help you with your problems. That being said, here are the tips for water damage restoration in your houses:  

1. Turn Off the Electricity 

Before you remove the water away from your home, you should immediately unplug every electronics from their outlet and keep them away from the water. If the water continues to rise, you should place them on your second floor or sit them on top of a high object to salvage them.

After removing everything plugged into the outlets, you should turn off the power supply in your home so that there'll be no energy running through the outlets, which can cause electrocution that could risk your life, especially when the water has reached the outlet levels.  

Moreover, even after you've successfully removed every water on your household ground, you shouldn't turn your electronics on unless your electrician provides you with their signal.

2. Take Photos 

Before cleaning your home for proper restoration, you shouldn't forget to take photos and videos for proper documentation. This will allow your insurance company to see the flood's condition and be able to have proof about where the flood has reached inside your home. 

Ideally, you should take photos with every spot and corner of the room, indicating how deep the water is inside. You can use a tape measure that can show the flood's height. This should allow you to have decent proof if the insurance company declines your claims.  

3. Remove as Much Water as Possible 

After you've gotten any flooding under control, you should immediately remove the water inside your homes as much as possible and avoid letting it sit for too long. When you allow the water to stay in your home for extensive periods of time, your floors and walls can develop molds and other health issues that can damage your house.  

You can use a wet vacuum cleaner that sucks at least 5–10 gallons of water per minute, making the water removal process quick and easy.  

After you've removed most of the water from your household, begin pushing out the remaining water by using a floor squeegee to ensure that the most amount of water is out of your house. After you've pushed everything out, you should begin mopping the floor with clean water to remove any residue.  

4. Promote Proper Ventilation 

The next thing that you need to do after removing the water inside your home is to promote proper ventilation by opening the doors and windows wide open so that the water can evaporate. 

If the current season in your area doesn’t promote proper ventilation due to cold weather or snow, you might want to try using a dehumidifier to lift out the humidity inside your home, keeping it dry and mold-free. In addition to this, you could also run your fans or your air conditioning units to promote quicker water evaporation. 

5. Remove Debris and Furniture Out of the House 

After your house is free with water in every spot of the room, you should remove any furniture and debris and keep them outside for proper drying. Assess the furnishings to see if you can salvage them or if you need to throw them out. With your wooden furniture, evaluate first if the wood is still in workable condition as it may be soft from prolonged submergence in water. If you see any signs of weakness, dispose of it immediately.  

With your upholstery furniture, the option to dispose or keep them is actually in your hands. While you can always hire a service to restore your furniture, you cannot guarantee that any mold will be entirely avoided or eliminated. You can throw them out and purchase yourself a new one for the best solution.  

6. Hire a Service 

After you've removed any soaked furniture from your home, leaving the flooded area dry and clean, you should hire a water damage recovery team to get your house back into shape.  

The water damage services should inspect your house's condition and see how much damage is present. They should also provide a repair or replacement service for the house materials that the flood has soaked. Along with this, they should be able to call your insurance company and report about your home's condition and have an inspector come over and assess the damage to give a computation about the compensation.  

When you hire a service, they may be able to help to restore your house into an excellent condition, almost as if there was flooding in the first place. However, if you want to have your home returned to tip top shaped, you need to ensure that you're hiring a company that's credited by your insurance company so that you'll be able to save money on your home's restoration without sacrificing quality.  

7. Replace Your Flooded Items 

No matter how precious or expensive your items are, if they were soaked by flooding or contaminated by backed up sewage, it's probably best that you throw them out immediately, especially if they are porous objects—like wood and clothing—that can’t be fully sanitized. While it can be difficult, disposing of these items would be the best option for your family and your pockets. 

When your furniture has been seriously soaked, it can develop mold within 48 hours, which is to remove and unhealthy for your respiratory system, especially if you have pets and children around. While you can try removing any mold present, there's a high chance that it'll grow back and could damage your furniture for good. 

Apart from mold, floodwater can carry health-threatening diseases that could cause more significant harm if you choose to retain your soaked furniture inside your home.  

While it can be heartbreaking to see your favorite furniture get damaged by a flood, you need to accept that your family's safety is your number one priority. No matter how many memories it holds, if you're going to put your family at risk, it's better to keep it away.  

8. Take the Opportunity to Renovate 

In the unfortunate event that you need to replace most parts of your flooded house, take the opportunity to renovate your home and update it to your liking.  

Since you're going to replace your walls, floors, carpet, and furniture, you might as well try to make it fun by changing the overlook of the room. If you've been eyeing to get a Scandinavian or modern look for your kitchen, feel free to do so. You're changing everything anyway, so you might as well. This way, you can see the brighter side to the unfortunate event and turn it into something that you'll surely enjoy and have fun doing.  

When it comes to renovating a part of your room, ensure that your new theme will still blend perfectly with the overall look of your home. For example, it would look odd if you had a Japanese-inspired themed house and your living area was then industrial. It wouldn’t blend perfectly with each other.  

Moreover, you should ensure that you use the right and sturdy materials to withstand any other flooding and last you for many years. In this way, you can save plenty of money if the flooding occurs again.  

9. Begin ASAP  

Of course, the number one thing that you need to do when you have a flood in your home is to begin prevention or maintenance ASAP.  

When you notice the first signs of flood in your home, you should immediately remove the furniture to get damaged by the water. Moreover, if you know the flood source in your home, you should start to prevent it from worsening ASAP. If it's coming from the heavy thunderstorm, try to block passageways for water, usually by your door. If it's due to a broken water pipe, turn off the water immediately and call a plumber.  

However, if you see that the flood is already rising, you shouldn't step on the water while the electricity is still running. You need to ensure that you turned it off to avoid getting electrocuted while on the water. Afterward, begin with step 1 and call your insurance company immediately.  

Conclusion 

Having a flooded home can be very stressful, especially when you've just had your home cleaned, repaired, or renovated. While the damage is already present, all you can do is try your best to restore your home to the perfect condition.  

After you've successfully removed the water out of your house, you should hire a water restoration service immediately. They would help to keep your house clean and safe to live in, especially when you have kids around. Moreover, it's always ideal for protecting your home from flooding and practice protective measures to keep your family safe and flood-free.