Looking Forward a Great New Year

We hope everyone had a great holiday season! Whether you celebrated with friends or family, the holidays are always a good time to touch upon the important things in life. Now that it's officially 2013, we have another year filled with excitement to look forward to. Granted, our industry is not always the type that you want knocking at your door on a regular basis, but when we do show up you can be sure that we'll be in and out in no time.

To kick things off right this new year, we'll start by offering some advice for all of our readers and clients. Here's a couple of quick pointers for common pitfalls and mistakes in case of a flooding scenario.


1. Not Doing Anything

Well, this one's pretty obvious, right? When flooding happens the first thing you should do is to do something about it as fast as you can, assuming that this is a possibility to begin with. Let's say you wake up in the middle of the night and the bathroom is overflowing for some reason. The first course of action should be to shut off the water, and afterward to remove all items that could be affected by the residual moisture. You're not going to be able to stop all of it, of course, but the less that gets affected the better.

Now let's say you did the opposite and started by looking for a water damage company. While you're turning on your computer or thumb typing on your phone, the water is still flowing. As you talk to the receptionist, the water continues to build up higher and higher... by the time they arrive an hour later, the situation is much worse than it originally was, resulting in all sorts of complications. Always take action first before calling!

2. Not Knowing Where the Shutoffs Are

So having said that, the first thing any homeowner should do is to know where their water shutoff valves are at all times. Whether you commit this to memory, jot it down on a piece of paper or store it in your phone somewhere, this is a pretty vital piece of information that can save you a ton of headaches. Taking action immediately is great - if you know where to go. For smaller floods, turning off the water main is probably a bit excessive, so you can also locate the valves for each room and use those to address problems in the kitchen or bathroom.

3. Trying to Do Too Much

With the water now safely turned off and the restoration company on their way, your next inclination during flooding will probably be to start the cleanup work. The train of thought is usually as follows: getting more work done now means less work for the professionals, which in turn leads to less time and money spent and potentially less hassle with any insurance adjustors. As good as it may sound, this is almost always inadvisable. For one, water is always going to get to places you can't see and cause more damage than initial appearances may suggest. After that, any work you end up doing on your own may actually cause more inconvenience for the crew than anything else. Professionals use specialized equipment that can do the job much more effectively; leaving the hard part to them is the best way to go.

That doesn't mean that you can't do anything, though, as a little bit of common sense will help everyone during a flood. If the water is in a carpeted room, moving furniture and belongings out of the way or propping them up on blocks will help mitigate any further damage to them. Mopping up excess moisture in a hardwood room will potentially reduce the chances of the floor warping. Also, clear out any obstructions to the source of the leak can help the cleaning crew get to it that much faster.

4. Using a Non-Certified Company

Lastly, we're going to touch on a point that cannot be overstated: is the company you're hiring not only trustworthy, but certified?

There's a number of factors that come into play to protect both the consumer and the company during a restoration job. To start with, the professionals you work with should be IICRC certified, which means that they are approved to provide a minimum level of service on their work. Anything below this and you run the risk of having technicians in your home that can cause more damage should they make a mistake somewhere. Additionally, every firm you work with should be licensed, bonded and insured. We touched upon this in a previous article so we won't go into it too deeply here but needless to say, this is important for everyone's safety.

So the next time you have a flood, keep these pointers in mind and everything will go a lot better. In the next few weeks we will continue to touch upon some advice and tips for homeowners so be sure to check back with us regularly. If you're looking for a water damage company in Temecula, you can always contact Superior Restoration 24 hours a day at 951-708-1380.