What To Do When Your House Floods

A flooded home can cause enormous stress and worry for you. You may not know what to do when you see the devastation it has caused to your home. You should take several steps to keep safe and restore your house to its pre-loss condition.

Before we explain in detail the steps you should take, you should ensure you contact your insurer or landlord, document everything, and clean up what you can to prevent further secondary damage in the house from mould.

Act Fast

If you have just faced a flood in your home, it can be crushing and completely turn your life upside down. But take a breath and take it all one step at a time.

If your house floods, your main priority should be yourself and your family. Make sure that you’re all safe and accounted for. Once this is done, you may want to take some extra steps to minimize further damage to the house.

Stop the water source: If you can stop the water source, then do it as soon as possible. Obviously, you will not be able to stop an overflown river, but you will be able to stop water coming from a burst pipe. You can usually turn off the water from inside the house. You may find shut off valves inside or outside your home.

Turn off electricity: Electrical wirings are running all through your house mostly where you can’t see, but no doubt water will be able to reach it. If you can shut off the main power as soon as possible, do it. Doing this can avoid any permanent damage to the electrical wirings and, of course, prevent any risk of electrocution. Once the flood has subsided, you should have an electrician look at all your electrical wirings and sockets.

Call For Help

When you know that everybody is accounted for and safe, you should call for help. The damage has now been done to your house. There’s not much you can do to stop it. You should start making calls advising that your home has suffered extensive water damage to the appropriate parties such as your insurer / broker or landlord.

They will then let you know how to proceed.

Document Everything

This step is essential. After the flood, you should take photos and write notes on what happened and what you lost. You should do this when it’s all fresh in your head too. You don’t want to forget any detail.

Take photos of any damage to your home and any of your personal belongings. Don’t remove any items from your home until your insurer has taken a look at your home.

The insurance adjuster will need to see the scene after the flood, so it will be critical for you to leave the house as it was to ensure that your insurance will cover the damage.

Begin The Cleanup Process

Cleaning up after a flood is an exhausting process. You will need to remove any water and salvage any personal belongings that you can.

Start drying things out as early as possible. Getting rid of any moisture in the home can reduce mould growth in your home.

Call Tersus

Taking care of a flooded home yourself is a long and exhausting task. You will need professional help to restore your home completely. We know how important the drying process is, and the quicker it’s done, the better. Failure to do so can often lead to expensive and timely mitigation problems which may require extra time in the reconstruction process. We can handle all of your drying needs from water extraction to dehumidification of residential, commercial or industrial properties