Proper Way to Dry a Home Damaged by Water Damage

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After house fires, water damage is perhaps the most destructive type of damage that can happen to your home. Whether it is from an external source, like from a storm or a river flooding, or from an internal source, like a slab leak, most people aren’t aware just how destructive and dangerous water can be.

And even once the water has been removed, the danger and damage aren’t resolved – there’s a long process of remediation ahead of you. We reached out to flood damage professionals at KIC Restoration to share their techniques and tips on how to properly dry out a water-damaged house.

Don’t Trust Your First Impression

Once the water itself has been dealt with in your home, it is time to properly dry out the walls and the floors. Even though it may appear at first that they are dry, that’s likely not the case – looks can be deceiving.

Don’t forget that both wood and drywall – the building blocks of most homes in the US are very porous and will absorb a lot of water. And even though that may not seem like a big problem at the moment, water is likely to cause a lot of problems down the line.

What Water Can Do to Wood and Drywall

The least you can expect from wood and drywall that absorbed a lot of water is to swell. However, once they swell, they are prone to doing a few more things – like warping out of shape and potentially damaging other things around them.

More importantly, though, water-damaged materials may not hold their structural integrity and may break. In the long run, mold can also become a problem, not only for the smell and appearance, but also because black mold is toxic.

What You Can Do to Dry Your Home More Effectively

Depending on the amount of damage and water, there are a few options for you. The simplest one is to open all the doors and windows to create a draft and remove the residual moisture naturally. This option, however, is only really recommended if the water damage was light and there’s not much humidity in the air.

In cases with more severe water damage, your water damage restoration company will have some specialized equipment to aid in this process. Industrial-scale air movers will help circulate the air, but the most important device is the dehumidifier, a device which can artificially change the temperature and the humidity of the air in order to remove excess water from materials and hard-to-reach places.

Naturally, these machines need to be monitored, as does the whole process. Sensitive humidity meters are used to gauge the amount of moisture in the air, as well as in some materials.

What You Need to Pay Attention to

The most important thing to keep track of when drying out the house is the secondary water damage to the floors and the walls. Secondary water damage includes swelling, warping, and mold growth on water-damaged items.

Floors, in particular, are susceptible to swelling, which is why water damage restoration companies pay extra attention to this part of the process.

It is important to check if the water sealing on your floors has been compromised. If that is the case, swelling may occur, which is likely to require replacement of parts of the floorboards, or even the whole floor.

The same problem may affect the walls, and especially the lower sections of the walls which had more contact with the water. Make sure that the company you choose to repair your water damage is skilled and experienced if you want the best service.