Dealing with Water Damage Like a Pro

Dealing with damage to your home is never easy, whether it’s small or big, the stress and the potential danger to your health will always be present. Water is one of the elements that might do harm to your living space, and these unfortunate occurrences can be very difficult to predict or detect because they are often not in your control. Risk Free Serv gave me some guidelines on how to best act when water damages a home, and what to do before asking for help from professionals, here’s what I learned:

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Types of Water

There are three types of water that might affect your home: clean, gray, and black. Clean water is the regular water we use every day or rainwater. It's important to note that this type of water is not directly harmful and you are safe to assess the damage yourself without risk of poisoning.

Gray water or used water comes from your washing machine, toilet, or dishwasher. This water might be contaminated and it is somewhat safe to deal with if you are careful and use protective equipment.

Blackwater is dangerous, it is usually water from a sewer or a nearby river in case of floods, and dealing with it is not recommended, no matter how experienced or confident you are, this type of water is probably contaminated and dangerous and best left to the pros to handle.

Amount of Damage

Depending on how much damage was done you can measure how much you can do on your own before calling professionals. Safety is always crucial, but if you don’t want to waste any time and try to save as much as possible here are a few steps you can take to make it easier for later restoration.

Check Electricity

The first thing you want to do is to make sure you kill electricity in your home. If not entirely, then at least you can unplug all appliances, and if possible take them outside. Using appliances in a flooded home is definitely not recommended as it might cause a fire. Ensuring that everything is unplugged from the wall sockets is critical even if the electricity is currently not available in your home.

Check for Mold

Mold is one of those unwelcome guests that thrive in moist areas. A home damaged by water is ideal for its growth. Even if the damage is small, mold can easily find its way in your walls or floors and spread its infestation.

Dry the Area

This is the first step before any restoration can start. You need to remove all water from the premises by using fans or dehumidifiers to dry the place out. Open all windows and doors to enable airflow and start the process.

Throw away Porous Materials

Materials like wood which can usually be found in your floors or ceilings can become a breeding ground for mildew and the best way to deal with that is to dispose of those materials. Wood, drywall, or unsealed cement are risky and should be removed. These materials are often included in your home’s foundation and should be addressed so you can safely proceed with the restoration.

Disinfection

This is the last step before the restoration can finally begin. When all the water and porous materials are removed and when the place is dry, it’s time to disinfect your home. You can use bleach and spray affected areas to prevent mold growth, but if the damage was too big or if the water was contaminated then your safest bet is to contact professionals who have experience and equipment to best handle these situations.

How to Paint Your House during Summer Heats

Finding the ideal time for painting your home is not at all easy, especially if we are talking about the exterior. It would be great if we could schedule it when the weather conditions are best, but we often have to accommodate only our own busy schedules.

In general, every season has its major problems when it comes to painting, so summer why avoid summer at all costs if it is the most convenient time for you. Even if you do it yourself, it is possible to do it without too much trouble, let alone if you leave it to the professionals who work equally well in all conditions. These are the thing to pay attention to, as suggested by home painting pros at Painterly.

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Avoid Direct Sunlight

One of the first, basic rules is to never paint in direct sunlight. Instead, follow the shade around the house and paint as it goes. The paint dries too quickly in direct heat and could become too thick. You can use early mornings when it is not so hot to paint some parts, most conveniently the southern side as it should be in the shade then.

The east side is also a good idea in the early morning, or late afternoon. The paint dries too fast because of the direct sunlight, but also because the surfaces heat up too much, which highly influences the quality of the work, so that is another reason to hide in the shade while painting.

Stay Away from the Wind

Another element which is not your friend during the summer painting is the wind. It may sound great to have some cooling breeze while you are painting, but it can actually ruin all your hard work. The paint evaporates faster in the windy weather.

Of course, you can add more water, up to ten percent, and keep thinning the paint in batches, but the wind is really not helping you with this one. Another damage the wind can do to your paint job is to bring the dust and debris to your still-wet paint. When these get stuck, it can really get messy.

Be Careful of the Rain

It may sound like it is never the right time to paint in the summer as you are to avoid all weather conditions, but there must be some “Goldilocks” moments in between all these. Even though the rain can bring some cooling, like the wind, despite the lower temperatures, it is not advisable to paint before nor immediately after the rain as it will definitely ruin your finish.

Cool Down Your Bucket

This is a simple trick which can make your painting job in the heat a lot easier. Before putting in the liner and filling the bucket with the paint, drop in a few ice cubes. This will prevent the paint from thickening too much in the bucket before brushing it on the walls. A cold bath does miracles in the summer, for people as well as for the paint.

Prepare the Surfaces Well

The painting experts say preparing the surfaces is equally, if not even more important than the painting itself. It is recommended to spend as much time on the preparations as on the painting process itself. Another important part which requires more time in the summer is letting the layers dry for a longer time. Take twice as much time to let the first layer get dry, especially if the humidity is high. If you put on the next coat too soon, the first layer could just peel off due to the humidity accumulated underneath.

The ideal temperature for painting is around 20-22 degrees Celsius with 50 percent humidity, but this is not so easy to attain, so just follow the steps above and your painting job should go without too much pain.

Keeping Your Bathroom Clean for Longer

It’s a fact that most people don’t enjoy cleaning the bathroom. It is also a fact that most people want the bathroom they are using to be clean. That means that we buckle down, suppress our disliking of the task and just go ahead and clean our bathrooms.

What if I told you that there is a way you could keep your bathroom cleaner for longer and not have to deal with all the mess of a monthly or bi-monthly big cleaning? We reached out to cleaning experts at Sunflower Maids for some tips on how to keep your bathroom clean and tidy for longer.

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Division of Tasks

It can be quite simple and easy to keep the bathroom clean, as long as you are willing to do a bit of work each day. I’m not talking about any of the big stuff, just a few minor things that you can do to keep the bathroom looking nice.

There are tasks which should be done daily, as well as those which can be done once a week. If you follow these tips, your monthly bathroom cleaning will be surprisingly easy and light.

Daily Tasks

Daily tasks are very minor and simple, so once you get a hang of them, you will be surprised that you were ever apprehensive about doing them in the first place. Doing things like cleaning the smudges and splatters from your mirrors as soon as you see them, or wiping down the sinks and faucets are pretty minor things to do.

However, if you leave them for your big cleaning, they will be just one of the several tasks you have to do, but they will also compound over the weeks, so a few smudges from last week can easily become a dozen or more if you’ve not cleaned them in a while. Not to mention that they can harden and become a pain to remove.

Weekly Tasks

Weekly tasks can be a bit more time-consuming to do than daily tasks, but you also just have to do them once a week, so that’s a plus. And besides, you’d have to do them anyway during your monthly cleaning, but even more, since you’ve not done them in a month or so.

Dusting is a task that most people don’t really associate with cleaning the bathroom. However, house dust forms wherever we are (and also our pets), so wipe down the surfaces in your bathroom with a microfiber cloth. Don’t worry if dust falls to the ground, it will be picked up when you clean the floor.

Disinfect the surfaces, especially your sink, bathtub/shower, and toilet. There are disinfecting products which you can buy, or you can make them yourself if you are versed in that. Spraying a disinfectant doesn’t take too much of your time, but it will help your bathroom keep the cleanliness for longer.

Disinfecting your bathroom is especially important now, during the pandemic, so it is advised not to miss this step.

Finally, mop the floor of your bathroom. You will pick up any of the spilled water from your cleaning, as well as the dust that may have fallen on the floor.

All in all, cleaning the bathroom should take you no more than 10 minutes for the daily tasks, and another 15 minutes for the weekly tasks. However, those two combines could save you an hour or longer when the time comes for a more in-depth cleaning once a month. Give it a go this month and see if it doesn’t save you time and if it doesn’t feel like you’re doing less work – which is always nice when it comes to a task as disliked as bathroom cleaning.