You have a flooded home, and two questions pop up almost at the same time. How bad is the damage, and where does everyone get to sleep tonight? And the simple answer is, it depends on what sort of water you got and how far into the house it penetrated. Emergency Flood Restoration takes place rapidly, but it also brings noise of machines, airflow of heated dry air, and sometimes gaping holes in walls throughout the home.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. Sometimes it’s totally safe to stay home during emergency flood restoration, and sometimes it slowly subjects your loved ones to bacteria and mold spores five days before anyone gets sick. Floodwater often holds sewage, chemicals, and microorganisms that cannot be seen or smelled. Mold and sewage can make a family sick. The CDC warns homes after a storm may be contaminated with mold or sewer water bsrjgf
On the bright side, no one has to go it alone. When the Restoration Logistics Boulder team makes its initial visit, they guide families through making the stay-or-go decision based on things like the water source, how big of an area is affected, and who really lives in the home. What follows is that thought process, broken out so you can plan before ever allowing a crew through your door.
Emergency Flood Restoration: When You Should Stay Home
Staying put works when three things align:
- The water originated from a clear source like a broken supply line or failed heater, to name a few sources.
- The damage is located in an isolated area, like a basement or just one restroom.
- It still has safe power, its plumbing works, and it provides a place to lie down at night that is dry.
Imagine your basement in good condition, but filled with 2 inches of clear water from a burst pipe. Crews remove the water, install drying equipment in the lower levels of the home, and you live upstairs. So it gets noisy for a few days. No one is in danger.
That list has one more condition on it. At least somebody has to keep the drying equipment operating. Homeowners who turn off machines at night to sleep make a four-day dry-out take much longer, and that is the delay mould is waiting for.
Flood Damage That Leaves the Family No Choice But to Leave
There are situations when not choosing is all we can do. Plan on staying elsewhere when:
- The water resulted from a sewage backup, a creek or other drainage way flood, or overland storm inundation.
- There was water in the kitchen, the bedrooms, and our only bathroom.
- The electrical panel, the furnace, or only the water heater was submerged in foul, black floodwater.
- The living space was largely covered in standing water.
This is why the source is so important. Floodwater or sewage that comes from outside is also considered contaminated water, and children and pets should stay out of areas that need to be cleaned up according to the CDC. In fact, hand-mouth contact is all it takes for a toddler to become ill from sewage bacteria.
Tearing out contaminated drywall and insulation, antimicrobial treatment, containment barriers. A home in that condition is a job site, not a bedroom.
What Is It Like Living with Flood Restoration Equipment
No one tells the families this bit. The structural drying also means air movers and dehumidifiers running 24/7, and a true-to-life description is that it sounds like sleeping next to a few vacuum cleaners. Rooms get warm. The air turns dry. The electric meter is whisking into overdrive.
Your average drying environment is going to be three to five days, with a technician coming every day to take moisture readings and move equipment around. A few families took the disruption in stride. Some (maybe a family with a small child) could see that two nights away is less expensive than one week of sleeping poorly. Neither answer is wrong. The error is waiting until night two to ask the question.
Formula Turns Out to be Different When Children, Pets, and Health Conditions Are Involved
What matters is the people who are actually living in the house. Crawling and hand-to-mouth behavior increase risk to a child after flooding, according to the EPA. Pets walk through working spaces and then leap right on top of the couch. A healthy adult reacts more slowly to damp air and disturbed dust than anyone with asthma, allergies, or a compromised immune system.
A find that may probably sound doable to two grown-ups might be a severe health and fitness threat for a family with a newborn baby, an aged parent, or perhaps a child who currently uses an inhaler. Be honest about this. It is not worth a respiratory infection to tough it out at home.
Will Insurance Cover a Hotel While Cleaning Up Flood Damage?
Most homeowner coverage also includes some form of additional living expenses coverage (sometimes called loss of use). This coverage helps to pay for hotel stays, meals above the amount you normally spend, and similar expenses due to covered water loss that renders the home uninhabitable. Take every receipt from the start, even before they approve the claim.
If the restoration team is organizing the insurance information paperwork, it can also include in its documentation that the home was unlivable while work was performed. That one line backs the loss-of-use part of a claim. Request it early, not after the adjuster begins to resist.
Questions to Make Before You Opt for the Restoration Crew
Get straightforward answers to these, before the gear fires up:
- Is this water pure or polluted?
- How long will the rooms be sealed, and what rooms will they be?
- Is it safe to use the electrical system?
- Stay of execution for the bathroom and kitchen?
- How many days are drying equipment actually running?
- How much will this approach change if readings of sogginess come back worse than expected?
A trustworthy crew answers plainly. Ambiguities in responses regarding the contamination or timelines should trigger follow-ups.
Calling Knowledge Bank: The Safer Approach
Think of the stay-or-go decision as part of the emergency, not an afterthought. An indication that as long as the family has access to clean water in just one of its rooms, it is likely to stay. Floodwater, sewage, or a damaged living room are usually some nights away, often with insurance covering some of the cost. The first few hours: go professional, ask the questions above, and choose the option that protects those inside as well.
