Burst Pipes, Water Damage, Flood Recovery, Drying out the house

Pieces of the ceiling collapsed onto the floor
because of the flooding from the broken pipe

There is something about a disaster like this that can overwhelm you. Your footings are swept out from underneath you literally and metaphorically. It takes some time to right yourself and plot another course. Of course repairing your home is the goal, but it is a full time job that you didn't have yesterday. So, in addition to your usual job and responsibilities you are now a contractor, like it or not. Some insurance companies give you a choice of how much you want to be involved. A friend had this same event befall their home, on a smaller scale, yet their insurance company offered them the choice of hiring their own contractors or, to choose to let the insurance company send them preapproved competent contractors who would just take up the lead and fix it all. She wisely let the insurance company organize the attack on the problem and it was solved rather quickly. We were not given that choice. We became our own contractors, like it or not. When you know no competent contractors...this is a painful learning experience. Interviewing contractors, and sizing them up, is a daunting task.

If the house is not dried out quickly enough,
mold will grow and require mitigation

Blower on right was installed to dry out the house with
large fans and heat sources

When dealing with a flood, time is of the essence. You must deal with the flood in its entirety immediately. Drying out and ripping out the damaged wet building parts are essential to controlling mold. The drying starts immediately, the ripping out starts once the drying out has proven impossible to achieve. Three days is the limit pretty much accepted as the time it takes for mold to start growing. If your flood damage sat for three days before it was discovered or dealt with, mold is surely part of your problems. By day three you have a mold seeds planted and growing. Mold mitigation is a whole other deck of cards that requires another skill set, one you learn along the way. Step one is to bring in a mold hygenist. I think that was her title!. She tested surfaces for mold to know what mold will have to be exponged. You will need a demolition crew in to remove all damaged building materials, like sheetrock, insulation,flooring, moldings. Next a mold mitigation company comes in to clean up all the blooming mold spots. Bleach alone will not solve your problems. Bleach used alone provides the mold with a host upon which the mold can thrive. The mold mitigation company will apply by sprayer, either ice or sodium bicarbonate solutions, at high pressure, to remove the mold from the previously flooded surfaces. This kills all mold that remains. Until this mold work is done, nothing else can be done...NOTHING!

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