“…take quick action to avoid secondary damage”
At the end of September, Green Man were called to deal with an escape of water in a tenanted property. The priority was to make the flat habitable as soon as possible, and also to take quick action to avoid secondary damage. The damage had been caused by an escape of clean water from under the sink that had occurred overnight, with the tenant having woken to find the flat awash with water.
We arranged a survey of the property – always the first step in resolving these kind of problems as it allows us to take moisture readings & see how much damage the water has caused so that we can put together a plan to rectify the situation.
“…able to start the process of drying the property out the same day.”
Our flood specialist, Jon met the landlady at the property to assess the damage. He found puddles of water throughout the flat which rose by approximately 1cm when the carpets were walked on.
There to be some items that were at risk of secondary damage which were swiftly removed to drier areas of the flat. However, some items such as high value electricals were BER (Beyond Economical Repair).
The benefit of the landlady being present for the survey meant that once it had been completed, she was able to give us the go ahead to start carrying out the works required immediately. The technician had brought all the necessary equipment with him so was able to start the process of drying the property out the same day.
This started with extracting the standing water from all areas (including under the furniture, beds, etc.). Because it was clean water from the mains, this gave us a chance to get this rectified before bacteria/mould started to erupt which will occur at around 48 hours after the escape of water.
As the tenant had temporarily moved out of the property, it was decided to float the carpet in the lounge (see video below). When this is done in conjunction with the installation of the dehumidifiers, it quickly gets air circulating through the property which is warmer & drier. Within 6 hours, you have a positive loop where the moisture is evaporating from the carpet, is being blown in the direction of the dehumidifier which then strips the air of the moisture & pushes it out warmer/drier which then gets sucked back under the carpet…
Once the lounge carpet had been floated, our technician noticed that it was also inflating the hallway carpet, so this one powerful air-mover was able to dry two different spaces simultaneously.
Next up, Jon removed the transition between the bedroom & bathroom, in order to float the carpet in this space as well & installed another dehumidifier into the bedroom.
The machines were left running for the next 6 days to thoroughly dry out the carpets. When we returned, we took more moisture readings to ascertain that secondary damage had been averted on this occasion. The interior plaster boards at the initial survey had read medium/high in terms of moisture content, but they were now showing “low” with no signs of warping or damage.
All of the drying equipment could now be removed & the carpets reinstated. Our technician then applied Envirosafe to the carpets, sanitising the area & suppressing mould growth.
Finally the carpets were rinse-extracted, removing as much moisture as possible, disinfected & then cleaned.
Whilst we would recomended continuing to ventialte the flat for a few more days, it is now back to being habitable for the tenant. Well done Jon!
If you experience any flood damage this autumn/winter, we would recommend having a survey as soon as possible. Time is of the essence in these situations to avoid further damage to your property. All of our contact details can be found here – contact us
Thank you for reading!