Water damage to your home could happen for several different reasons, and there’s also a large severity spectrum, from minor annoyances to issues that require you to relocate for a while.
Regardless of what sort of problem you face, this is always something you want to sort out as quickly as you can. Small issues inevitably grow into larger ones, so you don’t want to put off dealing with them.
It’s often a stressful situation to manage, and things can quickly get chaotic, so it’s important that you have a measured, strategic way of coping with things. Here are the steps you should take to get yourself back on track as soon as possible.
Step 1: Contact a Professional
Given the need for a fast resolution, you don’t want to try to deal with the problem yourself. Water damage restoration can be complex, so you’ll always want to contact a qualified professional to assess the situation and implement the necessary repairs.
Again, timing is everything: call someone within 24 hours, as waiting longer could result in irreversible damage to your property. The pros have a plethora of industrial tools, such as industry-grade pumps and powerful dehumidifiers, to rectify the problem quickly and help you salvage as much as possible.
Step 2: Assessing the Damage After the Repair
Once the repair people have left, it’s time to assess the damage. Go through each affected room and take a look at the big items first: some pieces of furniture may be too far gone if wood is warped and fabrics have been destroyed, but for expensive pieces, you might want to consider having them professionally restored.
You’ll also want to assess things from a hygiene perspective. If the water was dirty and has seeped into porous materials, these may need to be disposed of, even if they seem fine once dried out (you could also choose to have some items thoroughly cleaned if possible).
Then, there’s the actual infrastructure of your home itself. You may find that walls and ceilings have warped and degraded. This deserves its own section.
Step 3: Managing Structural Damage
If you’ve experienced serious water damage involving the walls and ceilings, this will likely need to be professionally repaired. Plasterboard is notorious for getting destroyed by water, and if this is the case for you, you’ll want to call in a plasterer to put new boards up and then skim them over with fresh plaster.
If the damage is only minor, such as a small patch of wall that’s degraded, you may be able to tackle the issue yourself. You can fit a smaller piece of plasterboard on your own and patch things up with polyfiller, and then simply paint over. In fact, there are several ways to fix this, depending on the issue. You can find plenty of tutorials on YouTube.
Wrapping Up
Dealing with water damage can be tough, but providing you take a systematic approach, you’ll get through it. Hopefully, you now feel a little clearer on how to fix things. Good luck!
