Hiring the most efficient home restoration services is the go-to option if your property has suffered from flooding, storms, and fire. These services could prevent the damage from escalating quickly, thus refraining from further repairs and expenses. Above all, this ensures that you and your family are safe from the ill effects of the damage.
Tips and Tricks in Restoring Your Home after a Disaster
Apart from hiring professional restoration services such as Summit Cleaning and Restoration and others, you could restore your property independently. Suppose you’re choosing this option. In that case, you may need to know some tips and tricks in restoring your home after a disaster. For that purpose, here’s an article to guide you. So, read on!
01. Post-Disaster Cleanup to Stop The Damage Early
Disasters may happen anytime, and their effects may be more than expected. For instance, if an area is flooded or damaged repeatedly, the damage may be more severe than what happened in the past. Because of this, you may need to do the post-disaster cleanup and restoration within 24 hours after the disaster. Doing so may help prevent exacerbating the damage.
You can begin by assessing the water damage to determine the appropriate solution. After, you may need to manually remove the debris and grime left by the fire, flood, and other incidents. You may need tools to remove the dirt on the hard-to-reach surfaces.
If cleaning the damaged areas seems to be more than a one-person mission, you may still need to call a professional to help you out. If it’s minimal, you could consider restoring your home independently.
02. Plan The Restoration Process
After determining the type and extent of damage, you may start planning the appropriate restoration process. You may begin removing movable objects and fixtures, especially the damaged ones. Then, start cleaning up the floors and subfloor.
For areas damaged by a fire incident, you may need to completely remove them. For water-contaminated areas like laminate flooring, you may consider the appearance of cracks and flakes and address the issues. For mold-damaged areas, you could spray the area with mold-removing solutions or a homemade mold remover, like vinegar.
If your floors are infested with black molds, you may need to address them immediately with white vinegar. Just spray it on the moldy surface, porous or not, until the molds thin out. For better results, you may soak them overnight.
You may also need to dispose of the porous materials in your homes, such as drywall and insulated surfaces, because they’re likely to collect dirty water. Because of this, they’re an excellent breeding place for molds.
03. Turn Off The Main Power And Disconnect Outlets to Reduce Electrical Hazards
Whether you’re working on your first or last day of home restoration, you may need to turn off your main power source and disconnect your outlets. This is to reduce electrical hazards. Furthermore, you may only turn off your water-damaged appliances and devices when dehydrated, as operating them prematurely may cause electrocution.
You may cover the exposed wires with electrical tapes, remove the damaged connections entirely, or place them in a dry environment. You could also add extra and highly insulated gloves when working with a turned-off power source to ensure your safety.
04. Secure Your Valuables And Important Documents
Keep your documents and valuables, such as gadgets and appliances, in a secure place to keep them safe and protected while you restore your home and easily access them when needed. For the papers, you may invest in a safe or have multiple copies, so you’ll have extra if the original documents are lost. In addition, you could keep them in fireproof or waterproof cases for added protection.
05. Prepare Your Tools And Equipment for Home Restoration
It is essential to prepare your tools and equipment to make the restoration process easier and faster. This will allow you to work more efficiently as you can easily access the tools and equipment when you need to use them.
Here is a list of the tools and equipment you may need during the restoration:
- Chainsaw and Axe: You’d use chainsaws and axes to cut down trunks and logs that may have entered your house. You may also use these tools in cutting portions of the house you need to detach to make the interior areas accessible.
- Power Washer: Use a power washer to remove the hardened dirt and grime. In addition, this may also clean the floors drenched in mud and floodwater.
- Rakes: These are ideal for scraping dirt off your floors. They could also help remove debris in mud-covered spaces.
- Extractor: For mud suction, you may use an extractor to remove heavy and sticky liquids efficiently.
- Hacksaw: Use this tool in cutting metals, cables, and wires with smaller circumferences.
- Ropes and Straps: For temporary pulleys and dragging of objects, you may use ropes and straps in the cleaning process.
- Wet And Dry Vacuum: You may use this to remove the dirt and dust inside your house if you have an available water source. If you have none, you may use a pail and water combination as an alternative.
- Drill: You may use a high-quality drill to screw and unscrew frames, displays, and furniture. This way, you could detach, re-attach, or disassemble your items.
- Fire Extinguishers: You may keep a fire extinguisher as a fire could break out in a post-disaster area. You may need to remove the items and liquids that may be potential fire starters.
06. Wear Personal Protective Equipment
To keep yourself protected from injuries caused by protruding wood, broken glass, or contaminated water as you conduct the restoration, you may need to wear safety gear. For some ideas, here are the standard items you may consider:
- Hard Hats: You may need to wear hard hats to keep yourself safe from falling objects. In addition, these covers reduce the risks of electrical shock.
- Respiratory Protection or N95 Masks: Molds may have grown in spaces once drenched in flood. In cleaning these spaces, you may need to wear respirators and similar masks to avoid inhaling the spores and other airborne particles that may cause allergies and diseases.
- Safety Clothing: You may use industry-grade and insulated safety clothing to avoid a puncture, scalding, abrasion, and other issues. In choosing safety clothing, you may prefer the ones with efficient breathability and waterproofing qualities.
- Safety Boots: You may wear steel-toed and rubber boots to protect you from compression, punctures, and falling objects.
- Safety Gloves: Like the safety boots, you may need to wear protective gloves to protect your hands from abrasion, dirt, electrical hazards, and chafing.
- Safety Goggles: These are used to protect your eyes from irritation and foreign debris.
07. Take Photos Before, During, And After The Restoration
In many cases, you may need to take photos of the damaged portions of your properties before fixing them. These will serve as proof in claiming your reimbursements from your insurance companies. In addition, the photos will help you keep a record of the changes.
08. Ensure Proper Sanitation In Your Home
Sustaining home damage due to natural disasters or other incidents may cause dirt, contamination, and other sanitation hazards in your home. It is still crucial to keep your home properly sanitized as you conduct your home restoration process.
For instance, floodwater may have damaged your food stocks in your kitchen. Therefore, you may start by throwing away the flood-damaged cartons, food pouches, and utensils. Then, you could re-label the cans, bottles, and products with damaged labels to determine their expiration dates. In addition, you may wash or rinse the water-drenched yet still usable cans.
To further sanitize your house, you may combine one part of bleach and ten parts of water. Spray the solution all over the area. Then, let it stand for 30 minutes to one hour. Before reusing all of your utensils, including your kids’ nipples, pacifiers, and baby bottles, you may need to disinfect them with a sanitizing solution or soak them in boiled water for an hour or two.
09. Keep Everything Dry And Clean Post-Disaster
If your home has been damaged by a flood, you must dry out the furniture, areas, or anything damaged by the floodwater. One of the main actions to be done is mopping the floors or pumping out water from the basements. Aside from this, you may use dehumidifiers and fans to speed up the drying. Also, you can install or re-install your air conditioner for the same purpose. For items heavily damaged by water, you may repurpose or throw them away to reuse them.
In addition, you could dry bedding and furniture pieces in the broad sunlight. You may also make holes in furniture or fixtured with clogged spaces to draw out the water. Lastly, you could check the spaces under carpets, floors, and paddings to see the extent of the damage and address their issues. Dry them as much as possible.
Since carpets and furnishings may be challenging to clean, you may remove them and place them outside. You could hang them or lay them out on a clean floor. If your carpets are entirely flooded and have hardened, you may consider buying a new one.
If the carpets are partly damaged, you may use carpet shampoo and a broom to clean them. You could also use a soft brush to clean up the fibers. If the carpet is made from wool, avoid applying a bleach-based solution. Air-dry the carpets and furnishings after cleaning them up.
Final Thoughts
Generally, disasters occur without anticipation. In most cases, the damage is more than you expect. Because of this, you may need to have apt knowledge of emergency home restoration. In that case, you may need to refer to the points mentioned in this article. You’ll have ideas on fully restoring your property without much expense and hassle.
Furthermore, if you need information in knowing about various types of disasters, here’s to know them:
Different Types of Natural Disasters
Image Courtesy: Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 5, Image 6, Image 7, Image 8, Image 9, Image 10, Image 11
