Water Damage Can Create Health Risks Within 48 Hours. Professional Restoration Services Help
Many homeowners assume that only dirty water is unsafe and can create water damage in the house. Sewage backups, flood water, the accumulation of groundwater in an old leaky basement.
The reality is more complicated. Water that begins as clean can quickly sour, usually taking no more than 24 to 48 hours. This is particularly true in hard-to-reach spaces like between floors and walls, drywall, insulation, and cabinets.
However, bacteria and mold can grow anywhere and much faster than you might imagine. In this article, we take a look at the sort of health risks that water damage can create and why restoration services help.
Common household water damage scenarios
First, it’s important to understand what situations can cause these risks. You might assume that only a significant water damage event will pose a real health risk to your family.
While the occasional floods, sewage backups, and other more obviously significant events pose a clear and easily identifiable risk, there are other quieter culprits that also deserve attention. These can include:
- Leaking appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerator lines.
• Drippy sinks.
• Moisture infiltration from windows and roofs.
• Basement seepage or sump pump failures.
In rapid onset, easily identifiable water infiltration events, you have the benefit of understanding quickly that there is a problem and can take rapid steps to address it.
In the case of these other occurrences, it sometimes requires more experience and strategic thinking.
How do you know when water infiltration has become risky? Let’s take a look.
How much water is enough to become a risk?
Even a few gallons of water can become a risk factor if it goes unnoticed for long enough. The key in many cases is to spot and address the problem quickly.
If you wake up one morning to a puddle on the kitchen floor because your refrigerator drainage line became backed up, you probably don’t need to call a water restoration service.
You can mop the mess up, address the refrigerator problems, and move on.
But let’s say one day you go down to the basement and find that your water heater has been leaking. You don’t know how long.
You do know that there is an unpleasant odor and possibly some discoloration of the concrete around it.
In this case, the situation is considerably different. Even if you could physically clean up the mess yourself, you’re unsure if there has been considerable damage or dangerous mold and bacteria development.
It could be the same amount of water that wasn’t a problem for your refrigerator, but in a different location under different environmental factors, can become dangerous with time and neglect.
In many cases, the damage is covered by insurance, so the process of repairing it costs you nothing but time and a little effort.
Here too is where hiring a Professional Restoration Company can help! They will work directly with your insurance company to help ease your stress.
Even if you do go out of pocket, it’s a worthwhile expense to ensure that your family is safe. And helps to avoid future more costly issues.
Why Water Infiltration is Time Sensitive
Water that began as clean quickly sours. Bacteria and molds multiply very rapidly and risks can develop within 48 hours.
You may not notice any odor or surface discoloration at first, but even before these more obvious symptoms have set in, the air quality in your home may be deteriorating.
It’s nothing to panic about necessarily, but it is important to address areas of concern as quickly as you possibly can.
What The Professional Water Restoration Process Looks Like
Once you notice the damage, Call a trusted, water damage restoration service. The process moves quickly to avoid further issues. Most companies are open 24-7, 365 days a year, to reflect the fact that emergencies are rarely convenient.
We begin by inspecting the damage to identify the extent of it, removing the water through high-capacity pumps and vacuums, drying the structure through commercial-grade air removers and dehumidifiers, and cleaning all impacted surfaces with antimicrobial solutions.
We also remove all of your damaged surfaces, including flooring, subflooring, drywall, and more, so that the area is fully ready for repair.
What is risked by waiting too long?
While water damage typically is not so urgent that you need to run out of the room the moment you spot a puddle, it is certainly time-sensitive.
A couple of important and impactful things happen when you wait to repair water damage. First, mold and bacteria grow.
We already mentioned that they don’t take very much time to develop. The longer you wait, the more extensive the problem will become.
The other problem is structural. It’s very easy for subflooring to rot out without you ever noticing.
How concerning is this? It can be very worrisome when, as an example, the floor around your toilet drops out from under you, sending porcelain and perhaps the unlucky person sitting upon it down into the basement.
Even in less dramatic examples, it’s something to be wary and concerned about.
Restoration Doesn’t Need To Be Stressful
At AMH Restoration, we take as much stress out of the process as possible. Not only are we open 24-7, 365 days a year, but we also work directly with your insurance company to remove as much of the logistical friction from the experience as is possible.
If you are experiencing water damage, reach out immediately for a solution.
