TRADE SECRETS
Things we've learned over 25 years
Prevent Flood and Reduce the Amount of Flood Water
Use a sump pump to remove water that may enter crawl spaces and basements.
Keep your gutters and downspouts clean and insure downspouts are redirecting water away from the foundation of your house, as this can cause it to seep into cracks or cause deterioration of your foundation and supports.
A common thing to do by homeowners when a flood occurs is to use towels and blankets to soak up the water and prevent it spreading. If you do this be sure to dry these towels once they are saturated. Leaving them on the floor while full of water can actually provide more materials for mold to grow. This can also hold the water and further saturate walls, carpets and other dry materials increasing the range of damage.
Clean Your Gutters!
Every fall, gutters fill with leaves, needles and seeds. When all this organic matter breaks down, it creates dirt, the gutters then trap water encouraging seeds to grow, the most common seed to grow in a gutter is any nearby trees. These saplings can take root and pull up your shingles, break your gutter or breach sections of your house allowing water to get in.
Cleaning your gutters also improves how effective they work at keeping water away from the foundations of your house.
Preventing Leaks
You can also install humidity detectors in your home. Spikes in humidity during dry days can detect a leak before it is noticeable, often times property owners are not aware of a leak for many days after and damage has already been done. Catching leaks early can save your floors, walls, appliances and soft goods and prevent mold from contaminating your property.
You can also create a weekly or monthly checklist of common sources of leaks;
- underneath dishwashers
-behind fridges
-pinholes, corroded lines, worn out seals and clogs
-Faucets and toilet lines as well as cracked sinks and tubs.
Stopping Leaky and Slow Faucets and Shower Heads
Often times leaky faucets can be fixed easily. All you need to do is buy some plumbers tape from a hardware store or even some dollar stores. Often times leaky faucets are not an issue with the faucet but the plumbing tape on the faucet handles. You can easily change these yourself.
Shower heads that are leaking can also be fixed by changing the plumbers tape at the base of the shower head. When putting the shower head back on make sure you do not put it all the way back on as the very base of the pipe is actually larger than the threading of the shower head and can crack both the shower head and the pipe, resulting in needing to be replaced.
Water Loss is Priority
Any form of water damage gets harder to deal with as time goes on, as well as more expensive. Getting the area dry and the humidity down as soon as possible is vital. The sooner the area can be dried, the less work that needs to be done and the least expensive. There are allot of machines required to dry even one room, they can be noisy, often times customers turn them off instead of leaving them running. This can be detrimental, as those "8 hours" of noiseless sleep can be 8 hours of growing mold. Those 8 hours or "I forgot to turn them back on" turns into a very expensive and time consuming mistake, for us and customers.
Boxes
We not only provide the means to store and label items but you can also buy moving boxes and wardrobe boxes from us if you require them for storage and transportation. Just stop by the office!
Call us to find out how much we have or what the price is as shipping costs for boxes change, otherwise the office staff can sell you some.