Water Extraction Is the Foundation of Disaster Restoration
Regardless of how your home found itself swimming--plumbing or appliance ruptures, storm runoff, or overland flooding--active water extraction is the key to sustainable remediation and restoration. Because water levels after a flood or sustained leaking can fall quickly as water percolates through cracks and crevices, homeowners frequently fail to appreciate the need for water extraction in Walkins. They question why the mess left after flooding needs further disruption in positioning submersible pumps and hauling in powerful truck-mounted or portable extraction equipment. If they cannot see the water, why can’t a few fans and dehumidifiers restore a home to its pre-water damage condition?
Water Migration
The reality of “disappearing” water is that it is instead collected in significant quantities in contained or recessed areas within your dwelling. Building cavities between walls, over ceilings, and under floors are typical hiding places. Cinder block cells, areas beneath cabinets, and various nooks and crannies can all become “house-locked” mini-lakes and ponds of water. Additionally, porous materials like carpeting, padding, insulation, and upholstery act like sponges, soaking up but not wholly absorbing the fluids.
Map the Water
LightSpeed Restoration of Aurora East uses sensitive moisture detection tools, including probes, meters, and infrared imaging, to locate the caches of water or soaked materials. Technicians armed with this mapped-out information use water extraction best practices to remove the water based on its placement.
Extracting Liquid Water
Extraction refers to precise pumping and suctioning to remove liquid water from your residence in anticipation of applied structural drying. The LightSpeed Restoration of Aurora East IICRC-trained crews choose among a range of pumping or negative pressure (suctioning) options to remove the liquid water, including water stored in porous materials:
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Submersible pumps attached to lines that drain outside the house remove water more than 2 inches deep.
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Wanded extractors vacuum up the water spread over floors and other horizontal surfaces, augmented by floor mats attached tightly to hardwood and tiled floors to pull fluids out of multiple layers. Weighted wands can force water soaked into carpeting and padding into wet vacs for extraction.
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Drainage holes in ceilings and at baseboard levels permit drainage of trapped water, which technicians then suction, sometimes with hoses inserted into cavities between walls.
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Cinder block cells can hold water, which technicians extract using extenders attached to portable extraction backpack units.
Waiting for Natural Drying Not Recommended
Patience is not the answer to trapped water, which causes progressive and eventually irreparable damage to structural materials and creates the perfect conditions for mold growth. Waiting until the water evaporates is ineffective and will ruin your home.
Applied Structural Drying Works Only After Extraction
Even when using applied structural drying interventions, including commercial-grade air movers and dehumidifiers, active and aggressive extraction, according to Reets Drying Academy, is 1200 times more effective than drying efforts alone. Industry best practices demand that water extraction precedes professional drying. If you are unconvinced, imagine how long your clothes or linens would take to dry if your washer did not use the spin cycle to extract water from rinsed items. Instead of minutes, you would wait several hours with each load, and the stress could damage or break your dryer.
Call LightSpeed Restoration of Aurora East to schedule rapid water extraction in Walkins at (720) 975-8395. Water removal by certified IICRC technicians must precede applied structural drying for the most successful restoration outcomes after a disaster.