Help! My Basement Flooded, What Do I Do Now?

7/13/2021 (Permalink)

Give us a call today if you need help with a flooded basement.

Returning home after a long day can quickly turn into a nightmare upon discovering a flooded basement. How you handle this emergency not only affects the level of damage to your home, but also to the safety of your loved ones. Before you panic, start with these steps:

1. Shut off electricity and gas to the area. If you are unsure how or if it’s safe, call an electrician or SERVPRO, who can get someone out to you right away.
2. Try to determine the source of the water. The top two reasons are excessive rainfall or burst pipe.
3. If it safe to proceed, wear protective gear like boots, gloves and mask to enter the water to investigate further. If the basement has a drain and can safely navigate to it, check to see if it clogged.
4. Time to get water out of there. Depending on the amount of water, this can be done in many ways by using, towels, mop, or a wet vacuum. If flooding is more extensive, a sump pump might be needed. Once most of the water is absorbed, you can soak up the rest with towels
5. Assess the damage. Remove any items that appear to be damaged by water and move them to a space when they can dry. If the drying process takes longer than a couple of days unfortunately, they may not be salvaged. Any items that were in boxes should be removed to dry and all items should be monitored for mold growth.
6. Get the air moving in the basement to dry. Open windows and doors to allow air flow. Place fans around the space to allow quick drying of the flooded area. If you have a dehumidifier, move it to the basement to aid the drying process.

Call a professional for help is a great idea, especially if the water is more than a foot deep, damage might be worse than you think and mildew might start. Quickly removing the water and begin the drying process is essential to lessen the possibility for mold to form, which can greatly increase the damage and involve more money to fix. Give us a call today if you need help with a flooded basement.