This article is to help any flood victim or volunteers take the necessary safety precautions during the cleanup phase. It also covers some key tips to help a homeowner assess their damage and what recovery steps to take.
Safety Precautions:
1. When officials have closed a road, it's for the public's safety. There might still be dangerous currents across the road, the road could be washed away, or undermined. Trying to drive a vehicle down a road and have the road collapse under its weight puts you and First Responders lives at risk. On Route 30 west of Arlington, NE, there is a 40'-50' deep washout where the highway used to be. The Road Department wasn't joking around when they blocked the highway with a plow truck!
2. Once the All Clear is given by officials for homeowners to return to their homes, before you step foot into your house, make sure the power is off! Everything is wet. You don't need to be electrocuted.
3. Wear a Mold or Asbestos-rated mask. Some of the bio-hazards that are in the flood waters are raw sewage, animal feces, dead bodies, gasoline, diesel, other fuels, hazardous chemicals, E-coli, etc. Those flimsy paper masks won't stop you from breathing in the bio-hazards that were carried in with the flood waters. You don't need to become sick or even hospitalized from respiratory problems. That's the reason First Responders get decontaminated after going out on those flood rescue calls. You never know what's in the water or mud that's left behind.
4. Mold starts to grow within 48 hours. If your home was wet and you can't get it dried out fast enough, mold will start to flourish. You shouldn't be trying to do any cleanup without a mold-rated mask.
5. Before you pump the water out of the basement, make sure the water table is pretty much down to the basement floor. When a basement is full of water on both sides of the foundation, the foundation walls have equal pressure on them. When you pump out the water with a high water table, the water pressure on the outside of the foundation can cause the foundation walls to be pushed inward. There was a house in Valley, NE that had the foundation walls cave in because they pumped the water out of the basement when the water table was still high up on the walls.
Assessing the Damage & Taking the Necessary Steps to Recovery:
1. Any electrical that was under water is ruined and needs to be replaced. That includes all wiring, outlets, junction boxes, switches, lights, ceiling fans, sub-panels, main panels, furnaces, water heaters, dehumidifiers, dishwashers, fridgerators, freezers, etc. Once electrical components are wet, they corrode and are damaged. They may function fine, but you can't predict when and if arcing will occur. Arcing occurs when electricity jumps from one electrical component to another (and it's not supposed to!) Arcing can exceed 2,000 degrees F. which can easily lead to a house fire. If you foolishly ignore this warning, leave your electrical, and put forth the effort towards restoration, then later the house burns down, I don't want to be the one that says "I told you so." Get a licensed Electrician involved and have them provide estimates to re-wire the water damaged areas.
2. The second part to the electrical caution is that if you can't dry your home out fast enough, even the electrical components that weren't submerged under water may still be damaged. Moisture from a wet house can ruin those components also. Have that licensed Electrician check everything throughout the home.
3. Items that got wet from flood waters, such as carpet, drywall, insulation, kitchen & bathroom cabinets made out of particle board, MDF trim, hollow doors, etc. are ruined and need to be torn out. Insulation can't be dried back out and re-used. Particle board or MDF absorbs water and swells almost instantly. The general rule of thumb for drywall on mold remediation is to remove drywall 3' higher than what was wet or where there is visible mold. If you can't get back into the home and dry it out fast enough, you might be looking at new drywall for the entire walls and ceilings of the water damaged levels. If you have real wood cabinets, trim, & solid wood doors, those might be salvagable if dried out fast enough.
4. Once the sopping wet mess has been removed, you'll basically have stud walls, the sub-floor, tile flooring, and any real wood components left behind that will need to be sanitized from the contaminants of the flood waters. Bleach is the favorite, but make sure you and everyone around is wearing proper gloves, safety goggles, and masks. A splash of bleach in the eye can potentially leave one blind, especially if you don't have any clean water to flush your eye out with.
5. Commercial dehumidifiers are necessary to properly dry out wood floors and the sub-floor before they warp. Running a small home-use dehumidifier probably won't be able to handle the job. If real hardwood floors do end up warping some, they can be sanded down and refinished. If you have the fake hardwood floors that are finished to look real on the top surface, but are really made of particle board (sawdust & glue) or OSB (wood chips & glue) with a thin layer of wood on top, then if there is any warping, they are ruined. If the OSB sub-floor gets dried out fairly quickly and has only some delamination, then it can be sanded down and saved. Not drying the OSB sub-floor out fast enough will result in needing to replace it. An OSB sub-floor can swell up to 3/4" if wet. Plywood & wood board sub-floors will hold up better.
6. If you have metal ductwork and it was submerged, they will need to be professionally sanitized and cleaned after the flood water is drained out. Do not run the blower motor to the furnace/AC until they are properly cleaned. You don't need to be blowing contaminants from the flood water throughout the home. If you have the cheap flex ducts and they were submerged, they won't be able to be professionally duct blasted. You'll be looking at having the flex ducts replaced.
7. When the soil around the home is saturated with water, the foundation can settle. It may not be immediate. You're going to have to pay attention to any signs of movement over the next 6-12 months once the ground starts to dry back out. Look for drywall cracks in the corners over doorways, doors that won't close all the way, window panes that crack from the movement, floors not being level, and cracks in the foundation. If your foundation wall bows inward, then there are a couple of repair options. You can have a wall anchor system installed or a vertical beam. Wall anchors may not work the best if the soil is saturated. If your foundation sinks, the solution is to lift the foundation back to level via a piering system. Depending on what part of the foundation that settled will determine how many piers will need to be installed. You're typically looking at a pier every 5'-6' and more on corners. On a severe case, a mid-sized 2,500 s.f. home might run in the ballpark of $30,000 - $40,000 if the entire foundation needs lifting. If it's just a corner of the home, the estimate would be much less. If you have serious movement, then you'll want to get estimates from a licensed Foundation Contractor. I do want to throw out a word of caution here. I've run across too many situations where the public was taken advantage of by salespeople pushing unecessary foundation repairs just to land the job. I recently had a client call me to inspect their foundation because one such salesman from one of the larger Foundation companies was freaking them out and trying to push an expensive repair when the floors were only off by 1/8" - 1/4" across the entire home. If you want an unbiased professional opinion on whether you have a foundation issue or not, please call us. We'll be happy to inspect your foundation.
8. Basement concrete floors can heave when the soil underneath is saturated. You might see new cracks in the floor or humps. Depending on how bad the movement will determine if any repairs are necessary.
9. Driveways, sidewalks, and patios will most likely have panels that settle from the soil being undermined or sinking. As the ground dries out, that's when you'll be able to see how much movement occurs. If the settlement is minimal, lifting the concrete via mud jacking or foam injection could be the lowest cost repair. If there are too many cracked up or broken panels, then parts or all of the damaged concrete may need replacing.
10. Air conditioners and heat pumps were designed to be out in the elements. They weren't designed to be submerged in water. You'll need to have a licensed HVAC Contractor evaluate your unit and determine if it is fine, if certain parts need replacing, or if the entire unit has to go. Anyone with an older unit that has R-22 refrigerant has a system that is becoming obsolete. If you're furnace was submerged and needs replacing, then it makes no sense to keep your old AC unit. Make sure your Damage Assessor from FEMA includes this on their list.
11. For those of you that have a shallow well, flood waters can cause the well head to shift or lift up. You'll need to have the well repaired or rebuilt depending on how severe the damage.
Everyone's situation is going to be different. For some, the damage was fairly minor. For others, it was total devastation. Some lost storage items in a basement while others lost everything. For some, it makes sense to begin the restoration process. For others, they might be forced to abandon their severely damaged homes and move to higher grounds. This article will hopefully help flood victims make educated decisions moving forward.
If you end up buying another home and need an ASHI Certified Home Inspector to protect you, then please give us a call at 402-330-1701. If you want to research us further, our website is: www.omaha-home-inspection.com
Good luck & God Bless the Flood Victims of the March 2019 Flood!
Greg Wayman, President
Foundation-2-Rooftop, Inc.
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