Flood Safety: How to Protect and Save Your Valuables?

While rain is not always the reason for floods, heavy and prolonged rains are the leading cause. If you are surrounded by dams, drainage basins, or rivers, you can experience flooding. Sometimes a burst pipeline can also be the cause.

What if you are faced with severe residential damage? Once you save your family, you need to deal with your belongings. However, this can be a race against the clock since molds can develop in the next 48 hours. Below are tips for how to save what you want and dispose of what can not be:

1. Determine the Type of Water that Went Inside Your Home

Determine the kind of water you’re dealing with. Is it dirty, salty, or polluted with sewage or hazardous chemicals? If your belongings have come in contact with dangerous water, you might need a specialist disaster restoration service, such as PuroClean Woodinville, if you live in the area. Attempting to recover and clean them may be hazardous to your health. Reduce the humidity surrounding your items as you clean and dry them if the water is uncontaminated.

2. Prioritize Your Belongings

You may not save everything after the flood, so focus on what is most necessary to you, whether for money or sentimental reasons. Though your insurance can replace all the costs of your affected things, some are not irreplaceable, like shoeboxes, photo albums, receipts, and legal documents.

3. Dry the Inside of Your House

After eliminating all of the standing water inside your residence, all remains wet, especially if the rain increases the moisture in your area. Air drying is always the best if the weather conditions allow it. Open your windows to permit indoor airflow.

Otherwise, make use of the air conditioners, fans, and dehumidifiers. Prevent utilizing ovens, irons, hairdryers, and continuous exposure to sunlight, causing irreversible damage.

4. Arrange Your Belongings and Manage with Care

Separate soaked from dry materials. For instance, remove photos from damp albums or take paintings and prints out of their frames. Ensure to put white paper towels between every few pages of wet books you wish to restore. Most importantly, manage wet things with care because they can be fragile.

Many restoration businesses provide pack-out services to assist you in recovering your belongings and ensure their quality. Start searching for “pack out companies near me” to narrow your search.

5. Clean Gently

Use soft cloths and brushes to loosen up dirt and debris on sensitive objects. Avoid rubbing that can crush dirt. For porcelain, utilize a dry fabric to remove any dirt and then use a small, soft-bristled brush to remove dirt from crevices and tiny openings.

Carefully rinse photographs in clean water. Then, air-dry them on a paper towel or plastic screen by hanging them with plastic clothespins. Avoid letting the picture come in contact with other surfaces when it’s drying.

6. Store Valuables and Dispose of Damaged Things

Get rid of objects and products that cannot be saved immediately. Put them in open, unsealed bags or boxes. If you can’t attend to your belongings in two days, you can place them in the freezer for cleaning later on.

Generally, you can freeze some things that can not be dried out in two days, including documents, textiles, photos, and books. This prevents molds from growing and dyes from transferring. It can even allow you to do other essential things.

7. Dispose of the Particles

Dispose of wet items from your house as soon as you can return home to your house after the flood. Rather than waiting on your insurance to document the damages, you can do it yourself by taking pictures and videos.

According to experts, you can sort out your things right into the following groups: