A flood can be catastrophic for a business, creating the kind of damage that can take months to repair and cause thousands of dollars in destruction. How do you clean up your business after it has been flooded? We will show you a step-by-step process you can use that will most efficiently remove the water and restore the damage so that your business suffers as little loss as possible.
Start by Removing Water
The first step needs to be to get rid of the water as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. You may be tempted to take some time to step back and assess the damage, but the truth is that the longer the water stays in your business, the more damage it will do. You need to get it out of there fast.
You can do this on your own, with the help of your employees, or with the aid of a professional cleaning company. Many trusted cleaners in Manhattan offer flood remediation services or post-flood cleanup. They can come in and clean up your business after it has been flooded out, removing the water and making certain that the damage is kept to a minimum.
How do you get the water out of there? You can use water vacuums and buckets for areas where there is a lot of water. Simply take the water from the floor and pour it down the drains throughout your workplace. It is better to put it into the plumbing system than to simply pour it outside. By removing water this way, you minimize the risk for water coming back in and you get rid of it more efficiently.
Suctioning tools like vacuums designed to take up water are the most effective for pulling water out of soft items. They can be very useful for removing water from cushions and other items that have fabric on them. They are excellent at removing water from rugs and carpets as well. Fabric items that are soaked should be placed somewhere that they can dry, like outside on the pavement or even on the roof of your business. The faster they are dried out, the less damage they will sustain.
Dry Out the Business
The next step is to dry out the workplace as much as you can. You can let the environment do a lot of that for you and open windows and doors. You should also set up fans and turn on ventilation systems so that the rooms of your business will dry faster. The more sources of ventilation you can activate, the faster your work will go.
Any items that are thoroughly soaked, like chairs and carpets, will need to be removed from the inside of the workspace to be dealt with individually. They may need to be placed outside in the sunlight or treated with individual care as you dry them out.
Some items will be so soaked that they will be beyond drying out. Cardboard and papers may be so drenched that they are useless and will need to be tossed, but not everything paper that is wet has to be discarded. You might be surprised how many files can be saved just by letting them dry out. Give them space and unstack papers to let them dry individually. This will prevent ink bleeding and will ensure proper drying.
Assess the Damage
At this point, it is safe to stop for a moment and take a breather and figure out what the extent of the flood damage is. You may need to get rid of some items and restore others.
There might be some structural issues that need to be dealt with. If any part of your business is made of wood or drywall, it could be so damaged that it poses a problem to safety and health. You should have these components professionally examined and ensure that they are safe to continue using before you allow any employees to go back to work.
Sanitize the Area
The next item on your list should be to get rid of all the microorganisms that come in with the floodwaters. Your carpets are likely permeated with pathogens after the flood, and you should spray them down with germ killing solutions to ensure that they are safe.
Dirty water that moves from place to place can carry with it all sorts of diseases, pathogens, and parasites. You want to rid your workplace of all of those before allowing anyone to work in the business. This should be a priority before work is resumed because the pathogens found in floodwater can be extremely dangerous and even fatal.
Deal with Mold
The final step of the flood remediation process is to check for mold and get rid of it as you find it. When water seeps into all sorts of places within your business, it can bring with it and mold spores and give them the resources they need to grow rapidly.
You should have all your ducts and all parts of your ventilation system specifically checked for mold growth. The sooner you get rid of the mold, the fewer health problems you’re going to have. If you do not deal with the mold quickly after flooding, it can pollute the environment and create health issues.
Mold is something that is incredibly hard to get rid of, which is why we recommend bringing in a mold remediation expert to deal with it. Professionals can scan for invisible mold spores in the air and thoroughly remove mold so that it does not keep coming back.
A flood may cause incredible damage to your workplace but there are some excellent ways to keep the damage minimal. We hope that you will use these steps if floodwaters hit your business so that you can get back to work quickly and cut the repair time and costs down significantly. With the right process and quick action, much of the damage can be prevented and repaired.
