5 Guiding Principles Of Drying

The IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification) is an independent, certification body that sets and promotes high standards and ethics within the inspection, cleaning, restoration and installation industry. It is regarded as the international industry standard to be used by restoration companies. One of the standards they have set, which has been accredited by ANSI (American National Standards Institute), is the S500 Water Damage Restoration Standard. This standard identifies five guiding principles for remediation companies to follow when drying and restoring wet building materials and its contents. These principles are:

1. Safety of workers and occupants
2. Documentation of conditions and work procedures
3. Mitigation
4. Drying
5. Cleaning and repair

I will go into more detail and provide some examples later, but for now let me briefly describe the five principles. 

Principle 1—Safety First

Safety is everyone’s responsibility on a water damage work site. A primary concern in water damage safety is protecting our technicians. In addition, our technicians make sure they inform and protect occupants from whatever safety issues may arise during a project. Observing appropriate safety procedures ensures that both our technicians and clients remain healthy and safe while in unhealthy or unsafe environments. 

Principle 2—Documentation 

Our technicians inspect the areas where water has intruded to identify the extent to which water has migrated through materials and how much damage has occurred. They talk with building occupants about their observations to help further define the nature of the water damage. The information gathered in this initial inspection is documented and used to plan the needed emergency procedures.

During the process of drying a building, our technicians conduct ongoing inspections. They inspect and measure moisture conditions inside the building and in materials affected by the water. Information gathered during these ongoing inspections is documented and used to determine whether wet materials are drying properly. 

When the structure and contents are considered dry again, our technicians conduct a final inspection. This information is documented to show the building materials and contents have been restored to acceptable conditions. Not only do our technicians document the conditions of the building, but also the work procedures they followed to address those conditions. 

Principle 3—Mitigation

The major concern with any wet building is to prevent damages caused by water and moisture from becoming worse. Effective mitigation of a water intrusion will reduce the amount of damage a property suffers and thus also reduce the cost of restoring the property to its condition before the loss. Mitigation is important because it helps our clients recover more quickly from the water loss event. 

The goal of mitigation is to control the moisture and contamination. Our technicians will check for the source of moisture problems in the building. This source of moisture or water must be stopped before any drying of the building can be successful. While the building owner is ultimately responsible for correcting the route cause of the water damage, we offer subcontracting services to help make the remediation process as uncomplicated and trouble free as possible for our clients. 

Mitigation also controls any microbiological contamination resulting from the moisture. Contaminants are contained to prevent their spread from affected areas of a building to the uncontaminated areas. 

Principle 4—Drying Buildings and Contents

Our goal is to reduce the time that building materials and contents are excessively wet. The more quickly items are returned to a dry condition, the less damage they will suffer. The drying process involves some basic procedures:

Remove excess water. Removing the excess or bulk water is an important procedure in drying a building. Water can be removed from a building in two ways—extraction and evaporation. Extraction is the more effective way for removing enough water to speed the process of drying. Every gallon removed by extracting means much less time will be required to remove water with drying equipment.

Enhance evaporation of moisture. Restorers set up drying equipment to remove moisture through evaporation and dehumidification. Air movement speeds the evaporation of moisture from wet materials.

Remove water vapor by dehumidification. Dry air acts like a sponge to absorb moisture from wet surfaces. Wet, humid air is processed through dehumidifiers to remove water vapor and produce dry air. Air movers circulate the dry air from the dehumidifiers across the wet surfaces to speed up evaporation.

Control temperature to enhance moisture removal. Our technicians will control the temperature of air conditions in order to increase the rate of evaporation. They also maintain certain temperature levels to increase the operating efficiency of dehumidifiers. 

Principle 5—Cleaning and Repair

Once our technician's inspection confirms moisture content of the structure and contents has reached the drying goals, the drying services are done. The structure and its contents are now ready for restoration services to begin. We have a full stable of vetted, bonded and insured professionals that can perform the restoration process for our clients. 

The bottom line with any water damage scenario is simple, the key to preventing further water damage—respond quickly and we are faster to any size disaster.

Before I discuss each principle in greater detail I will explain how we "Respond to The Loss".