Responding To The Loss - Water

Water can deliver significant damage to property and its contents. Response time is paramount to mitigating the extent of the damage. We pride ourselves on being, “Faster to any size disaster”. Our technicians respond promptly to all water related calls. When responding to a loss our technicians will follow a four (4) step process in adherence to the IICRC S500 5 Principles;

1 - Inspection of the loss – They will inspect the impacted area to scope the extent of damage and to evaluate how far water has migrated through the building. The inspection service is called “scoping.” Scoping water damage means the technician looks carefully at the area affected by the water and examines the area to determine the extent of water damage. The technician will conduct several activities when scoping or inspecting water damage, including: 

• Gather information about the structure.
• Identify potential safety and health hazards (S500 Principle 1, Health & Safety).
• Evaluate the amount of damage to structural components and contents items.
• Make preliminary determinations about the mitigation and restoration services required.

It is during this time that our technicians are actively evaluating the disaster (S500 Principle 2, Documentation) in totality to determine the scope of the damage by answering questions like:

• What is the category of water?
• To what extent did water intrude into the building?
• How far did the water go?
• How many materials got wet?

2 - Emergency services (S500 Principle 3, Mitigation) - The goal of emergency actions is to protect structure and contents from further damage, establish a safe environment, extract water, and begin drying the structure and contents effectively.  

3 - Monitoring services (S500 Principle 4, Drying Buildings and Contents) - Monitoring activities during the drying process are essential to ensure the drying process is working properly. This also allows for good lines of communication with all stakeholders — the insured, the adjuster, and the agent. Our technicians complete monitoring reports to show the effectiveness of the drying system. Monitoring services continue until the structure and contents are dry.

4 - Restoration services (S500 Principle 5, Cleaning and Repair) - Once everything is dry, the last step is restoration—cleaning and repairing everything to return both structure and contents back to pre-loss condition. Restoration services may include repairing structural materials, reinstalling carpets, and cleaning affected areas of structure and contents.  

Key Questions of Restorative Drying

Once on site our technicians are trained to answer the following key questions while performing the first 3 steps mentioned above.

1. What materials and contents are wet?
2. How wet are the affected items?
3. Are structure and contents items drying?
4. Are structure and contents dry?

The answers to these questions are documented and used to make drying decisions while performing emergency and monitoring services.

The answers to the first two questions enable our technicians to determine how big or small the drying job will be. The aim of inspection is to learn what building components got wet and how wet they are. These questions show how big the challenge will be to return everything to a dry condition.

The answers to the last two questions will help our technicians track the drying progress of the building as it moves from wet back to dry. Throughout the monitoring services, our technicians will check whether building components are drying. Are they making progress from wet to dry, and is the rate of progress acceptable? Are they dry? Only when the answer is “yes” to this final question will the impacted area be ready to have restoration services begin. To be clear, restoration services CANNOT begin until ALL we building materials and its contents are shown to be dry again.

Principle 1 - Health & Safety

Safety is everyone’s responsibility on a water damage work site. So Principle 1—safety—is a concern at the beginning of an inspection.

• A primary concern in water damage safety is protecting employees who will be working in the wet building.
• In addition, the IICRC S500 Water Damage Restoration Standard highly recommends restorers make “a reasonable effort” to inform and protect occupants from safety issues that may arise during a project.
• Federal regulations (for example OSHA standards on safe work areas) may apply to water restoration work. Observing appropriate safety procedures will help keep workers healthy while they work in unhealthy or unsafe buildings. The S500 offers a list of safe work practices for contaminated, wet environments.

As mentioned above one of the very first, if not the first, question our technicians will ask themselves is, “What is the category of water?” A common safety hazard in water damages is microbes that grow when excess water affects a building. Various types of microscopic organisms begin to multiply and contaminate the water. The restoration industry categorizes water damages on the basis of how contaminated the water is. The categories are called Category 1, 2, and 3. They are given the names Clean water, Gray water, Black water respectively. One factor that helps our technicians to determine the category is the source of the water.

Clean Water – Water that has been treated or has not been contaminated with waste, such as a burst water line or pipes, rain water, snow or ice melt, etc.

Gray Water – Water that has been used, but does not contain human waste including: discharge water from a washing machine, discharge water from a dishwasher, shower or sink overflow, etc.

Black Water – Water that is highly contaminated with waste. Two kinds of black water situations are flooding and sewage backups.

o   External flooding — Flood waters are very dirty and potentially dangerous. Mud, silt and other sorts of debris may possibly contain disease carrying microorganisms. Rising flood water may take a long time to recede before mitigation and remediation procedures can begin. Structural damage is likely.

o  Sewage Back-ups — This kind of black water damage happens when a commode overflows with human waste or when a municipal sewer line backs up. Sewage waste contains disease carrying microorganisms. If the waste is from a medical treatment facility or hospital, the potential for Blood Borne Pathogens is dramatically higher.

Obviously it is easy to see why quickly identifying the category of water is so important. How and where excess, stagnant water can be “relocated” is determined by the category of water. Clean water can safely be reintroduced into the surrounding ecosystem. However Gray water (in some instances) and Black water must be removed safely according to local Department of Health guidelines. The latter of which can make water remediation projects extremely challenging.  Understanding the type of water and how it can be removed from the structure enables our technician to properly define and communicate the scope of the project. The good news, we have the appropriate extraction and transportation equipment to get the job done correctly and safely!

During the inspection step our technicians also begin to document conditions and procedures (Principle 2). We will dive into greater detail on this topic next week.