Below are the preliminary steps to water damage restoration of your home after it has been affected by water damage. If at any time you feel overloaded, unable, or feel safer having a certified professional water damage restoration company completing the task, you can simply find one through the links on this site.

1.    Before beginning your water damage restoration, be sure to have found the source of the water and also the type of the water damage.

2.    Required Apparel: Long sleeve shirt, pants, closed toe shoes with a thick (at least ½ inch) sole, rubber boots (that go over your shoes), penetration-resistant rubber gloves, safety goggles (with side protection), and a disposable breathing mask.

3.    If you have standing water, try to locate and open a drain so that the water self-drains. If you do have a drain but the water is not receding, and it is not visibly obstructed, you will need to contact a plumber before you attempt to do any water damage clean up. A clogged drain may also be the cause of your problem! On a few occasions, I have seen that the drain was expelling water back into the house!

4.    If you don’t have a drain, the plumber you contacted couldn't open the drain, or the water is not receding even with an open drain, you will need a submersible pump. Call around to your local hardware and/or rental stores to see if they have one in stock. If you cannot locate one and your wet / dry vacuum fails to do the job, you may need a professional water damage restoration service.

5.    Remove all furniture and other items from within and around the affected area. Move as many items as possible to an unaffected area, as it will be much easier to remediate your water damage without having to constantly stall and move items around. Depending on the size of your affected and unaffected areas, I am aware that you probably will not be able to completely remove all large items. We will simply have to work around them through our cleanup process.

If You Are Salvaging the Carpet:

For all items that cannot be moved away from the affected area, you must check what the legs or sections touching the flooring are made of. If they are not made of plastic or rubber (ie. Wood, metal, etc.) you must place plastic or rubber under them so that the legs don’t permanently stain or rust your carpeting.

6.    Thoroughly wet/dry vacuum the area to remove all the excess water. If you do not own one, I recommend any Rigid™ wet/day vacuum. The more water damage restoration you have to complete, the larger the vacuum you should purchase. Whenever the wet/dry vacuums tank fills up, simply dump it into a sanitary sewer line (your toilet would work just fine as long as your ejector pump and power are both functional). After your wet/dry vacuum is no longer picking up any water, you are ready to extract water from and remove your padding (if you have it.)