Operation Apartment Flood Cleanup
posted on 2 August 2011 | posted in
Construction and Industrial
I've done a lot of difficult jobs in my time - from oil tank installation to house building. However, this one I remember in particular.
We were having the attic expanded and the roof was off the house. The contractor had put tarps over everything to protect from rain but they leaked and flooded most of the 2nd floor. The first thing we had to do was to capture as much water as we could since it was still raining and there was no end in sight. We got plastic sheets and stapled them to the ceiling so that they would collect water in one place and into a bucket. We had to empty the buckets every 15 minutes or so but at least it was not dripping on our furniture, books, and carpets. Once that was stabilized we had to start drying things that had gotten wet. We used some car shammies to do that drying as they seemed to work better than towels. I got one of the special fans used for construction to start moving air to dry things faster. I used a wet / dry vacuum to pick up as much water from the floors and carpets. This helped keep water from migrating to the first floor and helped reduce the drying time. Its important to dry things as fast as you can to prevent secondary damage from mold and mildew. After things were drying we used cleansers to remove as many stains as we could. Some was too far damaged or stained and had to be repaired and repainted. All in all it was a huge mess that took a few days to clean up and weeks to repair.
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