The other day one of our clients got to learn the hard way what to do if they have water damage to their hardwood floors. I will tell their story so you can be prepared in case something similar happens to you.
Mrs. K was cleaning her floors and noticed that something wasn't quite right. They were a little warped feeling and she noticed some water coming out from under the refrigerator. She pulled the refrigerator out and found the inline water filter to be leaking. She turned the shut off valve for the water line and took a picture. The floor behind the fridge was all buckled and starting to turn black.
She sent to picture to me and asked if I thought the floors would be alright. I immediately told her I need to come over and take a look because the fact the wood was starting to change colors was an indicator of a lot of water had gotten into the wood. In the meantime she called her insurance company to see if that was covered under her policy.
Once I arrived I could immediately see from the front door that she had destructive water damage to her floor. The water had traveled underneath the wall and the wood was acting like a sponge, just soaking it up. When wood gets wet it absorbs it and begins to swell and move. The floor in the living room close to the kitchen wall had started to buckle and the flooring in the hallway had buckled so bad it was pulling loose from the subfloor.
The wet flooring at this point wasn't worth saving and had to come out before it started to mold and cause other issues. The insurance was covered and they sent out an adjuster to confirm the work that needed to be done. I ended up having to tear out 100 sq ft of her floor and some of the drywall behind the fridge to remove the damaged material. I set up a dehumidifier and a couple of fans to dry out the subfloor which took about 4 days. Most of her house is hardwood so it all needed to be resanded so that it would match the new wood going in. The homeowners wanted to save their deductible which they did by moving the furniture themselves instead of hiring it out. So they were able to have their floors fixed without any out of pocket expenses. Thank the Lord for homeowners insurance.
I highly recommend you having a good homeowners policy, water damage especially is an expensive fix, this claim was over $10,000 to do all the work to get it back to how it was.
So if you come home and find water on your floor from your dishwasher, fridge or some other leak here are the steps you should take to get it resolved quickly and efficiently.
1. Turn off the source of the leak. If you don't know where the water shut off valves are for your appliances find out today.
2. Call us right away to come out and make an assessment as to what needs to be done to fix your floors. Water travels and causes a lot of damage the longer it sits. If you need to have it mitigated, where the excess water is removed, we recommend Elite Restoration based in Puyallup WA. They will come and tear out any unrepairable damage and set up drying equipment.
3. Call your insurance company and make sure you are covered and they will schedule to have an assessor come out to inspect what needs to be done. Give them our contact information so we can coordinate on getting the process going.
4. We will work out a schedule with you to get your home put back together as soon as possible. The amount of time this takes varies depending on how extensive the damage is.
5. In the meantime the insurance company will send you a check to pay for the work that needs to be done. This usually has both of our names on it and if it's big enough usually the bank's as well. All names have to be signed off on it and the proper payments made.
6. Be prepared for the inconvience. You will most likely have drying equipment running 24 hours a day, which is annoying to say the least. Furniture and appliances may need to be moved out. You may have to spend some time out of the home while some of the work is being done.
When accidents happen it can be a major inconvience but with our help we can hopefully make it more bearable for you.
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