If you were flooded by neighbors: how quickly to drain the water and clean it in the apartment.
Life is full of surprises and sometimes not just pleasant. Flooding an apartment is one of these always unexpected unpleasant surprises. If you are flooded by neighbors or if a tap or pipe bursts in your apartment, you need to start dealing with the consequences of this accident as soon as possible and do it right, otherwise the situation can get worse.
What to do? How to save a home from the severe consequences of flooding? In this article, we will not raise legal issues about drafting acts and proceedings with neighbors. Consider only recommendations for drying and urgent unscheduled repair.
What should I do first?
- If the inundation is very serious, first of all, the apartment must be de-energized so that there is no short circuit. Invite a qualified electrician who will assess the extent of the damage and check the integrity of the wiring. If you are lucky, after drying, the wiring will function as before, but it is quite possible that it will have to be completely or partially replaced.
- The next stage is the removal of excess water on all surfaces. Puddles on the floor will have to be dipped by the grandfather’s method with the help of rags. Wet carpets or tracks must be removed and hung in a ventilated place, preferably in the fresh air. Clean the furniture thoroughly.
If flooding occurred in case of flood, i.e. the water rose from the bottom to the top, you need to check the degree of damage to the foundation, as well as waterproofing. - Now you need to thoroughly dry the walls, floor and ceiling. With a strong flood without professional equipment is indispensable. You can invite a company specializing in such works, whose specialists will be able to correctly select the drying regime, taking into account the building materials used in the construction.
- Special air dehumidifiers dry the soaked with moisture. Perhaps you will be able to rent or take from the familiar builders of a heat gun. Due to its high power this device will quickly cope with the task. The heat gun must operate in the lowest power mode. At the worst, use heaters or building hairdryers. Also, the room must necessarily be very well ventilated.
What would the room dry out qualitatively, it takes two to three weeks.
Remember, prolonged natural drying can lead to irreversible processes: rotting or deformation of materials, development of mold.
If the room has wooden windows, when it is dried, they should be kept closed, to minimize deformation of the tree. Plastic windows usually tolerate flooding without problems.
Ceiling
If the flooding occurred from above, and the ceiling suffered, then most likely it will have to be completely repaired. Of course, there are options, for example, if the ceiling is finished with plastic panels or stretch film. Then after the water has left and the ceiling dries, the consequences of leaks may be invisible.
Walls
Wallpaper without options must be removed. Reusing them is impossible. If the putty or painting is inflated, it must be scraped off. To do this, use an ordinary spatula. In this case it is better to overdo it than to leave the damaged areas, which in the future can lead to additional problems.
Drywall, which usually level the walls or make partitions, must be inspected. If the traces of deformation are not visible, after thorough drying it can be left.
If the walls are insulated from inside, or sound insulation is laid, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the materials used. Mineral fiber mats are very absorb moisture well, they are deformed and do not retain their properties, so they need to be replaced.
Dense moisture-proof material can be left for further use.
All surfaces damaged by water must be treated with antifungal agents, they are sold in sufficient quantities in construction and household stores. Concrete surfaces can be treated with an aqueous solution of copper sulfate.
Floors
To effectively dry the wooden floors, several boards can be removed or a sufficient number of holes can be made to ventilate and dry the space under the floorboard. Direct a stream of warm air from the heat gun or the air heater into the holes.
In all available places, decompose substances that absorb moisture well. This can be ordinary table salt or silica gel. Do not forget to change as they become wet.
Coating of linoleum should be completely removed. Take it to another room and roll it face down. Linoleum for further use should dry completely.
Linoleum on a soft basis, discard immediately. Completely it will not dry up ever, but a smell of mustiness and even mold will appear.
Inspect the substrate. From the deformed substrate will have to get rid of. Hardly, after the repair you will like the wavy floor and the furniture staggered on it. Using all the same desiccants, the substrate should be thoroughly drained, then treated with antifungal preparations, wait until it dries again, and only then return the linoleum to the place.
Likewise with laminate. Damaged laminate is better to replace immediately, so that later it did not turn out even more expensive.
If the whole floor is affected, but only a part of it, you need to buy a similar laminate. When buying a new laminate coating, make sure that the spike grooves in the new and old laminate are compatible.
Inflated parquet should be disassembled to prevent further development of the process. Then the floor must be dried. In this case, you can not use strong heaters. A sharp rise in temperature in the room will finally destroy your sex. The temperature should not exceed the usual room temperature by more than five degrees.
If a small section of the parquet has been damaged, you may be able to do it yourself, but with a large amount of work, it is better to contact a specialist.
Bathroom
Usually these premises are decorated with tiles, which (if it was laid by a professional) should not suffer from various leaks. But if the water flows from under the tile, then under it there are voids and over time mold can form there. This tile must be partially or completely replaced.
In order for the bathroom or toilet room to dry thoroughly, after flooding, be sure to check the ventilation ducts and keep the doors in the room open to create air currents.
After the room is dry, you can repaint the ceiling. The paint will have to be applied in two layers, so that the spots from leakage are invisible.
We wish you as little as possible to face unpleasant surprises, and if you already happened to encounter, quickly and effectively cope with their consequences!
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