THE WATERBOYS LLC – UTAH WATER DAMAGE CLEANUP

Los Angeles Water Damage

Do you live in Los Angeles, California? Are you looking for a qualified water damage repair technician? Our water damage Los Angeles team is ready and prepared to assist you with any water or mold-related emergency situations at your property.

Water damage can be a very serious issue. Did you know that mold spores are always present in your home and that a water damage event will typically activate those spores, even after decades of dormancy? Your home can become a dangerous breeding ground for mold after only a few short days. The more humid the environment, the more likely you’ll need to have professional black mold removal in your home.

Our water damage Los Angeles restoration team goes to work quickly to mitigate the risks of water damage. Our highly-trained technicians are experts at cleaning water damage in carpet, drywall, ceilings — anywhere! If you have been the recent victim of flood water damage, don’t hesitate to call us immediately to discuss your options. You might want to file an insurance claim — but what do you need to know before making that decision? Our technicians can help you with the myriad decisions you’ll need to make after water damage affects your property. Let us help!

Just call our hotline at 801-717-7777 to learn more about how professional water damage repair can help restore your peace of mind. Water damage cleaning in Los Angeles takes a very specific understanding of the area, building codes, etc. Our water removal and mold removal equipment is second to none! We go to work the moment you give us a call. Water damage Los Angeles is a serious matter. You can rely on us to guide you safely through the entire process of getting your property restored to its pre-loss condition.

What To Do When Water Strikes

Cleaning water damage can be a daunting task. It’s just one of those things that most people aren’t prepared for. It happens quickly. It happens without warning. And it can be devastating to your property and personal belongings. So it’s a good thing you’re here, doing research online to find a good partner for your water damage repair needs.

We are highly trained in water damage restoration. We deal with mold removal and water removal every day. So we know what to do when we get to your property, no matter what your situation. That’s the beauty of our profession. Once you come across enough weird stuff, you start to see patterns in the chaos. You learn a system for fixing water damage. That way, the next job doesn’t seem as daunting, the next one less so, and so on.

Do you have flood water damage in your home or business? If so, call us immediately. We’ll make sure that a qualified technician is at your property in less than an hour. Your technician will help you get through the challenge. You’ll be so glad you called us. Water damage can be extensive and it can happen quickly.

If you are experiencing water damage in your property, do your best to stop the source of the water leak into the property. Remove items from the affected areas as much as possible, always paying careful attention to safety and health hazards such as exposed electrical wiring and sewage contamination. Extract as much water as you can before the water damage cleaning crew arrives. Once that is taken care of, sit back and let us take care of the rest!

When Disaster Strikes

If water damage has just happened in your home or business, you probably have a lot of concerns and questions. It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed when water damage strikes. Water can move quickly and do a lot of damage in a very short amount of time. Here are a few tips to help you through the ordeal.

First, take a step back and assess the situation. Is it dangerous? Has the water gotten into walls or areas of the home where electrical wiring is located? Did the water damage occur as a direct result of sewage leakage or back flow? Can you see mold in the affected area? If you suspect that your health and safety might be at risk, don’t take any chances. Contact a professional water damage restoration company with experience handling these kinds of situations before you get into trouble.

Next, if the situation is safe and you can do it on your own, stop the source of the water leak into the property. This might require the help of a licensed plumber. Even a temporary fix like diverting water away from an exterior foundation wall can dramatically improve the situation. Get that problem fixed permanently as fast as you can so that water damage repairs can begin immediately.

The next step is to remove as much water from the property as quickly as possible. For anything bigger than a minor spill, you will want to use a commercial water extraction unit. These can be provided by your local water damage cleaning professionals. Water removal units pull water quickly from floors, carpet and carpet pad. This is important for several reasons. It makes removing wet contents and building materials easier. It minimizes the amount and time of drying required after water removal is finished, which in turn minimizes the risk of mold growth during evaporation.

Call us if you have any questions about the water damage in your home or business. We are a full-service water damage restoration company with all the tools to help you get your life and property back in order after disaster strikes.

How Does Mold Removal Work?

If you are currently experiencing a water damage or mold problem in your home or business, you will want to talk with a certified water damage restoration professional about the steps that can be taken to restore your property to its pre-loss condition. Water damage can strike very quickly and extensively. Mold generally starts growing in just a few days. If conditions are right and the primary water damage has not been fixed properly and thoroughly, mold can become a serious problem for your property and your health in less than 72 hours.

Mold removal (also black mold removal) is the process of removing mold from a property. This includes removing mold from the structure, all surfaces (visible and hidden), contents (including personal belongings and furniture) and most importantly the air. Removing mold from the air helps ensure that you and your family will not breathe in harmful microorganisms that can cause serious respiratory and other health issues.

The general process water damage repair professionals follow when conducting black mold removal is as follows. We first make sure that the property is dry and clean. We use water removal (extraction) and specialty drying / dehumidifying equipment to thoroughly clean the property. Saturated contents and building materials are removed from the property, to be discarded or cleaned and repaired off-site. We take surface and air samples from the property and test them in a laboratory through an independent industrial hygienist, who gives us a detailed report indicating the level of contamination by area of the property.

If mold is present in elevated levels inside the property, we section off the building into zones using plastic sheeting and specialty tape. Each zone is highly contained to prevent the spread of mold from one zone into another. We apply anti-microbial agents to every surface in the property. We run HEPA vacuums continuously to filter ambient air while simultaneously HEPA vacuuming every surface in the home. After thoroughly vacuuming the home, we re-apply anti-microbial agents to encapsulate and kill any remaining mold spores. Any contents that have been removed from the property are thoroughly cleaned (same process) of mold spores before they are returned. Finally, the industrial hygienist returns to conduct a clearance test. Any zones that do not pass are re-cleaned and re-tested. Once the property is cleared, any remaining water damage restoration work is completed as quickly as possible so the owners or tenants can re-occupy the property as soon as possible.

Water Damage Drying Summary

Drying your property efficiently after a water damage event is perhaps the most important aspect of the water damage restoration process. The science of drying is called psychrometry. Understanding psychrometry helps professional water damage professionals restore your property back to a pre-loss condition with the least amount of damage to structure and contents.

Efficient drying involves four primary aspects of remediation: air flow, dehumidification, temperature control and time monitoring. By increasing and channeling air flow, we are able to increase the rate of evaporation inside the property, while moving humidified air out of the affected area. Dehumidification lowers the relative humidity inside the property, thus also increasing the rate of evaporation. Temperature control allows us to maximize the air’s capacity to hold water and thus draw water from affected materials, structures and contents through wicking capillary action. Finally, monitoring the time effect throughout this process enables water damage cleaning professionals to ensure that damage is minimized and that the risks of mold growth and replication are mitigated properly.

Controlling microbial growth is one of the primary functions required to repair water damage correctly. Water removal isn’t enough. The environmental factors contributing to microbial growth must be abated. Without proper techniques and equipment, microbial growth can quickly get out of control and affect far more than the original primary damage caused by direct contact between structures/contents and flowing water/contamination.

In order to control microbial growth, water damage repair professionals must implement a drying plan in the affected property. There are two primary ways to dry your property. The first is called an open drying system and uses natural and forced ventilation to the outside in order to dry the inside structure. This approach requires that the outside air humidity is lower than the humidity inside the property. Air must be drawn from the outside of the property, where it is humidified inside and then expelled outside again. The challenges with this technique include property security and getting air to effectively move through the property in the correct proportion to meet the time constraints required to mitigate the primary damage without causing secondary damage.

The second approach utilizes a closed drying system using dehumidifiers to lower the specific humidity of the inside air. Air flow is not required in this technique. However, both water damage drying approaches may be used simultaneously if desired. These techniques help ensure that your property is dried quickly and completely, restoring it to the requisite 25-40% RH.

Water Damage 201: Specific Humidity

Water damage restoration professionals are accustomed to taking two key environmental readings throughout the water damage cleaning process. These readings are temperature and relative humidity (RH). Temperature and relative humidity are important for cleaning water damage because they give restoration professionals a relative measure of the amount of water vapor that the air inside a property can hold. Understanding the relationship between temperature and humidity is essential to properly restoring your property to its pre-loss condition.

As mentioned, RH gives us a relative measure of water vapor. RH combined with temperature can be used to calculate the specific humidity, vapor pressure and dew point for various areas of the water damage job site. Specific humidity is the actual weight of moisture (vapor) in the air. Vapor pressure is the force exerted by water vapor on the surrounding environment. Dew point is the water vapor saturation point, or the point at which air becomes saturated with moisture vapor. Once the dew point is reached, any decrease in temperature (remember, warmer air can hold more water vapor) or increase in humidity (amount of water vapor in the air) will cause water to literally get squeezed out of the air, which causes condensation and can be very damaging to structures and contents involved in water damage restoration jobs.

Specific humidity provides us with a more reliable basis, compared to relative humidity, for making decisions about the conditions and methods that should considered when drying a property.  By lowering specific humidity, we can dry the property more efficiently and quickly. Specific humidity is directly correlated with vapor pressure. In other words, as specific humidity rises and falls, so does vapor pressure. Like specific humidity, as vapor pressure decreases in a room, the faster the structure and any contents can dry.

Cleaning water damage is no simple task. There is a tremendous amount of research and education that goes into each and every water damage repair job. Please call us if you have any questions or concerns about water damage restoration, mold removal, water removal, drywall water damage or any other related issue in your home or business.

Principles of Restorative Drying

There are four main factors that must be considered when drying a property that has experienced water damage. Cleaning flood water damage can be a complex process. However, the techniques and equipment used by industry professionals all come down to these basic principles. By understanding these factors, you can better monitor the drying process in your water damage restoration project.

1. Extraction — building materials such as drywall, carpet and carpet pad can hold a tremendous amount of water. In order to properly dry a property that has been exposed to water damage, the first step that should be taken is to remove as much water as possible. Cleaning water damage first means extracting water. This can be done with basic techniques such as mopping or soaking towels. For larger jobs, commercial-grade equipment may be needed — equipment including immersible pumps or specially designed truck-mounted water extraction vacuums. Proper water removal means that the property can start drying out faster and more efficiently. It is estimated that it takes 300 times longer for properties to dry by dehumidification than by extraction.

2. Evaporation — Evaporation is the process of transforming water from a liquid state to a water vapor state. Evaporation happens as water wicks upward and outward through materials. As air flows over these saturated materials, small amounts of water escape into the air, raising its relative humidity and drying the material. One essential aspect of this process that many property owners forget is that evaporation does not guarantee that the property is still dry, since increased relative humidity in a property can cause just as many problems as saturated materials.

3. Dehumidification — Once the relative humidity of a property reaches the air space’s saturation point, water will start to reappear on surfaces. This can be a huge problem since high relative humidity provides mold with an optimal growing environment. Properties can be dehumidified through open or natural drying as well as closed or mechanical drying. Proper ventilation is a crucial aspect of proper dehumidification.

4. Temperature Control — Warmer air can hold more water vapor. Thus, the warmer the air inside a property where water damage cleaning is being conducted, the less likely it will be that the air will reach its saturation point. This facilitates proper evaporation, provided that the air is vented externally at some point.

Water damage restoration involves using the right techniques and equipment to balance these factors of water removal / extraction, evaporation, dehumidification and temperature control. Contact us at 801-717-7777 if you have any questions about these principles of restorative drying in water damage environments.

Water Damage 101: Mildew Removal

Water removal, mildew removal and mold removal are three important aspects of water damage repair and restoration. Mildew can often be found growing in bathtub and shower enclosures in any home. That is because molds, which cause mildew growth, like damp, warm, poorly lit areas with plenty of organic matter to feed on (soap scum, check). Bathrooms are the perfect places for mildew growth. Mildew removal almost always starts there. We have compiled a few tips for homeowners looking to do their own mildew removal. If you suspect that mold is growing in your home, we encourage you to contact us at 801-717-7777, via email or the web so we can help you determine if professional attention is needed.

Mildew Removal Tip #1: Understand the conditions that lead to mildew growth.

Mildew removal starts with prevention. You can remove mildew before it ever happens! As mentioned previously, mold and mildew need the right conditions to flourish. Those conditions include the right combination of humidity, warmth and organic matter.

Mildew Removal Tip #2: Reduce the relative humidity of the affected area.

You can reduce the humidity of a bathroom or room or basement by using a dehumidifier. A commercial dehumidifier is an essential tool in conducting professional mildew removal.

Mildew Removal Tip #3: Keep things clean.

Soap scum and other organic matter that accumulate as materials get dirty are the feeding ground for mildew. Just keeping your home clean will go a long way toward reducing the likelihood of needing to conduct serious mildew removal or mold removal. Not only will there be less matter for the mold and mildew to feed on but you will also more readily see fungi growing and thus be able to address it.

Mildew Removal Tip #4: Circulate fresh, dry air.

This is another important step in conducting mildew removal. Mold likes damp areas where the air is not re-circulated. Circulating fresh air dries mold spores, slowing their growth and reproduction.

Mildew Removal Tip #5: Call us if you have any questions.

It can be very difficult to determine what is simple mildew and what is more serious mold contamination that could affect your family’s health. Our certified mold removal specialists are trained and experienced. They can help you make the determination and potentially save you a lot of health problems if your property has been contaminated with harmful black mold spores.

Water Removal

So, your basement is flooded (or flooding!). You need help. You’ve come to the right place. First, you’ll need to cautiously stop the water leak and fix the source of the problem. Call a licensed plumber if you’re unsure of what to do or if the fix is beyond your basic skill level. It probably is, so don’t take chances. Once that is taken care of, water removal is next.

Water Removal Tip #1: Call a professional. (Use a commercial water extraction unit.)

As much as we’d love it if the Home Depot sold an industrial-strength shop vac that could suck water through carpet and pad, through a 70 foot hose and out to the street or into a 500 gallon storage tank, it probably wouldn’t work for the average consumer. Small dogs, children and personal effects would go missing every time we turned it on.

A commercial water extraction unit is your flooded basement’s worst nightmare. It makes water removal a snap (well, relatively speaking). These units are heavy and come in specialized vans or box trucks. You’ll want one of these after it’s done cleaning water damage, you just won’t want to see the price tag.

Water Removal Tip #2: A portable water extraction unit is the next-best alternative.

Portable water removal machines are the nearest relative of truck-mounted water extraction units. These are heavy but do a very good job of cleaning water damage. They come with wheels and their own water storage tank. They have to be emptied more frequently, which makes them less attractive for industry professionals used to doing big water damage restoration jobs. However, they can reach those out-of-the-way places that may be difficult to reach with hoses and a truck-mounted system.

Water Removal Tip #3: Lift the carpet and throw out that wet pad.

It’s not going to dry. Water removal techniques and equipment aside, if you have wet carpet, you have wet pad. That water resistant coating you paid extra for is only going to keep the water in longer. So throw that carpet pad away and replace it after the carpet is dry. It might cost a few bucks but trust us, you’ll be glad you did it.