Whether your business or home has been flooded due to plumbing problems, backed-up sewage lines, burst pipes, or defective roofs, preparing to prevent water damage can help you mitigate damages. The following guide will help you deal with the damage, restore your business, and prevent problems from getting worse:
Understand How to Identify Water Damage
There is a difference in the way a professional restoration deals with water in a commercial setting. If a pipe in a home bursts and water spreads throughout an entire structure, a plumber can quickly deal with it, and you can begin restoring the damage. However, when a tube in a large office building bursts, water damage can occur quickly, and often before anyone knows it. Therefore, you are going to need to evaluate the cause of the problem and find the source of the water. Sometimes, there might be multiple sources of water damage and different areas of the commercial property that need to be restored.
Take Inventory to Limit Further Damage
Water damage is a huge problem for anyone who owns commercial property. Water damage can ruin furniture, drywall, carpeting, equipment, and more. An important step in dealing with the damage is to take an inventory of everything that was affected by the water before doing anything else. This will help you evaluate the situation and determine the amount of loss so that your insurance claims are properly filed. This can also help you save some of the materials and limit further damage to your business due to problems with water.
Notify Your Insurance Company
When you find out that your commercial property has been flooded, the first thing to do is to contact your insurance company. While there are other things that you need to do to assess the damages and losses, the first step should be contacting your insurer. The quicker you contact them, the faster you can start making claims and get started with the repairs.
Taking Action to Deal with the Damage
Dealing with water damage to your business is not something any owner or manager wants to deal with. However, it is important to act quickly and effectively to minimize the damage and begin dealing with the cleanup. First, locate what is causing the water damage, and then repair the issue that is causing water to get into your business. You can then begin the water removal process so you can start cleaning. It is also important to move equipment and inventory that has not been affected to a safe, dry place. You can also start ventilating the space if possible to help dry things out quicker.
Be proactive with notifying your insurance company because you don't want to be liable for any unnecessary expenses or possible structural damage because of the water damage. For more information about commercial water damage restoration, contact a local company.
