Water Clean-up Atlanta: Process 2

Disaster Restoration Masters

In this is the next segment of the flooded house water cleanup in Atlanta. In this one, we're going to be continuing some more looking at the actual cleanup process some of the washing and sanitizing aspects. I get a number of questions related to the exterior wall of the home and generally what we will find is that the exterior wall can't well dry because there's enough once the wall is opened up. There's enough exposure both on the inside and outside to adequately dry it but there are some things that you will want to take a look at.

If we're looking at a brick facing on a home, we want to make sure that the weep holes are open so that the water is draining out of that wall cavity, making sure that we've got airflow there to help with the drying of that brick facing. If we're going with a stucco facing on a house we'll need to be opening up that wall cavity on the inside. Again, making sure that we've got good airflow so that were drying both the inside and outside of that stucco surface. We also have a COVID-19 biohazard cleaning service we provide in Many cities including Minneapolis were we are based. The top right

picture shows a wall with siding lap siding and then we have a fiberboard a thing, sometimes referred to as buffalo board and it'll really require a little more investigation with this one to determine whether that buffalo board is still intact and again by opening the inside removing the insulation. Now have airflow on both sides that may or may not be able to be salvaged in the bottom. In the left picture, it really shows that with most of our homes we have a sheathing surface that the outside siding or whatever is applied against and that cheating really will dry typically because of our vinyl siding. Our steel sliding the lap siding all allow a fair amount of airflow through them to allow for that drying process to take place so you really need to open the wall take a look at it but frequently what we will expect is that outside wall will dry down and we will not have to actually take that part of the wall apart.

When we're looking at the electrical parts of our home, all of the electrical fixtures switch outlets circuit breakers submerged in the flood water will need to be replaced. Electric motors will need to be professionally reconditioned as I indicated earlier the mud and debris get in there and becomes an electrical hazard. It may affect the life of that motor as well, so we really need to determine is it worth having someone professionally recondition it or do I just get a new motor with the electrical wiring, it'll depend on the type of wire that is used and we will really need to consult an electrician or an electrical inspector. Have determined whether that needs to be replaced or not so with all of these we

really need to have an electrician or electrical inspector involved. As we start doing the refurbishing of the electrical system with photographs and other valuable materials generally, with photos if they are wet what's best is to put them into a plastic bag and freeze them. If we can put some wax paper between the layers that will stop any of the
deterioration and then we can do the water damage restoration cleanup later. Important papers typically will end up musty and moldy so we probably need to photocopy them and once they're dry and then discard the originals CDs/DVDs generally, they can be rinsed and cleaned up with water.

Dried crawlspaces are kind of a special area that we need to look at because most of the homes should have a poly or

plastic, on that kind of floor in the crawlspace but many of them do not we're going to have a very saturated environment. In that crawl space that needs to be dried out and we need to remove the plastic. If it is there remove

other things that might be in the crawl space and then we need to dry it as rapidly as we can and what works best

for that is ventilation moving air, through the crawl space we recommend putting a fan facing to the outdoors so

we're pulling air in through one side and then the fan is forcing the air out. Another side we want to vacuum in that

crawl space because if we put positive pressure in there if we face the fan blowing into the crawl space it'll push

any air through plumbing openings or other openings up into the living space and contaminate that. We don't want

that so we want the vacuum. We want the suction by blowing the fans of the outdoors and that then allows us to very

effectively dry that soil it'll take a long time for the soil to dry but that is how we will dry that area. Once we get

it all dry then, we put the plastic back on the soil once we have everything opened up they have all of the debris removed.

Then we look at flood cleaning structure and the recommendation is to use water and flush all of the non-porous surfaces. Some type of sprayer is shown in that top picture really works quite well too, to flush off all of the larger mud and debris. Once we've got it flushed off then, we come in and actually use a detergent to scrub off the surface and really what's my command that is a two bucket system, one that has detergent in it and then a second one that it's

the rinse bucket. So when we get done scrubbing, we rinse out our mop or our rags or whatever we're using in the

rinse bucket until it's clean. Then we go into the detergent bucket and back to the cleaning surface and we'll have

to change the water in that rinse bucket frequently, as we're removing the dirt and cleaning the surface. They really

recommend a phosphate soap or detergent be used because of phosphate detergent can leave a film on the

surface that mold will grow readily on, so we prefer a non-phosphate type detergent. Once we've got the surface,

all scrubbed down then the recommendation is to rinse with clean water then finally if we're looking at non-porous surfaces. So if we're looking at a hard surface such as concrete in a basement, we can sanitize that other non-porous surfaces. We can sanitize wood but we cannot treat.

There are very few products available for trying to sanitize or treat wood, but we're looking at hard and non-porous surfaces. With any of the sanitizing that we're doing, we hear a lot about using bleach or using other BETT biocides as part of the process of cleaning up flood damage at home, but it's very important that we make sure that we use those products according to the label. There will be on that bottle, a label that gives all of the information and that really is the law these are registered products and it's important that we use them according to that label. Most of the products that we're going to have available to us just about all of the products are not effective at doing disinfecting on porous material. So again, when we're looking at that wood studs. We're looking at wall plywood that we really can't sanitize, but what we're looking at is hard non-porous surfaces but it's important that the biocide go on to a clean surface. Most all of the biocides are neutralized and become ineffective if they are applied to organic material so we shouldn't use a biocide.

When we first come into a home, we only do the bio side on a clean surface and they'll specify a required exposure time. Most of these bio sides are hazardous materials, so it's important that we use our personal protective equipment. They require that the area be ventilated and some of the typical or common biocides that are available are alcohol sodium hypochlorite or chlorine bleach hydrogen peroxide iodine quaternary ammonium chloride and synthesized phenolic compounds and so there are a number of products available but generally, what we're talking about is bleach and as I indicated we need to follow the label on bleach it only is for non-porous hard materials and surfaces so concrete glass metal. So if we're working with on our appliances etc. that's where we will use the chlorine bleach. We need to use personal protective equipment gloves and goggles. The area needs to be ventilated because the hole or the gas that's given off from the bleach is a hazardous gas can cause lung irritation, so we need adequate ventilation. You'll need to look at the bottle, to see what the recommended dosages or solution strength is, but typically it'll be three-quarters of a cup of bleach per gallon of water. We need to apply enough of it to keep as wet for five minutes because bleach is corrosive. We won't need to then rinse that surface off and then dry it and so though.

Why we would use chlorine bleach? Again, it is on appliances could be used on concrete but not on structural wood

since biocides are considered a disinfectant and our pesticide. They are a regulated material and anything that carries a designation. A disinfectant has to be registered with EPA and will carry an EPA registration number. It as they get that number or that registration, they need the document to EPA that indeed their product works and if you're trying to determine, this product indeed a registered product or not in addition to looking actually on the label you can go to the AG department website, that is listed here on the site. On the slide, AG department command they'll actually link to our water damage Atlanta website servicerestorationga.com/water-damage-atlanta and all of the products that are registered in Atlanta are listed there. Their labels all of the

information that you would need if you have somebody else applying the disinfectant. In your building, it's important to make sure that they are certified and have had the training to apply that chemical and in Atlanta, they would

be certified under the home and industrial category.

So that brings us to the end of this segment looking at the flood house restoration cleanup series and the final segment will be related to drying flooded home out the home, which is probably as important as all of the other steps that we have already talked about.