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History of Flood Damage Restoration

by Ritch Paprocki on October 24, 2010 at 11:30 am

HISTORY OF FLOOD DAMAGE RESTORATION

The Good Old Days
The history of flood damage restoration is an interesting one.  Back in the mid 1980’s I worked as a restoration technician for ServiceMaster.  On water and flood damaged homes, one of the first things we did was cut out and remove the wet carpet.  We would transport the carpet to a warehouse and hang it over a large rack and “dry” it.  And yes, we brought it back and had it reinstalled in your home…with a few more seams.

Wet carpet pad would always be disposed and wet drywall or base trim was usually left to air dry.  We didn’t use a single moisture meter or piece of moisture testing equipment.  We used our eyes and hands to determine how damaged something was and if it could be salvaged.

Restoration equipment such as dehumidifiers and fans were very basic and used sparingly.  Within a couple of days a 50 pint dehumidifier and a few fans dried everything that had been flood damaged.
Moisture meters eventually allowed restorers to identify more flood damaged materials and remove them.  But fans and dehumidifiers were mostly unchanged. If you removed everything that was wet, drying out a wet basement wasn’t real difficult.

Flood Damage Restoration Today
Today, the advancements in the flood damage restoration industry is inspiring.  Robust moisture meters allow us to detect water in places we couldn’t even access in the past.  Structural drying has become a true science and almost an art form. 

Restorers have the ability to predict from the beginning of the restoration project which materials can be saved, which will have to be removed and how long it should take to accomplish.  We can actually prove that a flooded home has been thoroughly dried and document actual moisture content.

Dehumidifiers and fans are continuously improved, allowing them to evaporate more water in less time.  Restorers can dry almost any material that is structurally damaged by water and surgically remove those that are. 

The end result of this constant evolution is that flood damaged homes are restored more quickly, for less money and with higher customer satisfaction levels.