Better Understanding Yakima Water Damage Recovery

4/10/2023 (Permalink)

SERVPRO's advanced drying equipment mitigates water damage in Yakima area properties. "Like it never even happened."

SERVPRO Cleans and Dries Water Damage

With hundreds of causes and triggers of water disasters in homes and businesses, ranging from broken appliances to burst pipes and flooding, these emergencies are the most common for restoration professionals to be dispatched to help. Our SERVPRO professionals recognize the urgency of these situations, making a prompt response critical in the embodiment of our motto. We're Faster To Any Size Disaster.

Yakima is the Heart of Central Washington and the 11th largest city in the state. With a population nearing 100,000, the threats of various types of water damage occur frequently. Educated technicians on our roster have multiple accreditations to help in this restoration niche, including Water Restoration (WRT), Applied Structural Drying (ASD), and Microbial Remediation (AMRT.)

What Are Emergency Services?

A professional can take action before much of the restoration work begins, allowing a more streamlined cleaning and recovery of the house. Emergency services, as they are called, prioritize overcoming pressing issues in the residence that can lead to costlier or more time-consuming damage to the rest of the structure. This cleaning often precedes the in-depth inspection and assessment of the property to create a detailed restoration plan and estimation. Some emergency services can include:

• Content Relocation
• Water Removal
• Structural and Utility Repairs
• Controlled Demolition
• Mold Prevention

The Tools of Water Removal

The first type of water damage our responding team will likely encounter is standing water throughout the structure. Extraction involves a combination of pumps and vacuums, but the greatest versatility comes with submersible pumps and wet vacuums in our inventory.

How Can SERVPRO Thoroughly Dry?

To overcome water damage in its many forms throughout a structure, SERVPRO professionals must have an effective strategy to dry and clean impacted surfaces. This begins with tools like air movers positioned at 45-degree angles to the wet material to provide a wider effective zone of evaporation. Our IICRC-Certified professionals must also resolve trapped moisture, including drilling weep holes, using positive pressure systems, and employing drying mats on plank flooring.

The Main Principles of Complete Drying

When creating the ideal conditions for efficient and effective water damage drying, specific principles must be modified and routinely monitored to produce the fastest and most complete results. The three primary factors of drying include:

• Airflow – Air movers are the chief ingredient in the appropriate application of this drying principle. Using high-velocity blowers, these units promote steady airflow across moist surfaces to dry up surface water.
• Temperature – Manipulating the temperature of a room or impacted surfaces can change how effective and efficient drying can be. Warming a surface being dried causes the chemical evaporation process to occur faster. Similarly, increasing the room's temperature allows for a greater moisture volume possible in the environment.
• Humidity – Moisture in the environment can impact the drying process. High relative humidity slows evaporation, so it is necessary to implement dehumidification tools to regulate moisture.

Will Repairs Be Necessary?

Saturation and absorption are no friends to your home's building materials, and as water becomes trapped in drywall, flooring, and other construction elements, deterioration and degradation can result. Inspections and assessments determine the salvageability of impacted surfaces, and it is common for some repairs and reconstruction to be necessary. Our general contractor license ensures that when this action is needed, we have capable professionals available to produce results and limit overall restoration times.

Yakima water damage can become destructive and threatening to homes and businesses. With the experience of WRT-Certified technicians on our roster, you can count on SERVPRO of Yakima to help when disasters strike. Call us at (509) 972-6707.