How to Restore your Home after Stormwater Damage

Stormwater damage is flood damage that can pose a unique problem given its composition of water and outdoor components including rubbish, debris, compost and materials stuck in the gutters of properties. Within 2019 in Melbourne, the eastern suburbs have experienced severe thunderstorms that have delivered large hailstones and heavy rain, resulting in property damage and indoor flooding. Storm water damage can enter your home or property in more than one way, with the most common way being as a result of a blocked gutter. The gutters around the roofing of your property are built to drain water effectively in a particular direction, so as to protect the property from rain infiltrating the structures and leaking inside. Unfortunately from time to time they can get block and filled with debris including rubbish that has blown away, mud that is growing plant material and leaves following the season of Autumn. As the build up grows so does the gutters’ inability to effectively move water away from the structures of your building. When it rains, the gutters can’t move the water away from the property meaning that it finds its way through the structures in your property and eventually floods indoors.

There are a number of ways to properly restore your property following an unexpected indoor flooding after a thunderstorm. We’ll guide you through this process in detail and show you how our professional staff at Kleen-Tech have been restoring properties all across Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs following an indoor flooding.

How did the Stormwater Enter My Property?

The very first step in restoring your property or home after stormwater flooding is to identify how and where the water infiltrated the structures of the building. Our team at Kleen-Tech have been doing this for over 20 years and have found water entering a premises from the ceilings or windows. If there is a leak in the roof, the water will slowly enter the property and create a pool of water. Once the pressure builds up, this pool of water will become heavier and heavier, putting pressure on the ceiling structures. If there is a crack or a break given this pressure the water will easily fall to the room below and begin flooding the area. If you have carpets, tiles or timber flooring, the water will slowly infiltrate these layers and start embedding itself into the flooring underlay and the walls in the room. Another way that stormwater enters a property is through the windows. Sometimes if the windows aren’t properly sealed or left slightly open, water from a heavy thunderstorm will flow through quite easily and consistently resulting in further indoor flooding and damage. Although this can be prevented by ensuring all windows are adequately sealed and closed before leaving a property accidents can happen. This is why here at Kleen-Tech we offer a 24/7 solution with guaranteed 1 hour dispatch, to commence restoration works as soon as possible to return your property to pre-loss condition.

Another way stormwater can infiltrate your property is by flooding from the garden and the driveway into the walls and basement. With this stormwater comes contamination given its composition of outside materials including oil, compost, rubbish, animal material, plant material and anything that has been washed up in the flooding and entered your home. The best way to deal with any sort of stormwater indoor flooding is to follow the steps below. With the aid of a professional flood restoration specialist, you can restore your property back to pre-loss condition in no time and ensure the least amount of stress and financial burden.

What to do After Stormwater Flooding

1. If there is minimal water saturation on the flooring in a small area, we recommend using a towel to remove excess water as much as you can, interchanging between more towels as the previous one becomes fully saturated. Following this, we recommend hiring air blowers and dehumidifiers to fully dry the carpet or flooring and remove moisture from the air to prevent the chances of mould developing
2. If there is a high level of water saturation across a larger area in your property we highly recommend phoning a flood damage specialist in your local area
3. In the meantime, remove items in the flooded area that have not been affected yet to prevent further damage
4. Keep the room and affected area cool and avoid putting heaters on
5. The flood damage specialists will find the source of flooding and repair the leak immediately
6. They will then attend to the carpets or flooring and assess the water saturation and commence drying
7. They may lift the carpets and floorboards to first dry the underlay and underlying structures that have been damaged from water. This is to prevent mildew and mould in the future
8. All affected areas will be appropriately sanitised to ensure no contamination and to prevent the spread of unwanted materials in your home
9. The flood damage specialists will dry the carpets, re stretch them and relay them in your property
10. All carpets will be deep steam cleaned to ensure a fresh finish to your property and to sanitise the carpets from any unwanted materials that have travelled from outside your home inside with the stormwater

Summary

If there is only a small patch of flooding and water damage with superficial or light water saturation, towel dry the area and keep the room well ventilated with cool air only. Allow the area to dry and if need be, hire air blowers and dehumidifiers to ensure all moisture has been removed from the stormwater damaged carpets and the air. If there is a large area in your property that has been damaged by water, we recommend calling a professional flood damage specialist to get the job done.

Here at Kleen-Tech we’ve seen it all when it comes to all types of flood damage across Melbourne and all surrounding suburbs. By assessing whether there is superficial or high water saturation, we begin the best course of action immediately to prevent further water damage in your property. Give us a call any time of the day, any day of the year on 1300 30 50 30. To check out some of out recent projects and flood damage restoration works, head to our Recent Projects page to see how we’ve restored properties all across Melbourne.