What to Do When Your House Floods?

Nobody likes the dreaded sight of their household flooded and their furniture floating about around the house. If you live in an area prone to water floods, you need to get flood insurance protection for your home. A home could get flooded due to external events, like extreme weather or plumbing failures.
No matter what the water source is, you must take immediate steps to protect your family, prevent health hazards, save your home, and recoup as much of the cost of repairs as possible. The basics of what to do after your house floods include the following:

• Stopping the water at its source
• Turning off the electricity
• Evacuating the premises
• Documenting the damage
• Calling your insurance company
• Remove the water from your home
• Cleaning up to prevent further damage from mold

You need to take action immediately and get to the problem’s root cause to safeguard yourself and your house from water damage. So, here is what you must do after your house floods.

1.Stop the Water at Its Source

Unless an act of nature has caused a flood in your home, you must find the source of the water and then quickly turn it off or seal it up completely. The easiest way to go about stopping the water flow in your house is to turn off the main valve of the home’s water supply. If it’s possible, you should locate the valve before it floods so that you can easily find it in case of a water damage emergency in the future.

2.Turning Off the Electricity

Once you’ve stopped the source of the water, the next thing on your agenda should be to turn off all electrical systems in your home. However, be careful here, and don’t start walking through the water to get to the fuse box. If you find that you can’t reach the fuse box without stepping through water, you should call an electrician.

3.Evacuate the Premises

If the flood was caused by a burst pipe or a sewage leak, you need to evacuate the premises and find a dry and safe spot outside your home. It may be as close as your backyard or as far as the home of a friend or neighbor. You need to make sure that everyone, including your kids, pets, and friends who may have been at the house, is accounted for and unhurt.
In a natural disaster, you will need to find a temporary shelter by asking the authorities or listening to the local news. You should get everyone relocated to the shelter as soon as possible.

4.Documenting the Damage

Once everyone is off the premises of your flooded home, you should then start taking pictures and recording videos that capture the extent of the damage caused to your home. This photographic and video evidence will help you out in your insurance claim since you will have recorded proof of the water damage. Make sure that you start recording from the moment you reenter the house and take pictures of the water source.
Don’t remove anything out of the water as yet since you need everything in its proper position. The insurance company will get a clear picture of the events leading up to the water damage.

5.Calling Your Insurance Company

Once you’ve documented the damage and evacuated everyone from the premises, it is now time to get in touch with the local authorities and your insurance company. So, get on the phone with your insurance company and inform them that your house has suffered from water damage. Ensure that you clarify whether you need to wait for an adjuster to visit your home before you can start the cleanup and repair processes.

6.Remove the Water from Your Home

Removing the standing water from your home should be a fairly routine and simple task, especially if you have stopped the water from the source. You will need to get your hands on a sump pump so that you can accurately and easily start the water removal process. Ensure that you are wearing the appropriate protective gear when you’re working to remove the water from your house. You must always assume that the water is contaminated and may contain dangerous toxins in it that could be harmful to you.

7.Start the Cleanup Process to Prevent Damage from Mold

You need to be determined in the cleaning up process because it will be a long and arduous task that will require your full concentration. You must remove water from the house and salvage any personal items you can, dry out the space, and disinfect the area or objects that have come into contact with the water.

Mold is a huge problem after a house flood, and to prevent that, you will need to act fast to dry up your home. Toxic or black mold can have serious consequences for your health, which is why you shouldn’t leave anything up to chance. To avoid mold problems, you will need to keep areas that flooded as dry as possible, and if you think that you’re too late, you should call in a mold inspector to check the house.

Be vigilant and prepared for house floods as they are more common than you would think, and taking the appropriate steps ensures that you don’t suffer extensive water damage in your home.