How Should We Handle Contaminated Materials After Flood Damage Incidents in Mahopac?

8/25/2020 (Permalink)

Flood damage can result anywhere in your home. Call the professionals at SERVPRO today for remediation assistance.

SERVPRO Helps in Evaluation and Restoration of Affected Properties Removing All Traces of Contamination.

Contamination of surfaces and materials is a common phenomenon after flooding incidents. Knowing how to deal with contamination is necessary to restore sanitary conditions at your home. SERVPRO helps with cleanup and removal of contaminated materials from Mahopac properties. 

How far does contamination spread in the flooded property? 

To remove contaminants after flood damage affects your Mahopac home, you need to know where to look. Although you can assume all soiled areas are contaminated, dangerous materials can spread further within your property. Common interest areas when investigating contamination include: 

• The indoor air where particulate matter might accumulate 
• Areas in the house where water stagnates 
• Sections deteriorated materials than might release dangerous substances 

Since contaminants like bacteria, viruses, and other microbes, as well as dangerous chemicals, are difficult to identify through physical observation, you need a way to confirm which sections are contaminated. Even when decontaminating the entire property, confirmation is necessary after the process to establish that the effort was sufficient. 

Our SERVPRO technicians use different approaches to confirm what kind of contaminants are present in your property. For instance, we use a tool such as a Luminometer to test stagnant water or surfaces for traces of organic contamination.  We can also rely on our training to identify areas within the house that might contain harmful materials such as asbestos. Some typical sections of a house might contain asbestos which can be released during flooding include: 

• System insulation around ducts, tanks or boilers 
• Unique surface finishes such as textured paint coats  
• Floor materials such as flooring felt and joint compounds such as sheetrock mud 

Is there a decontamination solution that removes all types of contaminants? 

Contamination is a complex issue that requires separate processes to resolve. The needs change on a case by case basis, so there is no single solution for all contamination-related problems.  Some of the actions necessary to eliminate contaminants include: 

• Stopping biological processes such as microbial growth 
• Physical removal of contaminated materials 
• Chemical action 
• Standard cleaning  

When our SERVPRO technicians discover organic contaminants such as bacteria or other microbes which continue developing if left undisturbed, we look for ways to limit or stop such growth. Antimicrobial products such as germicides, virucides, fungicides, or disinfectants help stop such growth. We combine such intervention with conventional cleaning processes to help remove all traces of the contaminants.  

Sometimes, mechanical intervention is the only way out of a contamination situation, especially when there are porous materials involved.  Items such as carpets, pad, and drywall readily absorb floodwaters accumulating high levels of contaminants. Physical removal of such porous materials helps eliminate all traces of the harmful materials flooding introduces into the house. Our technicians also handle the menial work involved in such removals, including cutting carpet seams, making flood cuts on walls, or slicing pads into small pieces for convenient disposal. 

Does decontamination provide satisfactory outcomes in the long term? 

Since the harmful materials introduced by floodwaters into your house can pose serious health problems, you might be concerned about the effectiveness of the decontamination efforts. Since our goal is to resolve the issues caused by the incident, “Like it never even happened,” our SERVPRO technicians take several steps to guarantee a positive outcome whether you consider the short term and long-term state of the house. The main factors that help include: 

• Use of EPA-registered products 

The standards established by the EPA require that products meet the absolute minimums to be registered. The use of such products guarantees that the expected outcome is achieved. 

• Ensuring physical contact with all affected materials and surfaces 

When decontaminating your flooded property, our technicians apply generous amounts of cleaning products to ensure there is the necessary physical contact that destroys harmful materials. 

• Following product labels 

Manufacturers provide instructions on the best set of conditions for using products when they release them into the market. Our technicians follow such instructions to the letter during mixing and application to ensure maximum efficiency. 

• Observing dwell-time, pH and temperature requirements 

The effectiveness of the best decontamination agents can be diminished if external factors such as the temperature, pH levels of the cleaning solutions, and dwell-time provided are not appropriately regulated. Our technicians make careful considerations when mixing and applying the products to ensure minimal interference.  

If a flood has contaminated your Carmel, Southeast, or Kent, property heavily, call SERVPRO of Putnam County to help with cleanup and other restoration processes. You can reach us at (845) 228-1090, at any time. We’re Faster To Any Size Disaster.