What Happens if Some of the Water from a Leak or Spill Is Not Removed from My Lenexa Property?

10/11/2020 (Permalink)

Let SERVPRO Experts Follow the Water -- Complete Removal from Lenexa Homes Delivers the Best Outcomes

Life is busy, and disruptions to your routine are hard to manage, but when water invades your Lenexa home for whatever reason, you need to take action. Water is an incredibly destructive force to building materials and the contents of your home. It also can be silent in its "invasion," seemingly draining away and improperly considered no longer a problem.

When the Water Disappears, Can I Stop Worrying About Harm to My Home?

The importance of completing water removal in your Lenexa home cannot be overstated. Ignoring the question, "where did the water go?" sets you up for a broad range of significant problems that far outweigh the expense and temporary inconvenience of dealing with the initial water issues promptly and comprehensively. Our crews pursue rigorous training through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), an international restoration industry standard-setting organization. A critical focus during the training involves learning a range of strategies to follow the pathways water takes deep into your home's structural components.

Can I Let Nature Take Its Course and Wait for the Wet Materials to Dry on Their Own?

Some spaces in buildings, including your home, seem to bounce back from a water emergency in Lenexa well, but it is still smart to have the SERVPRO team take a look to ensure all the water spilling and spreading is appropriately managed and removed. For example, a kitchen or bathroom often has a theoretically waterproof floor, typically constructed of ceramic tile or other resilient floor covering. The tile and sealed grout is intended to contain water in a space where it is expected to splash and puddle because of the room's function. Unfortunately, all it takes is an eroding sealer or cracks in the grout to start and build a water damage problem. Over time and certainly after a substantial water intrusion like a water heater or a supply line rupture, the small imperfections can result in:

• Saturation of the subfloor
• Weakening of floor joists
• Further breaks in the grout as the underlying materials swell and distort, causing the tiles to dislodge
• Dripping onto building materials below the affected room -- ceilings and walls show bulging and staining, and can risk collapse
• Mold growth and damage

How Do Professionals Follow the Migration of Water?

The ceramic tile example above is just one of many we see when responding to water loss concerns. You might think you are ahead of and "mopped up" the problem. Then the hardwood floor under the leaky radiator or the open window where the rain blew in begins to distort, "cupping" from the continuous wicking of moisture from the wet plywood beneath. The dishwasher leak seems resolved, but then a musty odor will not relent because of mold growing under nearby cabinets holding water behind their toe kicks. A slow leak in a pipe enclosed by walls eventually destroys the insulation inside and dissolves the gypsum board from the backing out. These situations are just the iceberg's tip, so how do we discover the water causing this destruction?

• Infrared Imaging

Our crews have technicians skilled in interpreting the temperature fluctuations shown by infrared cameras. These professionals can pinpoint hidden caches of water and areas heavily saturated with water without tearing out walls or floors first.

• Moisture Detectors

Sensitive tools use probes to locate moisture in building materials. Our technicians test many areas to draw a map of the water intrusion. This thorough detection is crucial as we use techniques to mitigate or halt continuing migration. It also focuses our workers on the areas that need water removal and structural drying.

• Moisture Meters

Moisture meters determine the levels of absorbed water in various structural components. We also test unaffected structures in your home to provide a "goal" to achieve, because nearly all structural materials have a normal moisture content level.  The readings offer data needed when we complete the removal of liquid water and move into the drying phase. We want the materials dried to the appropriate level when balancing the data to avoid secondary damage like mold, but not overdried, which causes other damage.

The trained, experienced, and well-equipped crews from SERVPRO of Olathe / Lenexa and SERVPRO of Blue Valley are expert water migration detectives, relentless in removing water and lingering moisture wherever it hides. Get your home back to "Like it never even happened." Call (913) 782-4693 24/7/365.