Water Damage In Buildings
Causes Of Dampness At Home
It can be very disruptive and distressing whenever home owners or office staff experience the trauma and inconvenience of water damage in their property. As you can imagine, it is particularly distressing when occurs at home. A number of things can cause a house to be flooded such as burst water pipes, botched roof repairs, broken shower plumbing, damaged domestic appliance such as washing machines or dishwashers, and also by a bath or toilet leaking. A broken or split sewage pipe clean up can become hazardous and unpleasant and usually needs expert clean up services.
The process of reinstatement of a water damaged property may include mould removal, the need for drying a wet carpet, rug or laminate floor. Before any clean up, there is usually a need to trace and access the source of the water leak itself, before it can start to be repaired. Specialist restoration companies are highly proficient in all aspects of water leak detection using modern equipment and are able to tackle all aspects of water leak detection, flood damage and associated clean up and building restoration.
Water damage due to water leaks are common and most of us have experienced a burst pipe or the need for home repairs due to water leaks. In the UK, frozen pipes bursting in the spring is very common though most know that insulation and lagging can help prevent this happening. Most homes are covered by house building insurance policies and insurance loss adjusters will quickly assess and check water damage claims. They will appoint a building restoration company and are generally quick to react and start the repair and clean up process. Some restoration companies that tackle insurance reinstatement projects are favoured by insurance companies as they are more proficient than others, so be prepared to be have a respected and trusted building reinstatement company recommended to you. Property owners are usually quite agreeable to this as they are more likely to get claims processed quickly and have their property reinstated sooner.
Damp & Moisture Inspection
Once the source of the leak is located and fully repaired, a thorough inspection of the property can be carried out. Pockets of water may still present within the fabric of the building itself and they are Discovered using special systems such as an inspection camera or testing with a damp meter. They may also be damp on walls that are not visible or noticed until tested and moisture may have soaked into insulation materials. This could lead to penetrating damp problems later on, if they are undetected. All sorts of problems could result and these would not be covered by insurance unless they are detected and reported at the time of the insurance reinstatement claim. Dampness in building fabric can also be the root cause of black mould and even fungus. This may be, especially the case if undetected moisture remains in dry, dark spaces between floors or in damp cavity walls which contain absorbent insulation materials. The best advice in these cases is to ensure that a thorough inspection is carried our after any water damage repair project is completed.
If residual moisture is detected at this stage it will be included in the insurance claim repairs. If not, you could run a significant risk of subsequent insurance claims being rejected. The building restoration contractor will be able to advise the property owner on the best way to ensure total water removal through the thorough drying or stripping out the affected areas and reinstating these back to their original condition. The restoration company will probably use a variety of drying technologies including dehumidifiers and industrial drying equipment to ensure that all penetrating moisture is removed before deciding on any final damp treatment.
How Paradigm Can Help
Based in Central Scotland, Paradigm Reinstatements is one of the UK’s leading water leak detection and damp repair companies with a wide range of cutting edge expertise and equipment and damp proofing services. Paradigm are one of the top “go to” building reinstatement companies appointed by many of the UK’s leading insurance companies.
