Daytona Beach’s Flood Damage Crew Talks About Containing Hazardous Substances
8/3/2018 (Permalink)
Storms and Flooding Can Contaminate Homes in the Daytona Beach Area
If the living area of your house gets wet after the next storm strikes the Daytona Beach region, the water coming in from the outside could be contaminated. Bacteria and pollutants that exist outdoors can get into the water that comes inside due to a flood. Whenever excessive moisture affects a building, restoration professionals put the problem into a category based on how contaminated the water is. When the source of a water leak is clean water, it is considered a category one damage and is called clear water. Flood water is not considered clear. Water that leaks from a sink drain or comes into a home from the outside is not drinkable and is considered category 2 or grey water and may contain some level of contaminants. If a sewage line breaks or muddy water from the outside comes into a structure, then it is considered a category three situation and is called black water.
Any time you notice things inside your residence are wet after a storm, you are dealing with either grey rainwater or black water. When arriving at any flood damage job in Daytona Beach, our SERVPRO technicians immediately test the contamination level of the water that entered the building. If the water is considered black, then different procedures get taken to ensure the safety of the workers during the water removal and cleanup services.
In all cases of black water damage and some cases when grey water affects your contents and building materials, a containment chamber gets set up around the affected area. Building containment helps to keep in any hazardous substances so that they do not spread to unaffected areas of your house. These chambers also protect our SERVPRO technicians and any other occupants from exposure to contaminants.
Containing affected areas also helps manage airflow from clean to contaminated regions. According to industry professionals, the three types of containment are the source, local, and full scale. Source containment only gets isolated in the area close to the source of the damage. Local or mini containment blocks off a specific section of your home. Full-scale containment is when the air is contaminated in the entire house, and the whole building has to get contained. When this happens, an air scrubber is often set up to clean harmful particles out of the air.
If your residence ever floods after a storm, it is best to call our SERVPRO team right away. The longer contaminated grey or black water stays in your building materials and contents the worse the problems can get. Call SERVPRO of South Daytona Beach / Port Orange at (386) 788-0358 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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