When Do You Need a Home Restoration?
Homeowners are now aware that their properties can have potential damages if a flood goes inside their homes during a storm. Sometimes, it can take days before signs of water damage can show themselves. Others are more obvious, and some may not be evident until a specific time.
One of the best ways to detect water damage is to get a professional inspection for your home. The experts from companies like SuperiorHomeRestoration.com can give you sound advice on when you need to do a home restoration and how you could go about it. With this said, some of the factors that may help you decide whether this is the right time for a home restoration or not are the following:
When to Call the Experts for Home Restoration?
- Obvious Signs of Discoloration
Discoloration on the ceilings and walls is evident, but you should also look for signs in the corners. Peeling of paint may be apparent in places that are near your pipes. Regardless of the area where you found the discoloration, they can essentially point out areas where water damage is evident.
Stains tend to look darker than the beige paint you applied a year ago. You can see that there are darker yellows, browns, greens, and oranges on the walls. As the water begins to evaporate, some of the salts and minerals are left behind. They result in the unattractive discoloration that you may find inside your basement or first floor.
- Strange Smells and New Odors
You may have left your clothes inside the washing machine for a long time, especially when the 15-minute cycle is over. The problem is that rather than the floral detergent that you’ve put inside your appliance, you’re smelling something musky and strange. This is the odor when the moisture is not removed soon enough, and it’s left to cultivate and sit for more extended periods. This is where molds thrive, and moisture inside the basement can be an ideal breeding ground for the spores.
The presence of water and lower humidity levels are some of the perfect conditions for bacteria to grow. You may have washed everything, but unfortunately, the strange odor can still linger for days. This is where you need to remove the excess water to remove the smell. Read more about the smell of mold on this site here.
- Warped Floors
The start of the process of warping in your floors is something that you can feel and see. Subfloors made of wood and which were exposed to water will be one of the factors that will start the warping. Others may show warning signs depending on the kind of materials that you’ve used.
In some cases, the wooden floors will expand and break away from their foundation. They become soggier and will start to sink if you’re not careful. Others begin to rise like tents or buckle up. If you feel like you’re already walking on uneven ground, you need to check and see if there are layers of moisture trapped between the floors. The ground beneath it can harbor moisture, and it’s best if you detect it early to apply treatment and save the planks.
- Bubbling or Peeling Walls
Bubbling and peeling are similar to discoloration and warped floors. With walls where moisture is present, they tend to peel or appear bubbly. The walls’ paint becomes discolored and soft to the touch.
This discovery can be dangerous. There’s obviously excess moisture inside the house, and you may need to do restoration with the help of the experts as soon as possible. The humidity inside the walls may mean that their foundations are compromised.
After a flood, you may want to check out the walls and their sturdiness because they can break the baseboards or disintegrate when you least expect them to. When the leak has remained out of sight for long, you may have to do major renovations, and everything can be costlier.
- Standing Water and Puddles
Puddles and standing water should be drained as fast as possible. Check if your air conditioner, water heater, fridge, washing machine, and other appliances at home have leaks. If you notice puddles of water in your fridge, the pipes may have been damaged after a recent storm. You should see a collection of standing water inside your home, and this can cause mold growth and damage to nearby appliances.
You need to check the crawl spaces, attics, and basements as well. In your vents or crawl space, know that these areas are where the wires and pipes are usually located. If there’s standing water, it can cause electrocution and other damages. You need to call the professionals as soon as possible for jobs involving water removal, electricity, and HVAC appliances.
- Growth of Mold
Mold loves moisture, and the spores can breed on anything wet. It’s common for many homes to get mold one way or the other, and they are not that bad when they have a controlled presence. However, excess growth can cause allergies and sneezing, and they are usually bad for the health of all the occupants inside the house. For the first signs of mold growth to treat it right away before it becomes severe.
Frequent exposures to damp environments can be harmful to one’s health. There’s always irritation to the skin, throat, nose, and eyes that can appear unexpectedly. There’s also the damp indoors that can trigger symptoms of asthma and infection of the upper respiratory tract.
If you see that there’s excess mold growing inside your home, it can be an issue of too much moisture. Try to locate the places where the growth is too much and call a professional to fix the root issue and eliminate the mold once and for all.
- Floods in the Basements
One of the bigger symptoms of water damage is flooding inside your basement. It would be best if you were equipped with downspouts and gutters to send the heavy rainfall away. If not, they can collect inside your house. Some homeowners install sump pumps to help them get the flood in control.
Check the house’s exteriors and look if there are signs of cracks or leaks. A basement can flood for various reasons, ensuring that it has enough waterproofing and the appliances and other things stored in it are safe and protected.
