What Happens When Water Gets Trapped in Wall Systems?

7/22/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO Can Provide Advanced Detection Devices along with Skilled Technicians and Contractors to Restore Your Water-Damaged Brooklyn Residence

When materials become saturated in your Brooklyn home, there are several strategies to dry and repair these compromised areas.

Migrating water losses after a disaster can be highly damaging to Brooklyn homes and apartments. Because much of your plumbing has gotten installed within wall systems for aesthetic reasons, a breach in this network could severely impact structural cavities as well as the surface layers nearby. Many threats exist when water becomes trapped in these wall and ceiling systems, including deterioration, microbial growth, and access to spread to other areas of the property.

Regarding water removal for Brooklyn properties

There are multiple tools and devices ideal for addressing traditional standing water concerns throughout the house. When it comes to more complex conditions like trapped moisture, this removal effort requires more sophisticated approaches. Wall systems can quickly absorb migrating loss effects, making it vital to begin restorative efforts as soon as possible.

How Bad is the Damage?

It can often be wise to begin the restoration and recovery processes with an assessment of the damaged areas to determine the severity of the situation. With water losses, detection devices are often required to get the proper perspective on the areas in question. Careful inspections of these areas can help identify where moisture pockets and dampness exist beyond the surface. We can then deploy the appropriate drying techniques to protect exposed wall system elements like drywall, insulation, or framework. Moisture detection devices include:

• Thermal Imagery
• Surface Moisture Meters
• Probing Detection Tools 

Is Controlled Demolition Necessary?

With a team of in-house contractors that can work alongside our SERVPRO technicians on-site, we can offer real-time emergency services that can protect more of your property. One of these initial actions that our general contractors can take is controlled demolition. There are many distinct advantages to choosing this approach to being drying and recovery efforts in your home. These include:

• Ease of Access to Damaged Areas - By removing portions of damaged materials from the affected areas in your house, we can have a direct access point to broken pipes and other causes of the water damage trapped in the walls. 
• Removal of Deteriorating Materials – The action of controlled demolition is a benefit to the property itself. Deterioration and moisture damage can spread throughout sensitive surfaces drywall quickly and continually, making the removal of compromised materials vital. 
• More Efficient Drying – Openings in the interior wall systems can provide greater access to moisture and dampness tracked with our detection tools for drying with air movers and other evaporative equipment. 

What Drying Solutions Should Begin?

Drying is always going to be a fundamental practice of returning your water-damaged property to its original conditions. There are many tools and devices that play a role in this process. To appropriately dry out wall systems, provisions must first get made. Controlled demolition can provide access for drying equipment like our low-profile air movers, while holes drilled behind the removed baseboard of drywall surfaces can provide entry points for focused blasts of heated air. While there are dozens of tools and pieces of equipment ideal for addressing surface and trapped moisture concerns, we often choose a combination of:

• Positive Pressure Systems
• Wet Vacuums 
• Centrifugal Air Movers
• Desiccant Dehumidifiers 

How Can SERVPRO Make it “Like it never even happened."?

Repairs and reconstruction are often necessary to return your property to preloss condition, and this requires a fast transition between mitigation and these structural requirements. Initially, our contractors can work to provide your home with repairs to areas like breached plumbing and other pressing repairs. Replacing damaged sections of pipe or compromised fixtures can allow water service to get restored to your home and mitigation to continue.

Reinstallation of discarded materials is also a pressing need after mitigation completes, and our contractors can seamlessly transition to this phase of recovery when they are able. With careful, controlled demolition, reconstruction should often be more efficient than full-scale build back. Between replacing insulation and missing pieces of drywall to patching the holes made to use our positive pressure system, we can improve the look and feel of your property after a water loss incident 

Disasters do not wait for convenient times to strike, meaning that you should respond and react to these emergencies as promptly as possible. Our SERVPRO of Northwest Brooklyn team has cutting-edge tools and technology to restore your home or business. We can often reach your home within hours of the first call that you make to our emergency staffed line at (718) 522-4400.