How To Handle Water Damage That Spans Multiple Floors

9/25/2019 (Permalink)

Water damage on ceiling

If you have sewer damage from an overflowing toilet in your building in St. Charles, MO, the immediate area may not be the only cause for concern. This is especially true if the restroom in question is not on the ground floor. Sewer water can seep into the floor and wall of the restroom and then work its way down into the ceiling and the walls of the floors below. If the flood is large enough, every lower level can be affected. This changes the cleanup process for sewage remediation experts in several ways, which also changes the rate at which they are able to complete the mitigation.

Assessment

With most sewage problems, the issue is localized in one area of the building. When you have a flooded toilet on an upper level, however, it can spread to a large portion of the floors beneath it:

• Inside walls, including insulation
  
• Through ceilings, including light fixtures
  
• On wall surfaces, including wallpaper or paint treatments
  
  

All of the sewer damage must be found and included in the initial assessment. You want technicians to be as thorough as possible so that you have a realistic itemized list to present to your insurance company.

Removal

The other step that is complicated for the sewage company in a multiple-floor job is the removal of damaged material. Although there may be multiple floors involved, they may have to work on one floor at a time to maintain the structural integrity of the building. They will likely start with the area that has the most damage. Then they can work quickly through the other areas to tear out material before it has the chance to start to grow mold. Once all the affected material is gone in an area, they can start to clean and rebuild the structure.
Sewer damage involves multiple steps to clean up anyway, but the process gets a little more complicated when it spreads to other floors. Calling restoration professionals quickly when you know there's a problem is key to making the process go as smoothly as possible.