When a flood causes water to get into your home, it can cause a lot of immediate problems.
Making your home habitable again, claiming on your home insurance and replacing any important things that were damaged or destroyed are the first priorities,
and then you’ll probably be thinking about redecorating or working to flood proof your home for the future.
Unfortunately, what a lot of people don’t realize is that there can be long term effects on your home after a flood that can have a serious impact on your health,
and these can’t usually be avoided just by the initial clean up work most people do.
Here we take a look at how flooding can cause damaging effects in the medium to long term, if the right action isn’t taken.
Threats to Your Home’s Structure
One of the most worrying effects flood damage can have is causing the deterioration of materials used in your home’s structure over time.
Once water gets into certain materials it can be hard to remove, and can cause serious rot or corrosion that may not be instantly apparent.
These can cause the home to become unsafe, and can seriously reduce its value too.
Damage to Appliances
We’re all taught from an early age that water and electricity don’t mix, so it’s no surprise that another serious problem after flooding can be faults with electrical appliances.
Even if the appliances seem to work fine, there could be water inside that will cause issues at a later date, and this can be disastrous, even resulting in electrocution.
It is important to have any electrical appliances that may have been affected by the flood checked over professionally unless you are planning to dispose of them safely.
Mold
Where there is moisture, mold will begin to grow. It can be very difficult to thoroughly dry out certain types of material,
so mold can become a problem in your carpets, furniture, wallpaper and other important parts of your home that you may not think you need to replace.
Drying out the water absorbed by anything like this as quickly and as thoroughly as possible is crucial,
and you will want to keep an eye out for damp and mold even after this – it can often get into hard to reach areas where you may not spot it if you’re not looking for it.
If you’re in doubt, get a professional water damage restoration company to advise you.
You should take mold issues seriously because not only can it make your home very unpleasant to live in and reduce the property’s value,
but it can also be toxic and cause severe allergic reactions in both people and pets.
By being aware of the things that could go wrong with your home long term as a result of flooding,
you can take action to try and return your home to its safe, healthy state as part of your recovery strategy after the storms have passed.
Get advice from your insurer and from experts in the field of flood and water damage where you need to, and don’t cut corners – your home’s value and your family’s health and safety are too important!
Featured images:
License: Creative Commons
image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
Today’s guest post is contributed by Eidur Johanson, a handyman by profession.
He has faced the damaging effects of flood and has learnt some useful lessons from it. In this article, he has talked about some of the important points in this article.