<p>When a flood causes water to get into your home, it can cause a lot of immediate problems.<br />
Making your home habitable again, claiming on your home insurance and replacing any important things that were damaged or destroyed are the first priorities,<br />
and then you&#8217;ll probably be thinking about redecorating or working to flood proof your home for the future.<br />
Unfortunately, what a lot of people don&#8217;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,<br />
and these can&#8217;t usually be avoided just by the initial clean up work most people do.<br />
Here we take a look at how flooding can cause damaging effects in the medium to long term, if the right action isn&#8217;t taken.</p>
<h2>Threats to Your Home&#8217;s Structure</h2>
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One of the most worrying effects flood damage can have is causing the deterioration of materials used in your home&#8217;s structure over time.<br />
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.<br />
These can cause the home to become unsafe, and can seriously reduce its value too.</p>
<h2>Damage to Appliances</h2>
<p>We&#8217;re all taught from an early age that water and electricity don&#8217;t mix, so it&#8217;s no surprise that another serious problem after flooding can be faults with electrical appliances.<br />
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.<br />
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.</p>
<h2>Mold</h2>
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Where there is moisture, mold will begin to grow. It can be very difficult to thoroughly dry out certain types of material,<br />
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.<br />
Drying out the water absorbed by anything like this as quickly and as thoroughly as possible is crucial,<br />
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&#8217;re not looking for it.<br />
If you&#8217;re in doubt, get a professional water damage restoration company to advise you.<br />
You should take mold issues seriously because not only can it make your home very unpleasant to live in and reduce the property&#8217;s value,<br />
but it can also be toxic and cause severe allergic reactions in both people and pets.<br />
By being aware of the things that could go wrong with your home long term as a result of flooding,<br />
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.<br />
Get advice from your insurer and from experts in the field of flood and water damage where you need to, and don&#8217;t cut corners – your home&#8217;s value and your family&#8217;s health and safety are too important!</p>
<h5>Featured images:</h5>
<p><span class="license">License: Creative Commons</span><br />
<span class="source">image source</span><br />
<span class="license">License: Creative Commons</span> <span class="source">image source</span><br />
<span class="license">License: Creative Commons</span> <span class="source">image source</span><br />
Today&#8217;s guest post is contributed by Eidur Johanson, a handyman by profession.<br />
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.</p>

How The Long Term Effects Of A Flood In Your Home Can Damage Your Family's Health
