Commercial Water Damage - office

4/3/2019 (Permalink)

This photo shows the drywall and insulation that was removed during our work at this building.

This commercial water damage had a water heater that leaked over the weekend.  When the tenants came in to work on Monday, boy did they have a surprise!  Many of the offices were water damaged in this office space.

There was water to extract, wet drywall to remove and dry, wet insulation to remove and glue down carpeting over concrete flooring for us to dry.  There were many of the tenant's contents that were also affected.  We blocked the feet to the wet furniture to limit the damage to their contents.  All furniture survived the water damage with no repairs needed.

Our team work quickly to get the tenant's space back up and running in a short amount of time.

The landlord and the tenants were very happy with how quickly we responded to the loss and how quickly we were able to get all of our work completed.

Air Movers are Essential to Drying

7/19/2018 (Permalink)

This is a photo of a velo air mover.

Air movers are an essential and necessary tool for drying structures of homes.  Air movers help move large amounts of air over surfaces to dry them. Air movers also help the dehuidifiers work to their optimum performance.

There are a number of different air movers that can be utilized depending on the size of the job: velo air movers, shara air movers, ace air movers and vortes or axial air movers.

Velo air movers are low-profile air movers that can be used to get to hard to reach areas and a great way to assist in the drying of wet carpeting. 

Sahara air movers are great for drying carpets and directing air upwards to helping with drying ceilings. 

One of the most common air movers that SERVPRO of Hanover, Goochland & Caroline uses is the ace fan.  These air movers are great for directing large amounts of air either forward, upward, downward and use little power(lower amperage). 

The last type of air mover that we use is the vortex air mover or axial air mover.  This air mover works great for crawlspaces.  They are very effective at creating negative pressure and pushing humid air out of a space.

Air movers work great when paired with dehumidifiers.  The air mover can move the hot dry air over the wet surface you are trying to dry.  Without use of air movers being used throughout the  drying process it would delay our crews who are drying the structure.

Hardwood Floor Drying

7/18/2018 (Permalink)

We added this valuable drying capability to our business to help our customers avoid costly wood floor replacement.

Hardwood floors used to be one of the hardest types of floor covering to dry once wet.  The moisture would get trapped between the layers and under the hardwood boards, felt paper and subflooring. Not too long ago the normal practice was to remove the hardwood floors. 

SERVPRO of Hanover, Goochland & Caroline has been very successful in drying sand-on-site hardwood floors with the use of the Dri-Eaz Rescue Mat System in conjunction with dehumidification.  This system goes directly on the floors and pulls the moisture up from between the boards.

“The Dri-Eaz Rescue Mat System is used along with the Dri-Eaz DriForce high pressure blower to deliver effective drying to the full depth of water damaged wood floors, even to the sub-flooring. This system utilizes sturdy, self-sealing mats and the Dri-Force air mover to draw evaporated moisture from deep inside the material thru the surface, replacing it with drier air.” (source: Dri-Eaz Rescue Mat Manual)

The key to successful hardwood floor drying is to start the drying process as quickly as possible.  This allows the moisture to be removed before the hardwood floors start to cup, crown or buckle.  Even if you do notice slight cupping or buckling the rescue mat system may still be able to dry the floors and cause them to settle back down. 

If drying is successful but the floors remain cupped, then sanding and re-finishing may be necessary to restore the hardwood flooring to preloss condition.

Proper Drying with Dehumidifiers

5/10/2018 (Permalink)

For successful drying, make sure you use proper drying equipment, like a dehumidifier.

Proper water damage equipment placement is key to successful drying of any structure.  there are many types of dehumidifiers. The different types of dehumidifiers we use are:

1. Refrigerant Dehumidifiers
2. Desiccant Dehumidifiers.

These dehumidifiers remove moisture from the air at different rates and use different process to remove the moisture from the air and water damaged building materials.  The goal of a dehumidifier is to efficiently aid in the drying process by removing the excess moisture and humidity associate with water damage. dehumidifiers are key to our success.  we service our equipment frequently to ensure proper performance.  If your equipment is not working properly, your drying job will take longer.  We want to dry jobs efficiently and be able to give the customer their home/business back to normal as quickly as possible. 

If you experience a water damage, make sure you call the professionals.  SERVPRO of Hanover, Goochland & Caroline are here to make it "Like it never even happened." 

Specialty Drying Equipment - Heater

5/10/2018 (Permalink)

The heater is a cost effective way to dry out bound water.

SERVPRO of Hanover, Goochland & Caroline uses the most up-to-date drying equipment.  The most effective piece of equipment to dry crawlspaces and bound water is a drying heater. 

This piece of specialty drying equipment is placed on drying jobs where uses for other equipment is limited and when it is too cold to use other forms of drying.  We monitor this heater daily and make sure it is working to its optimum performance.  They drying heater is placed on the outside of the structure being dried.  A tube is inserted under the structure to dry the wet wooden framing.  Some air movers may be needed to circulate the warm dry air to the specific area requiring the drying. 

The drying heater is a very cost effective way to quickly return water damaged building materials to their dry standard.