Category Archives: Flood Damage

Floods strike fast and they leave a trail of damage to homes and businesses in their wake. You can’t always completely mitigate the damage a flood is going to cause, but being well prepared is the best way to minimise the damage it can cause to your property. Here are 3 more ways to protect your home or business from flooding.

1: Raise Outdoor Fuel Tanks

If you have an oil tank outside of your home or business, make sure they are placed well above historic flood levels and that they are anchored securely. The same should be done for any outdoor equipment you have such as backup generators or your office’s air conditioning system. If they are below the flood level and not anchored securely enough, there is a risk of them breaking free. Not only will you use your tanks and equipment, but they can cause a serious amount of damage to your property and others.

2: Inspect Window & Door Seals

Ground floor entryways and windows below flood level need to be extremely secure if they are going to have any chance of battling the pressures that flood waters can throw at them. Inspect the seals of your doors and windows. If you find any cracks or deformities in the seal, then replace them in a timely manner. It may be too late to do so by the time a flood warning is given.

3: Make Sure Drains Are Clear

Keeping your outdoor drains clear might sound like an obvious way to protect your home or business from flooding, but it can be easy to forget about if there is a panic about floods. You should also check them at intervals throughout the day, heavy winds usually accompany flooding and they can cause branches to break off and other debris to clog your drains.

To keep your home or business protected from flooding this year make sure to raise and anchor all fuel tanks and outdoor equipment above the flood level if possible, inspect your window and door seals for damage and replace them if necessary, and make sure you keep your outdoor drains clear. However even if you take all of the precautions it’s not always possible to defend your property from flood damage. If you need an expert, insurance approved flood company contact us at Advance Maintenance Ltd today.

Now that Autumn is here, we are quickly approaching flood season. If you’re home or business is on a floodplain, knowing how you can protect them and what you can do to be prepared to minimise flood damage can be vital. Here are 3 ways to protect your home or business from flooding.

Safeguard Your Electrical System

One of the most damaging things a flood can do is short out your entire electrical system, which in some cases can lead to the entire house needing to be rewired or an electrical fire in the non flooded areas of the building. To avoid this, you should have your sockets, switches, fuse boxes and circuit breakers raised to at least a foot above the expected flood water level. This might seem like a lot of work but you’re in an area that commonly floods, it will pay for itself over and over again.

Create A Flood Kit

Getting prepared for a flood with a flood kit that’s filled with all of the essentials you need can be a huge benefit. You should fill the kit with insurance documents, bank account details, birth certificates, tax returns, ID’s, a first aid kit, bottled water, non perishable food and waterproof clothing and the details of your, insurance provider approved, flood damage repair company. While your flood kit may not stop your home or business being damaged initially by the flood, it can help you get back in action much quicker and prevent ongoing damage by giving you the ability to contact a flood damage repair company immediately as well as easing some of your worries in an already stressful time.

Find Out How To Turn Off Your Gas & Electricity

Before you evacuate the building due to flooding, it’s important to ensure that your supply of gas and electricity is turned off to reduce the likelihood of fires if a gas pipe is ruptured or your electrical system is shorted out. Your landlord or gas/electricity suppliers should be able to tell how to do it safely and where the switches and valves are located. Knowing how to do this in advance will make it much easier for you when it comes time to turn them off, especially if it’s a flash flooding situation. If they aren’t clearly marked, then label them so it’s easy to locate them in an emergency situation.

Protect your home or business from flood damage by raising electrical sockets, switches, fuse boxes and circuit breakers well above the regular height of flooding, create a flood kit so you can react quickly and know in advance how to turn your electricity and gas supply off in a hurry.

If you’re unlucky and have to deal with flooding, you need a flood damage repair company you can trust. Call Advance Maintenance Ltd today on 021-4866-133 and we will be with you as soon as possible to mitigate the damage and get you back up on your feet.

If your home or business gets flooded, it can be an extremely trying time. The whole situation is extremely stressful, but you have to act fast and call in a professional flood damage repair company as soon as possible. The quicker you are able to find a suitable company and they can get started on their work, the better. The longer it takes them to get onsite the greater the overall extent of the damage and the higher your repair bill will be. Here are 2 tips for choosing the best flood damage repair company to help mitigate the damage.

1: Experience With Insurance Policies

Flood damage can be very costly if you are forced to foot the entire bill yourself, but many homes and businesses around Ireland are covered by their insurance in the event of a flood. When selecting a flood damage repair company, make sure that your insurance company recognises and approves them before they begin any work. If they aren’t approved by your insurer and your policy covers flood damage, keep searching until you find a company that’s the right fit. The company you select should also have extensive experience in dealing with insurance companies and policies so that they can help you through the whole process as it can be complicated, especially when you are new to it.

2: Choose A Company That Acts Fast

In the event of a flood, every minute that goes by without any action being taken causes more and more damage. You should always choose a company that is willing to act fast, immediately if possible. If you make contact with a company and they say it will take a few days or a week, move on to the next company as that will be too late to stop the majority of the damage. A fast response is always a crucial component when attempting to mitigate flood damage.

When choosing the best flood damage repair company to help you, ensure they are approved by your insurance company, have a lot of experience dealing with claims and know how to accelerate the process. Also, you should always choose a flood damage repair company that responds quickly to minimise the amount of damage caused.

If your home or business has been flooded and you need help, contact Advance Maintenance immediately by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-486-6133.

When dealing with flood damage repair it’s always best to call in the professionals. However there are several ways in which you can help yourself in the mean time. In this article I will discuss how you can limit the damage of floods that have already occurred and how you can prepare yourself against future ones.

1:Create A Flood File:

Firstly you should create a file which lists all of your belongings that have been damaged or destroyed by the flood. This is particularly helpful when dealing with insurance companies as they will request a dossier before they do their own assessments. Pictures of all your possessions in all of your rooms should be in this file to further speed things up. This file should be kept in a watertight container so the documents themselves won’t be damaged in the event of a flood.

2: Turn Off The Electricity:

If the flood has already happened it’s very important that you get your electricity turned off. Water and electricity are a dangerous mix and not taking preventive actions could cause a very serious accident.

3: Remove The Water

Your next step is to try and remove as much of the flood water as possible. This can be done in many ways such as a pump or a wet vacuum. If there is too much water for you to do this with you may need to call the professionals in to make use of our hydraulic pumps as they do the job more efficiently.

4: Start The Cleanup Operation

Once you have all of the flood water removed you need to take action against mould and mildew. They thrive in damp conditions and can wreak havoc on your property if not stopped early. To do this you should scrub the floors and walls with warm soapy water with a scrubbing brush and rinse over everything when you are done. Then spray mildewcide or disinfectant over the affected areas. If mildew takes hold it can cause serious health problems such as respiratory issues so it must be stopped at all costs. If there is any moisture left in the walls or the air it will grow like wildfire, so to avoid this you need a dehumidifier to dry out the air and also keeping the windows open to air it out isn’t a bad idea.

5: Call The Professionals:

If you want to be sure that all of this is done correctly it’s probably best to call an expert to come to your property as flood damage can get out of hand very quickly and it can feel like an impossible task to rescue your property. Acting fast is paramount with flood damage and we have all the necessary resources and tools to help you get back to where you were before the flood.

Regardless of the region you live in, flood damage can be a serious concern. Broken dams, hurricanes, levees and large-scale rainstorms are all capable of flooding your home or building. If you are fortunate enough not to live in a region where natural disasters as well as man-made disasters are paramount, a leaky pipe or a broken water heater can still flood your home.

If and when your home or building gets flooded, you ought to act as fast as you can to dry out the building and effectively alleviate any destruction that has occurred.

How Do You Dry Out A Flooded Home?

First and foremost, you should lower the humidity in the home. This action will help your home dry out faster and it greatly reduces the risk of rot and mildew growth. Another action is opening all door and all windows and effectively reduce humidity in the home, you should only open windows and doors when it is more humid inside than it is outside.

However at night you shouldn’t open doors and windows, the humidity outdoors drops and to keep it from seeping back into your home during night time, keep all your doors and windows closed. Another way to reduce humidity in your home is by hiring a flood damage repair company that will come with an industrial humidifier to dry out your home .

A professional flood damage repair company such as AMLTD will open up cabinets, closet doors etc and use a humidifier together with a desiccant which is an approved chemical that greatly minimizes the humidity in your home. After having taken the right precautionary steps to effectively reduce humidity in your home, the next step is sorting out your belongings and determining which can and should be salvaged.
Mould and Mildew

This should be the next order of business as you tackle flood damage. Mould and mildew is capable of piling up rather quickly and the more it piles the higher the chances of contracting health problems.

Mould and Mildew can grow extremely fast and therefore it is necessary that you should call in a professional flood damage repair company who will humidify and carry out room to room inspections to ascertain that the mould and mildew are capped and to stop them from growing and expanding.

You are advised to also go from one room to the next with a disinfectant once the humidification is done. The disinfectant will effectively kill any germs that maybe lurking and it effectively removes any odours that might have been left behind by the flood water.

Once you are done with cleaning your home, it might be necessary that you should embark on repairs or rebuilding any parts of the home that might have caved after the flood .

Professionals like AMLTD also provide a full flood damage restoration service.