Flood Damage Cleaning: How to Restore a Business Premises After Water Damage

Flood damage can be devastating, whether it is a one-off Act of God, or a repeated event due to your commercial business being in a vulnerable location. Either way, emergency plans are not always as comprehensive as they should be and faced with considerable water damage, it can be hard to know where to start. At CSA Cleaning we know that dealing with flood damage goes far beyond the kind of normal cleaning processes and experiences you will be used to, and requires specialist knowledge and equipment. 

The first thing you should do is get in touch with a professional cleaning services provider who has experience of dealing with flood damage. After that, the clean-up process requires a multi-step procedure and a series of specialist disciplines. Flood damage can have serious structural implications, or can be relatively minor, but here we have outlined the key stages you need to consider and prepare for: 

Immediate assessment

An immediate assessment of the property should be carried out with extreme caution, but essentially you are attempting to establish the severity of the damage. This should involve: 

• Check for structural damage to the property 

• When safe, turn off all utilities, such as water, gas and electricity 

• Secure the property to avoid people going in and out for the time being, and to prevent other people coming to the property 

• Document the damage with photos and written evidence for insurance purposes, before any work is undertaken. Your insurance company may send a loss adjustor down to inspect the damage before any clean-up work can be approved. 

Water extraction

Once it is safe, you need to remove all the water to prevent any further damage. This will involve using specialist equipment such as pumps and water vacuums. 

Removing debris

You will have no control over the silt and debris that enters your property via flood water, and there may be a few nasty surprises. You may even need to shovel silt out if there is a large volume. But all solid debris needs to be removed before you can start any kind of clean-up, so use all means necessary to do this. A pressure washer on flooring and all hard surfaces will definitely be useful.  

Drying the property 

Once all standing water and debris has been removed you can start to dry the property. This could be a long process. You should have opened the doors and windows as soon as you first surveyed the flood damage, but only now will this have any effect. If necessary, you may need to use some industrial fans and dehumidifiers to accelerate the drying in affected areas. All the moisture extracted should be disposed of carefully, bearing in mind it will be dirty and contaminated.  

Cleaning the property

Once the property is properly dry you can finally start to clean it. You should start by throwing away anything that is ruined, such as carpets or other furnishings, and then thoroughly clean and disinfect all areas with meticulous attention to detail. Disinfection is necessary to prevent mould growth and to eliminate any unseen contaminants from the flood waters. It would be a good idea to steam clean all carpets and any other upholsteries, such as chair covers, sofas and curtains.   

Restoration of the property

Now you have a blank canvas to work with and can start to restore the property and finally get it back to its pre-damage state. This might require structural work or re-plastering walls that have been damaged, or replacing flooring. You may need to redecorate in order to fully restore the property too. 

Professional support with cleaning-up flood damage from CSA Cleaning

If your property is in a flood plain or is vulnerable to flooding in any way, then you need to be fully prepared. You can prevent the worst effects of a flood, and also have an emergency plan for how to react should the worst happen. It is recommended to get guidance from professional cleaning companies on the above processes, and at CSA Cleaning we can access the specialist equipment and apply the required processes to restore your property as soon as possible after a flood. So contact our team at CSA Cleaning today.