Disaster Restoration Masters

If you take a look here, there's quite a bit of dirt on the floor and you could tell that the disaster of floodwater has come up into some of the cabinets and even the dishwasher, so before you start doing any work with the food and the utensils you really have to clean up. Quite a bit any of the sinks and the food contact surface areas and the floors. Now, what you need to remember is your sanitizer will not be effective, as long as there is quite a bit of dirt. The first thing to do is to clean up the dirt very good because this would tend, otherwise to bind the sanitizer and you would not get a killing effect with such a sense of loss. One of the things that people might tend to do is to try to save as much food, as possible and we really don't want to encourage this, because of a lot the food may be contaminated and the rule of thumb being food safety is, if in doubt throw it out and all the food that was in here that came in contact with floodwaters have been dumped, just throw it away and it doesn't attempt to save it and follow any cleaning, whatever you could see.The potatoes here, that have come in touch with floodwaters and some tomatoes, and some open containers of different things flour and sugar. All of this that had come in contact with flood water has to be thrown away and this cupboard had food and did not come in contact with the floodwater. It did not come up that high however, some of the foods are in open containers and since we have to assume the flood water had sewage in it. Some microbesare carried through the air and anything that thought in an open container should be thrown away, even products that were partially opened. Even if the safety is not seriously compromised and the quality is already has deteriorated quite a bit and you don't want to eat this product. We found out that the floodwater had gone into the dishwasher and the dishwasher was full one thing and you want to check out. Before starting your dishwasher, make sure that the water service has been restored and the sewage system is running. Now everything that was in here has touched the floodwater, so it needs either to be thrown away or disinfected things made of rubber plastic and wood. This item cannot be sanitized effectively because of the microbes, hide in small pores. In there, things like this have to be thrown away and again, wood, plastic rubber, and dishes with severe cracks in them are all the other items and things that can be taken apart and need to be taken apart. All the othershave to be washed in clean hot water with detergent. Again, they need to be sanitized by following the guidelinesthat we talked about before that and that is putting in a solution of liquid chlorine, two tablespoons of liquid chlorinesolution per gallon of water and then, you do not dry these with a cloth. 

I'm Kenneth Hellevang agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service and this is the third segment of our five-segment on water damage restoration house cleanup presentations. This segment is going to be on really how do I go in and clean up the flood contaminated materials the sequence of steps that we are going to be looking at is first, to clean out or remove the water. To remove the contents, take out the mud muck and the remaining water and remove the wall materials sealing. Whatever is been contaminated, washed down the structure and sanitize the areas that need to be sanitized or can be sanitized and ventilated and dry the structure.So these are the sequence of things that you need to do as part of your flood cleanup. If we have water in the basement it's very important that we remove that water very slowly because not only is there going to be water in the basement but there will be water in the soil, outside the basement and if we were to rapidly remove the water within the basement. Now we would have the pressure of the water outside the basement, pushing against the wall pushing against the floor and there wouldn't be any pressure within the basement to help or support that wall. The wall tends to cave in or the floor pop up, so what is recommended is to pump out a couple of feet of water from the basement let it sit for at least 24 hours and see if the water level has increased. If it has it indicates that water is likely coming from the soil through the drainage system and into the house and then we would remove another couple feet of water and continue that process until we have drained the soil.Outside the house, as well as the basement and this will be a process that might take several days to water the soil as well as the basement but it's critical that we go through this step-by-step process, so we don't damage the basement wall when we're doing water damage restoration or cleanup of water-damaged materials. We really look to a standard and reference guide developed by the Institute of inspection cleaning and restoration as our guide and it gives us detailed steps and what we need to do, to make sure that we clean this structure up so that when we're done we have a healthy home to live in. When we're looking at flood contaminated water again, remember we're looking at that category three water that has contained sewage and other things that we may or may not be in that water. So anything that is absorbent needs to just be disposed of.When we're talking about stuff furniture for example ceiling tile,  drywall, sheetrock paper, and all the things that can absorb water really need to be physically removed and disposed of as we're doing that process. Again, we need to continue to look at the structural materials to see if there's physical water damage and what the extent of contamination is because many reveal things that we didn't see during our initial examination. As we're taking the things out of the home this is the sequence that is typically recommended. First off, make sure that we're airing out the structure so that we don't have contaminated air in that in the basement or in the flooded home and then start with the smaller objects, then next take the larger objects to follow that by the appliances and it says your tape door shut. If we're looking at freezers or refrigerators, raiders, in particular, that may have had food and things left in them during the flood they're going to have a very foul or odor and so we want to make sure that we keep that door shut so that, we're not dealing with that odor. As we remove the appliance, all the carpet needs to be cut and taken out in pieces it's going to be saturated and very heavy and so we're trying to take it out and easy to carry pieces. Then we start going in and removing items from closets and cabinets. This sequence will help us to make sure that we're not stumbling over things or tripping on things, as we're going through that water damage cleanup procedure. If we're looking at the flooded clean up carpet, it needs to be discarded as I indicated flood water is considered category three and the carpet the cushion all of that needs to be discarded, we can't clean it if you happen to be in a home where we just had basement seepage had you know very very clean water. We didn't have overland water coming in that we probably can clean with hot water extraction but I caution you in doing so because we can remove the biological contamination using this process, but if it's been wet and damp and we had mold growth on the carpet that we can't remove with the hot water extraction or any type of cleaning. If it's a moldy carpet, it needs to go out even if it was only clean water or slightly contaminated water that was on it so it's critical that we think of not only the biological contamination but the mold contamination. The other thing with floors it's important to think about thestructural support underneath, whatever floor covering we have. If water got underneath the vinyl got underneath the other materials.  We need to clean and disinfect that area and dry it as well and this slide really shows that a little more clearly that with a floor we have several layers of material and many times you know even if we are using vinyl or ceramic tile, the tile itself may be non-porous but if water got underneath the tile and we ended up with saturated subfloor or underlayment. We need to remove the tile and remove the vinyl to make sure that we're able to thoroughly clean and dry out that subfloor material. As we're moving all of this material from a home we don't want to just pile it out on the curb this is what the street looked like in Grand Forks in 1997. The drywall sheetrock generally, will need to be removed. Again we're looking at it both from a mold standpoint as well as the flooded water standpoint. If it's strictly flooded water typically, the water will wake up about two feet above wherever the water level was, but you really need to examine closely what that wallboard looks like. The insulationwill need to be removed paneling typically, needs to be removed because it will become misformed or warped one its wet and as part of that clean-out the process. We need to be removing the fasteners, as well because they'll needto be removed before we do any rebuilding. Once we have everything removed, then we will be looking at sweeping down the surfaces before we get into the cleaning process.So that brings us to the end of the first part of looking at the actual flood cleanup process and then will step in the next section and talk about the rest of the flood cleanup process or ways, washing that needs to be done the sanitizing and then in the last section, we'll look at building dry out.

A pair of safety glasses are important to protect your eyes and some leather gloves early on. As you go into the house,there's a couple of potential hazards, in addition to some of the structural hazards, that we talked about mold and other biological diseases from the flood water and that's actually been in the house. A pair of nitrile gloves, these are a little more heavy-duty in the typical latex and they're more chemical resistant, so a pair of a box of these are important. If you just wear these and you start getting into some construction type material, these will tear with nails fairly and easily, so the best thing to do is to put on a pair of nitriles, then you can take the leather gloves. Once you protect from nails and other debris, actually put it over the top of the nitriles and then you're doubly protected so that's really the best way to get started with preparations.Another thing that's important to have, it's a mask or respirator and here, you can buy these at local hardware stores and they left stereo cartridges. They're usually organic vapor cartridges, but those are work to keep and some of theparticulate matter in the mold which can be. As we said, a health concern that keeps you healthy and as you're working this type of environment is okay. A hard hat especially, when you get into tearing down walls to avoid headinjuries. Hard hats another thing, that can be useful and well, we've got a couple of different pry bars. Here, one that's a little bit smaller and one that's more of a wrecking bar. Here for pulling out and helping to pull up walls, so those areuseful tools as well Amber's can be used for various things and of course, those are fairly standard. In some cases, thesledgehammer can be used, but you have to be careful especially with a plaster.The last system like this, we just start swinging at walls and all that lap is connected to them and to the studs and it'llactually potentially do some disaster damage to the studs. If you just best and our hidden away with a sledgehammer, so make sure you open up the wall first and use that carefully, so you don't do any structural damage to the house. I've got a shovel here and we use for scooping up debris and smaller shovels are useful, as well this is a utility knife. It's helpful with cutting up the carpet and usually saturates very heavily difficult to move. So cutting carpet up into pieces can be useful with a utility knife. A rate can be fairly useful for raking up and very large debris, and before you get, stay dry and use a broom to sweep up. Some of the smaller debris have a low rate, from the users and as well then in. In areas, we're trying to move the flooded water and mud a squeegee like this and this can be useful as well, especially in basements and that be helpful generator is a useful tool to run fans and other electrical equipment like lights in the basement and this is a handy tool to use if you're in an urban environment and sometimes, you can get a temporary electrical hook-up, but again be careful before hooking up all electrical outlets and everything, because that can be dangerous in this type of an environment. 

This is Kenneth Hellevang of an agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service and we're looking at a series of clips on cleaning a water damage restoration in house and this is the final of five video clips in the series. This one is on drying the structure, it's very important that we focus on drying the structure because that's what's going to prevent any mold growth in the future and mold remediation. As we found in the earlier presentations is indeed a health hazard and we don't want that mold in our home or it'll start causing us respiratory problems in the future so the structural drying is a critical step in the cleaning a water damage restoration for structural drying to occur, we need to open all of the enclosed areas so we're talking opening. Opening the walls if we have the floor even if it's vinyl and we got water underneath. We need to open them up, so that we can dry and this drying may take just several days or it may take weeks it'll depend on the drying conditions or how much airflow that we have gone through.The structure shown here is two different pictures of homes that are in the flood drying cleanup process and I want to show the house. On the left there, you can see the white discoloration that is on the brick facing and that's because moisture is coming through the concrete, we have this effort for the essence of moisture that comes through and as I indicated in the earlier slide the critical that we make sure that the weep holes are open so that the water drains out and then we need airflow both on the inside of the structure and on the outside to facilitate. That drawing on the picture on the right that moisture is showing up has a darkened color and again it's indicating moisture is coming from the structure and if you look closely you can even see that there's moisture inside the house and there will be condensation issues on the windows. If we're not getting that moisture, removed from the home and if we don't keep the humidity level low enough that's going to lead to mold growth for certain and probably structure as deterioration as well. The drying process really involves circulating air across those surfaces we need to get them opened up. We need to get airflow blowing against that surface to aid in the drying process and then we need to make sure that the air that we're moving across the structure is dry air. The way that we do that is to bring outside air in that's dry and it picks up moisture from within the house and then we exhaust that to the outdoors and what we recommend is that you put a fan in the window facing out again so that we're drawing the air into the house and in blowing the air to the outdoors to get a good suction created. Within that, we can remove gallons of water a day with moving outdoor air through the house where most of our home dehumidifiers are going to be taking out pints of water per day. So once we start getting the structure, dried down then we can go to using no fires but initially what we're going want to do is to be using a lot of outdoor air moving by to dry the structure.I really encourage people to be measuring the relative humidity to know how we're progressing with the drying process and humidity gauges are available both in a digital format as well as the mechanical types regardless of which one you're using I recommend that we calibrate it to make sure that it's giving us accurate readings. The best way to do that is to take a cup put a quarter cup of salt in there a half a cup of water into that cup put it into a plastic bag like a gallon ziplock. Put the cup and the meter in there seal it up and now let it sit for 12 hours after that 12 hour period we would expect the relative humidity. Within the bag to be about seventy-five percent assuming room temperature and so that'll give us an indication of whether the meteor is giving us an accurate reading or not. Then we can probably modify the reading to give us an accurate reading and what we want to do is to measure the humidity in the house wehave since mold will grow at humidity at levels exceeding about 70 percent our goal should be to keep the humiditylevel.  The in the home structure under 70 percent moving a lot of airflow through to keep that drying process going and keeping the humidity level under 70 percent during that drying process particularly as we start getting later.Into fall and into cooler temperatures or in the spring if we're looking at spring flooding we can and enhance the moisture-holding capacity by adding heat to the air but it's important that we do both warm. The air and move the air or exchange the air that's within the house, the other thing to keep in mind is that the warmer it is the more rapid mold will grow and so there's a little bit of a balancing act. Generally, what we look at is keeping the air temperature in the home or in the structure under about 72 degrees that's warm. Enough that get good evaporation occurring good drying occurring but we're not so wired that we're really enhancing the mold growth. But we need both the warmth and exchange in the air if we don't have the windows open to bring dry outside area and we're just going to create a Sun that we're going to have warm moist air in the house and not accomplish drying and so we need to still at least.Periodically be opening the windows getting the air exchange as well as having the warmth to help enhance the evaporation we need to continue drying until the moisture or the content of the wood is low enough that we're notgoing to have mold growth and typically what we're looking at with mold growth again is moisture contents of the wood exceeding about 15%. Our goal should always be to get the moisture content the wood below 15% as quickly as. We can and also we can't be enclosing any walls or doing any reconstruction until we're below that 15% moisture content and what we have on the slide here shows that at 70 percent humidity at roughly room temperature that puts us at just under 15% moisture. You'll see different numbers some will say we need to be a down to 13 percent moisture to assure that we're not going to have any mold growth and that is going to be safer but certainly we need to be under 15%. The only way that we're going to know when the moisture content is low enough is to use a moisture meter.Actually check the moisture content of the wood and check the moisture content of materials. There are a couple ofdifferent kinds of meters some of them, actually have little pins on the end that you push into the wood and majorthe moisture content or the material others have some pads on the back and you just set it on the surface and it will measure the moisture content. That way, but it's important that either you check the moisture content or have someone else, check the moisture content before you do any rebuilding. Make sure that the wood is dry the NDSU Extension Service has moisture meters available in our county extension office's that you can check out and use to check the moisture content many of the contractors.Other places will also have meters but look to make sure that you're getting an accurate moisture reading verify what the accuracy of that meter is that you're using to assure that the moisture content is low enough for safe rebuilding the saturated soils will take a long time to dry out and so we can very quickly dry out the main floor the structural wood. But when we start talking about basements it's going to take a long time for the moisture that's within the soil to dry out and that moisture will be moving into the basement. It may initially come in as shown in this picture in liquid form but more frequently it's going to be in a vapor form and so it will look dry. But there may actually be gallons of waterper day coming through the concrete which is fairly poorest of to vapor and it'll come through in that vapor form and add to the moisture load in the home. So we need to be concerned about keeping the ventilation going not only to dry the materials but to handle the moisture load that will be coming in through the basement.One of the things that we recommend and to really determine if the moisture is still coming through is to just take a piece of clear plastic maybe a couple two or three feet on the side tape it to the floor tape it to the wall make surethat it's taped tightly to that surface. Let it sit there for a day or a couple of days and look to see if moisture accumulates on the backside it'll actually show up as condensation on the plastic it may show up as discoloration or darkening of the concrete. But look to see if that moisture vapor is still coming through and that'll give us an indication of the mono moisture that's coming through and whether it's going to be safe to start rebuilding and frequently.We're looking at this dry down process in the basement of taking months and so even though the main floor we can dry and probably rebuild fairly quickly in the basement rebuilding really needs to be delayed until we're can be assured that there's no moisture coming through. Another thing that will frequently see after a flood event or when we have a lot of moisture in the soils is that we have this white fluffy material that shows up along cracks and the floor or maybe even just showing up on the concrete floor.On the con block wall as shown in these pictures and that does not mol what that is is a salt within the soil and as the moisture moves through the soil it picks up the salt as it comes through the concrete the moisture evaporates into the air and leaves the salt deposit behind and when it typically will look like a white fluffy material and you can determine. If it's a salt by putting a little bit of water on it and it'll typically dissolve or there are some salts where you need to put on a little bit of vinegar for it to dissolve. But most of our just a few drops of water and you will see it disappear and a fairly easy way to determine whether it's salt or whether it's its mold growth and frequently it's going to be salt accumulation and it really doesn't create a health hazard but is an indication of moisture coming through the soil and it will continue until that moisture.Around the house has dissipated in that areas all dried out so that brings us to the end of the section on drying your home and how important it is that we do dry out the structure this series of five video clips hopefully will help you as you look at doing the flood damage cleanup in your own home or if you're looking at having someone help you with it to know that the steps that they should be going through. So this has been Kenneth Hellevang agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service and we have a lot of information available on our website that you can find by just doing a search flood restoration NDSU Flood information.

We're going to enter our flooded damage house, for the first time. But before we go in, we're going to have a walk around to make sure that things are reasonably and structurally sound. There's always some danger you can never be absolutely sure, but you can be fairly sure about a modern house. By walking around and looking at the foundation. Looking at the lines on the house, the house hasn't suffered any major structural damage, so that's what we're going to do first and then we'll go inside and we'll look to see, what we've got left in there and what's messy and what has to be cleaned up, so let's just get started.The house obviously was all sandbag and so looking at the foundation, in the front it's going to be very difficult until all of that is taken away, but we can see it at the most exposed point in which is around, on the other side of the house. So we'll go on over there and we'll have a look and we'll see what it looks like. In this particular case, the foundation is poured concrete, which is what I would have expected and this is a relatively modern house and I suspect 20 years old or so. We've taken the sandbags away and we've taken a plastic off the wall and we can see that the window has been forced in. By the pressure of the water and undoubtedly, that's one of the points that water got into the basement but the basement looks normal. There are some little hairline cracks and there's a tiny little crack here, but that probably was not caused by anything to do with the flood and so the foundation looks secure. The house looks square and the roof lines are all, as they should be and they're nice and neat there's no dips and no bulges in the walls, so far the house looks great. Coming around, on the backside of the house and you can see on the plastic that there's a line right about here, which is the maximum height to the water and so the water never got very high on the walls of this house, but it certainly submerged the whole basement. One of the other things that we want to check, as we go around the house was the electricity and the gas turned off and in this case, the gas enters the house right here and this valve is on, so the homeowner did not shut the gas valve off at the house but in this case, the gas valve is shut off. Out in the backyard at the meter, we've already checked that the difficulty with the electricity and it is a lot of people look to see if the disk is turning as an indication that the power's on, but that is not an indication that the power is on, that's just an indication of whether you're actually using power or not, so your trouble is that you must call the power company or emergency services and if you're in town, ask them if the Power has been cut off and usually, the pole is where they cut the power off. In this case, that's what they have already done the switch and has been thrown at the transformer, so all the electricity is off in this house, but don't go buy anything you see. This meter, if you wanted to check and in this case, you could remove this screw and take off this faceplate. This happens to be the breaker box, for the air conditioner and if you had a test light, you could check on the points up above and see whether there was any voltage and if there was, well then obviously you've still got power on to the house, but that's one place on the outside. Now that we've completed our walk around the outside, it's time to go in. As you can see, we've already started some preparations and one of the things we want to do is to get some ventilation in this house, as quickly as possible so we're going to leave the door open. As we go in, we want to be cautious and we don't know what the floor was made of and so we want to test first to see if the floor seems solid. The floors, in some of the houses, may have been made of particleboard or chipboard so-called and flooding them for a few days to a week or more. This one has been damaged by flooded water and we'll soften them up, to the point where you'll be able to feel that the floor is no longer solid and if you want to proceed very cautiously and if it seems extreme you want to lay boards down over the joist, which runs crossways to the room so that you can enter safely and get in. The other things you want to do is you want to look up if the house has been seriously flooded and will see it in the basement the water will have soaked up the plasterboard and it may have already started to collapse and that's a real danger to you because of the plasterboard is so heavy, that it can do some serious damage and if it falls down on your head.In this particular case, the flooding was only about five inches deep and the maximum was down, in this range somewhere and plasterboard even seems reasonably solid clear. Down at the base of the wall, the big trouble here is this rug it's holding moisture and it's keeping it on and that floor, which is no help at all it's doing continued damage. Let's go down in a basement because that's where the major damage should have taken place because we knowthat this house was a complete disaster with flooded and up to the least. The first-floor level down here, we can see we've got a real mess and if we look over here, we'll see the walls bulge and this is paneling when it gets wet it expands and it was placed in there tight and it has no place to go except the Bulge and that's what you see here. As you look up, you see that the ceiling has caved in many places. In other places, this suspended ceiling has sagged very badly and those sheets though very light and when dry they are fairly heavy. Right now you can see, that there are toys and cards. Everything else stuck on the ceiling, so obviously, the water was clear up there and really gave everything a good soak. You can see that it's only been about 10 days, but already we've got some growth started on the wood and so we've got to get that dried out, as soon as possible to stop that from deteriorating. Still, further, this is one of the reasons we want those rugs off upstairs and that are still as wet as they can be.As we can see here, cabinets fell down cupboards and things fell down and there were full of toys and of course, much of this stuff may have floated and it's impossible to see what's underneath. Some of those tremendous piles of material, but you can see that there's a cabinet laying down there and there's a laundry basket. As you notice we have a freezer or our refrigerator down here, that obviously floated and it's now lying on top of an overstuffed chair and so forth. General chaos, everywhere look fell through the wall and you can see how soft that plasterboard is it and justcomes apart in your hands, nothing left. Now that's really a good idea to pull that off, so you can get the wood dried out and it is true and in fact, this whole basements got to be stripped and you've got to get the paneling off the wall and you got to get all this plasterboard off the wall. Get the paper out, but you got to get this stuff off the floor first, so I don't want to tear down the wall until the floor gets cleaned over and here's the utility room and as you can see, the washer and dryer have both been completely submerged. The washer floated out of position because it's got a waterproof tub in it and both appliances are ruined.As we enter another room in the basement, you can see that there's a piece of the ceiling right here and on the floor when you look up, you can see precisely what we were concerned about upstairs. When we talked about entering the house, if that ceiling board gets submerged, it's very up to get and so soft that it can't stand its own weight and it'llfall down, this happens to be heating duct. So it's not too bad, but all the rest of this is plasterboard and needs to beapproached with some caution. Obviously, on the floor, we have a rug that's holding mud dirt and we have the mattress and still, from the bed and a little desk and a number of other things around. Everything in aromas pretty much spoiled, there are a few items could be salvaged but pretty much needs to be cleaned up. All of these plasterboard walls were torn down and all the paneling taken off the walls. Now the videotape we've just seen raisesa number of questions. First of all, of us talk about the protective clothing that all of you had on the boots and the mass gloves it's all that necessary. Certainly, if you care about your own health, after all, you don't really know what's in there and this has been flooded with surface water and what's in the surface water is very hard to tell, but we know that lagoon was flooded and that sewers backed up that all kinds of material and have gotten into that water and there's just no sense in taking a chance.I realized, there's always a possibility that people want to be macho and just wade in and do it, but it's much better to protect yourself. You talked about stripping off the paneling and the wallboard, and I guess what's the state of the material underneath it, the studs, the choices, and joist, if you can get them dry and relatively quickly rock will notcontinue. So the whole idea in this business with flooded houses is to strip it out, as all the things that have beendamaged and stripped by flooded water as quickly as possible and particularly those things to hold water like rugs on the floor and insulation in the walls get in and that material out so you can get it dry. The sooner you get it dry, the less mold mildew and rot you'll have and the fewer odors and other problems that you'll have.

In this is the next segment of the flooded house water cleanup in Atlanta. In this one, we're going to be continuing some more looking at the actual cleanup process some of the washing and sanitizing aspects. I get a number of questions related to the exterior wall of the home and generally what we will find is that the exterior wall can't well dry because there's enough once the wall is opened up. There's enough exposure both on the inside and outside to adequately dry it but there are some things that you will want to take a look at.If we're looking at a brick facing on a home, we want to make sure that the weep holes are open so that the water is draining out of that wall cavity, making sure that we've got airflow there to help with the drying of that brick facing. If we're going with a stucco facing on a house we'll need to be opening up that wall cavity on the inside. Again, making sure that we've got good airflow so that were drying both the inside and outside of that stucco surface. We also have a COVID-19 biohazard cleaning service we provide in Many cities including Minneapolis were we are based. The top rightpicture shows a wall with siding lap siding and then we have a fiberboard a thing, sometimes referred to as buffalo board and it'll really require a little more investigation with this one to determine whether that buffalo board is still intact and again by opening the inside removing the insulation. Now have airflow on both sides that may or may not be able to be salvaged in the bottom. In the left picture, it really shows that with most of our homes we have a sheathing surface that the outside siding or whatever is applied against and that cheating really will dry typically because of our vinyl siding. Our steel sliding the lap siding all allow a fair amount of airflow through them to allow for that drying process to take place so you really need to open the wall take a look at it but frequently what we will expect is that outside wall will dry down and we will not have to actually take that part of the wall apart. When we're looking at the electrical parts of our home, all of the electrical fixtures switch outlets circuit breakers submerged in the flood water will need to be replaced. Electric motors will need to be professionally reconditioned as I indicated earlier the mud and debris get in there and becomes an electrical hazard. It may affect the life of that motor as well, so we really need to determine is it worth having someone professionally recondition it or do I just get a new motor with the electrical wiring, it'll depend on the type of wire that is used and we will really need to consult an electrician or an electrical inspector. Have determined whether that needs to be replaced or not so with all of these wereally need to have an electrician or electrical inspector involved. As we start doing the refurbishing of the electrical system with photographs and other valuable materials generally, with photos if they are wet what's best is to put them into a plastic bag and freeze them.  If we can put some wax paper between the layers that will stop any of thedeterioration and then we can do the water damage restoration cleanup later. Important papers typically will end up musty and moldy so we probably need to photocopy them and once they're dry and then discard the originals CDs/DVDs generally, they can be rinsed and cleaned up with water.Dried crawlspaces are kind of a special area that we need to look at because most of the homes should have a poly orplastic, on that kind of floor in the crawlspace but many of them do not we're going to have a very saturated environment. In that crawl space that needs to be dried out and we need to remove the plastic. If it is there removeother things that might be in the crawl space and then we need to dry it as rapidly as we can and what works bestfor that is ventilation moving air, through the crawl space we recommend putting a fan facing to the outdoors sowe're pulling air in through one side and then the fan is forcing the air out. Another side we want to vacuum in thatcrawl space because if we put positive pressure in there if we face the fan blowing into the crawl space it'll pushany air through plumbing openings or other openings up into the living space and contaminate that. We don't wantthat so we want the vacuum. We want the suction by blowing the fans of the outdoors and that then allows us to veryeffectively dry that soil it'll take a long time for the soil to dry but that is how we will dry that area. Once we getit all dry then, we put the plastic back on the soil once we have everything opened up they have all of the debris removed. Then we look at flood cleaning structure and the recommendation is to use water and flush all of the non-porous surfaces. Some type of sprayer is shown in that top picture really works quite well too, to flush off all of the larger mud and debris. Once we've got it flushed off then, we come in and actually use a detergent to scrub off the surface and really what's my command that is a two bucket system, one that has detergent in it and then a second one that it'sthe rinse bucket. So when we get done scrubbing, we rinse out our mop or our rags or whatever we're using in therinse bucket until it's clean. Then we go into the detergent bucket and back to the cleaning surface and we'll haveto change the water in that rinse bucket frequently, as we're removing the dirt and cleaning the surface. They reallyrecommend a phosphate soap or detergent be used because of phosphate detergent can leave a film on thesurface that mold will grow readily on, so we prefer a non-phosphate type detergent. Once we've got the surface,all scrubbed down then the recommendation is to rinse with clean water then finally if we're looking at non-porous surfaces. So if we're looking at a hard surface such as concrete in a basement, we can sanitize that other non-porous surfaces. We can sanitize wood but we cannot treat.There are very few products available for trying to sanitize or treat wood,  but we're looking at hard and non-porous surfaces. With any of the sanitizing that we're doing, we hear a lot about using bleach or using other BETT biocides as part of the process of cleaning up flood damage at home, but it's very important that we make sure that we use those products according to the label. There will be on that bottle, a label that gives all of the information and that really is the law these are registered products and it's important that we use them according to that label. Most of the products that we're going to have available to us just about all of the products are not effective at doing disinfecting on porous material. So again, when we're looking at that wood studs. We're looking at wall plywood that we really can't sanitize, but what we're looking at is hard non-porous surfaces but it's important that the biocide go on to a clean surface.  Most all of the biocides are neutralized and become ineffective if they are applied to organic material so we shouldn't use a biocide.When we first come into a home, we only do the bio side on a clean surface and they'll specify a required exposure time. Most of these bio sides are hazardous materials, so it's important that we use our personal protective equipment. They require that the area be ventilated and some of the typical or common biocides that are available are alcohol sodium hypochlorite or chlorine bleach hydrogen peroxide iodine quaternary ammonium chloride and synthesized phenolic compounds and so there are a number of products available but generally, what we're talking about is bleach and as I indicated we need to follow the label on bleach it only is for non-porous hard materials and surfaces so concrete glass metal. So if we're working with on our appliances etc. that's where we will use the chlorine bleach. We need to use personal protective equipment gloves and goggles. The area needs to be ventilated because the hole or the gas that's given off from the bleach is a hazardous gas can cause lung irritation, so we need adequate ventilation. You'll need to look at the bottle, to see what the recommended dosages or solution strength is, but typically it'll be three-quarters of a cup of bleach per gallon of water. We need to apply enough of it to keep as wet for five minutes because bleach is corrosive. We won't need to then rinse that surface off and then dry it and so though.Why we would use chlorine bleach? Again, it is on appliances could be used on concrete but not on structural woodsince biocides are considered a disinfectant and our pesticide. They are a regulated material and anything that carries a designation. A disinfectant has to be registered with EPA and will carry an EPA registration number. It as they get that number or that registration, they need the document to EPA that indeed their product works and if you're trying to determine, this product indeed a registered product or not in addition to looking actually on the label you can go to the AG department website, that is listed here on the site. On the slide, AG department command they'll actually link to our water damage Atlanta website servicerestorationga.com/water-damage-atlanta and all of the products that are registered in Atlanta are listed there. Their labels all of theinformation that you would need if you have somebody else applying the disinfectant. In your building, it's important to make sure that they are certified and have had the training to apply that chemical and in Atlanta, they wouldbe certified under the home and industrial category.So that brings us to the end of this segment looking at the flood house restoration cleanup series and the final segment will be related to drying flooded home out the home, which is probably as important as all of the other steps that we have already talked about.

Carpet is always a tough problem and people spend a lot of money on carpets especially when you walk into a home like this and it isn't a piece left anywhere and isn't totally saturated with floodwater. Many of us in the past, have had to deal with flooded basements and people realize that it is possible to clean up some carpets, but flooded groundwater is very very different. This type of circumstance where you have all of the raw sewage and everything else that's in the floodwater.  For the most part in a flooded home like this, the carpets should just be discarded and there should be no attempt to salvage it. One of the situations with drapes, as you almost have to play it by ear and almost every the situation like these, folks have moved they're lifted their drapes up and I don't believe this has actually been in the flood water or in damage and this type of curtain would be something that was cleanable. The washing machine starts with many drapes and would have been ones that had to be dry-cleaned or to remove flood water damage and sometimes the drape will actually get wet but in this circumstance, where it doesn't appear it's wet it just is hanging here and it's got a lot of odor in it. From the odors that are in the room and in the space, but I'm sure it could be cleaned in a washing machine with the procedures. We're recommending cleaning any machine that is a washable fabric and in this room, there's obviously some vertical panels window treatments that have not been in the flood itself. It will often be the case, but as they stay here over the time and it takes to get the insurance adjuster here and before they can actually start to clean up mildew and all of the various other contaminants will start affecting. One of these products and there are many things in a home that will require dry cleaning. Now obviously, if it's flood-soaked and if it's down on the floor and it's soaked with water it will probably ruin and if it's a dry cleanable, only product. However, there are drapes and many drapes that do have to be dry-cleaned and it may just be some water spotting on the lower edge or they still may look relatively clean, but they're starting to be affected by mildew. Eventually, we'll need dry cleaning and it's very very important and everything be dry. Before you take it to the dry cleaner, they cannot put wet products into their machines without totally disrupting the humidity level. So, you do need to get them dried out and then, take them for the dry cleaning process. Dry cleaning is effective at sanitizing and cleaning, so basically, if it's a dry cleanable product and it's not already ruined because it's flooded in water-soaked and that is a good alternative on getting some of these materials cleaned up. Now, we're in the basement and with all of the many things that we're finding down here and upsetting in the heaps here is an upholstered couch of some sort. Now, this particular piece doesn't have any exposed wood, but many times when a family comes back in and they find the favorite old family chair that is an upholstered chair and has nice cherry wood arms and the first question is, is it salvageable something like? This probably they would want to just get rid of, but if this were a keepsake family piece or a very well-made piece of furniture, it might be worth trying to salvage on upholstered furniture. What they need to do, is to get it into a dry space and if it's not raining to the out of doors, they should never leave a wood item sitting in the Sun for a long period of time, but for a short period and that's fine it'll help to dry it out. Then, they need to strip it of all of the upholstery and of all of the stuffings. Anything that is a textile type of fabrications that backing the underneath part and all of this to get rid of it. After it's stripped down to the frame then, send it and dried out the wood and cleaned up with a substance to a wood. Poor a cleaning compound that will clean up the wood and the rust is taken off of any moving parts. Cleaned up and then itcould be sent to have it reupholstered and re cushioned and obviously to go to that kind of trouble and that kind ofexpense it probably needs to be an item and for some reason or another, you really don't want to part with it. Otherwise, for upholstered furniture, it's probably best to discard it.Another item that we're fighting a lot of down here is children's toys and children and never like to part with their toys. It's very tempting to clean those lot of toys and those are hard plastics. At this point, it depends upon what materials they're made from whether they will survive the disinfecting process, but never just hose off a toy and let a child have it back unless you're totally sure that you have disinfected. All of the surfaces, the cracks, and the crevices and there's no question about it. This deep freeze, just like many appliances it is probably best to do something other than try to reuse the same deep freeze. Now, one of the things we didn't talk about on this tape Deanna is disinfecting and sanitizing. What's the difference? Well, first of all, I think that people need to realize that when you use some of these products in a laundry, and in a circumstance that they may not be disinfecting products and they may think will disinfect because they know them to be a disinfectant. On hard surfaces, the only way a person can be sure that is they're getting a disinfectant that will work. In a laundry circumstance, if that product is carrying an EPA registration number and there are directions on the container that indicates and that it is a disinfectant in a laundry. In a circumstance, chlorine bleach is a disinfectant and being a disinfectant it means, it basically kills all harmful bacteria but there are a lot of other laundry products and laundry aids out there do sanitize and it will be the term that's often used and will remove some of the bacteria, but not necessarily. All of the harmful bacteria that is something that I think people need to pay attention, to when they'recleaning up these soft materials.

This is Kenneth Hellevang of an agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service and we're looking now at this the second of the five segments on flooded house cleanup. In this one, we're gonna focus on the structure utilities and look at a Minneapolis mold removal and cleanup in the home typically, the first thing that the city or governmental unit will do is to bring a team in and do an evaluation of the home. They'll look for the structural hazards and they'll look to make sure that the electricity is shut off, that the gas is there aren't any environmental dangers. Then they will post on the home some kind of a placard or sheet that indicates that that home has been inspected. So, this was what you will see as you come back to your flooded home as you come through to that. We look at a flooded damaged home in Minneapolis and found how important it is to do your own evaluation and the first thing that you're going to do is to look at the structure and really look for any signs of movement. Look for alignment any bowing that's occurring cracks that have shown up in the foundation or concrete or walls any good shape. If you see something then you really need to bring in a contractor or somebody else a building inspector that can help you determine what's the structural integrity of that home. The other thing that you'll want to look for is floors and ceiling. If floors that have been flooded for an extended period of time may have delaminated, lost their structural strength and it's important that you use some type of probe or board. To really check that surface for strength as you're coming into the home, also be looking up at the ceiling. If the whole house was flooded portions of the ceiling it may have fallen parts of it and it may still be hanging up there and might fall on you. Here are a couple of pictures that I took that the one on the left is obviously a home that has been moved off of its foundation and this home would be very difficult to reclaim the picture. On the right just shows you, that there will be a lot of kind of surprising things. As you come into your flood and disaster damage home this is a picture showing a mobile, one of these travel trailers motor homes where it floated and during the flood and was actually pushed into the end of this house and so you'll be wanting to lookup high down low everywhere. As you're coming back checking for what the condition of that home and yard is, as you're making your reentry and as I indicated the utility should have shut the electricity off but it's very important for you to verify, that electricity has been shut off before you start work. If we're in a home, where part of it was flooded and part of it wasn't making sure that that the electricity is off in the areas where you will be working and then I strongly encourage you to use a ground fault circuit interrupter on any equipment. Electrical equipment that you're going to be using if you don't have one available. I encourage you really to purchase one shown here in this Center extension cord, it has the ground fault circuit interrupter right into that device and so it's important to use a circuit interrupter because that is what's going to provide you your personal safety. It measures the electricity going out to the piece of equipment coming back from the piece of equipment and if there's a difference, it'll shut that circuit off, immediately and so if you're using shop vacs or anything else in a damp environment, critical that you use a GFI.In that circuit, also make sure that the gas has been shut off to any of the heating appliances that might be in the home. As we're coming into a flooded home, frequently the power will be shut off so we'll need to provide some kind o emergency power standby or emergency generator to provide the electric power that we need for lighting and for tools and equipment, that we're going to be using. One of the major hazards with a standby generator is that it's producing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and other combustion pollutants and we don't want that to be settling into the home where we're working. So make sure that that generator is off to the side. Some distance from the house, so that it has good circulation and ventilation around it. Things that you'll need to have as you're going in lighting will need to be provided and you're going to be doing a lot of cleaning and pairing things apart, so you'll need tools and equipment to do that and there will be a lot of materials to be called out of the structure, so we'll need some type of containers for that garbage. There may not be bathroom facilities, so we need to think about that and then always make sure that we have a first aid kit, mold, and grows very quickly. We post about this flood on Twitter back then and continue to post about all things water damage in Minneapolis at our disaster restoration page.If we have a warm damp environment, sometimes it's very obvious and it is shown on the left side but frequently it'll be within wall cavities. As shown in the middle, where we really don't see it until we open up that wall cavity but if the materials have been wet for an extended period of time, we can't expect that it would be a moldy environment and on the right side, air shows mold growing. On the backside of wallpaper, a mole loves glue and so any cellulose materials and particularly, the glue that's used in home construction likely have mold growth on it many times and there's a tendency to know well does the mold that I have in my home causing me problems. Once I've done some of the cleanups and you can go out and buy a test kit similar to what's showing on the left side, but that's not going to give us any kind of valid information because there's always mold spores in the air, so if we set that that test kit out that petri dish it'll always come back. Looking like the slide on the right the picture, on the right and that does not mean we have a mold problem it just means that there are mold spores in the air and there's always going to be mold spores floating around unless we're in a sterile Hospital or very sanitized environment and certainly in the summertime, we're going to have a lot of molds around and so testing for mold is strongly discouraged. It's expensive, if we do it correctly and generally, we just need to be cleaning and it's important to remember that people react to mold, whether it's living or dead.Applying a biocide to it is not adequate killing. It is not adequate sealing it into a wall and it is not adequate needs to be physically removed. As we're doing mold cleanup and mold remediation, that's what we need to really keep in mind with porous materials ceiling tile carpeting. Upholstered furniture wallboard mold, will actually grow into the material and there's no way to thoroughly remove the old, so we need to actually remove the porous materials. Remove these cut the carpet and remove the wallboard and move that to the outdoors. If we're looking at non-porous surfaces, hard metal glass, and those kinds of things then we can just wash it with a detergent solution and sanitize it with a BIOS. If we want, but again thorough drying is important with semi-porous materials. Basically, the structural lumber the floor joists studs in the wall seal plates, etc. There again, we need to remove the mold and making sure that we're adequately drying those materials and we should not be thinking of using bleach. We shouldn't be thinking of using other biocides just to physically remove the mold from the structure. Sometimes, people think that if they seal the mold into a wall cavity but it's not a problem anymore, but air will move from the outside through the wall cavity and into the inside of a home. If you put your hand over an electrical outlet in the wintertime when the wind is blowing generally, you can feel a cool breeze and that air will be coming through that wall, picking up some of the molds fragments. Some of the mold spores that might still be in there and bringing that into the living space so it's critical that we thoroughly clean the walls and any other enclosed cavities as part of our cleanup process. If we have a home where part of that house has not been contaminated and has not been flooded, what we want to do is to isolate that from the other part of the house and that has been flooded and damaged, so as we do the cleanup we're not contaminating the clean part of the house. Think about the heating system, the ventilation system, and the air conditioning system and try to seal that generally what has used some type of plastic or poly sheeting and then, we want to create a negative pressure in the dirty area put a fan blowing. The air to the outdoors creating a vacuum in the dirty area, so that if there's any air leakage it's coming from the clean part of the structure. Into the dirty part, rather than the dirt going into the clean part, is very important that we contain the area that we're working and that brings us to the close of our second section and now we'll be looking at the actual clean-up process and drying the structure in the next two phases. 

This is Kenneth Hellevang agricultural engineer with the NDSU Extension Service and we're going to be doing a series of five short video clips related to the flood restoration house cleanup process. The first one is going to be on protection from hazards, as you're going in and doing the cleanup it's important that we be aware of what we're going to face and take appropriate protection to so that we don't get hurt. As we're doing that cleanup, it's important that we start into this process that we're aware that there are going to be companies that come in to help you, do the cleanup and it's critical that if you are going to utilize some of those services, make sure that those contractors have the local licensing bonding insurance training and certifications, that are required to do the work for you. Most of these companies are certainly legitimate companies that come in but it is important to make sure that you verify with them that they have the appropriate credentials to be doing the work for you. As you get in and making decisions about the disaster restoration cleanup, it's important to seek help. This is a task that we've never phased before and it's important that we learn how to do it correctly and that if there are questions that we're seeking out help, not only help for the actual. Nuts and bolts part of doing the cleanup, but also there's a lot of financial and emotional aspects related to the water disaster cleanup, so it's important that we don't be making hasty decisions and that we work our way through the process and we really need to be thinking of this as a marathon. It will go and take us some time to get that home recovered for us and if we don't do the cleanup immediately. It's important that we take steps and try to minimize the amount of damage that will continue to occur in the home. One of the major issues that were going to be facing is mold growth with the moist conditions in the home. In the building that worm the impair is going o cause mold to grow extensively and as shown on this right slide, as we look here you can see that there is a mold that is occurring not only on the lower level, where there might have been moisture but throughout the structure. So it's critical that we try to do a drying out of the structure, as quickly as we can and also when things are still damp maybe we want to be looking at some major cleaning of some of the mold and muck that will come in.As part of that flood event and try to move some of that away from the structure as much as we can. While it is still wet, but do that initial assessment and determine really what it is that we're going to be tackling, first and how we're going to proceed through the water cleanup process. There's a lot of hazards associated with doing a cleanup in a home that has been flooded and I've listed a number of them. Here, there are structural issues we need to make sure that the floor is still sound and it's not going to cave in underneath and us as we come into the home, we need to be concerned about electricity making sure the electricity is shut off so that we don't get electrical shocks or electrical electrocution. There's also going to be some issues related to telephone and cable, they're both carrying electricity as well and we need to be aware of that concern. Mold is a major health hazard in the home and we'll be focusing on that quite a bit their biological contamination and we'll have water that contaminated with sewage. In many cases, we need to be making sure that we're protecting ourselves so that we don't end up with health problems because we're working in that flooded. However, that have lead dust as a hazard and was used in paint extensively before about 1975, so it's important that if we're doing removal of paint. Surfaces that were painted before, that we keep the surface wet and that we're not creating dust that will create a lead hazard. The same thing is true with as best if we have a boiler or some ductwork that is insulated and has asbestos in its tiles. Again, be aware of that hazard and make sure that we're using personal protective equipment and keeping that material. Wet carbon dioxide will be an issue and we'll touch on that and a car is just the normal cuts and punctures associated with working in these flooded homes. When we're dealing with floodwater, they categorized flood water in different categories depending on what was in the water.  A category one is clean water, such as might come from a broken water pipe or a rainwater grey. Water or category two contains some contamination and microorganisms such as might come from dishwashers sump and pump toilets, with here. Category three is water that contains pathogenic agents and that is sewage surface water flooding there, which be pesticides in that. We really don't know what's in that water and that's really what we're looking at when we're doing a flood damage cleanup and category three flood event and need to be using caution because of what might have been in that water. There are certainly health effects due to exposure to mold and I'm just going to read this right off of the slide. Scientific evidence links, mold and other factors related to damp conditions and buildings to asthma symptoms and those with the chronic disorder and it doesn't cause asthma but if you have asthma it's a trigger. For asthma attacks, those that have asthma or other respiratory problems really need to be very careful about working around flooded disaster homes, because of the mold exposure. Mold can cause coughing, wheezing, and not for respiratory symptoms and otherwise healthy individuals can create or cause hypersensitivity, pneumonitis, and susceptible. People typically see this and it would be with people who are whose immunity is reduced. For some major reason and any lower respiratory illness and children and there are very documented health effects due to working in a moldy environment. The World Health Organization has also looked at a number of studies and determined that evidence is available in different countries and that shows that occupants of damp or moldy buildings are at increased risk of respiratory problems. There's also clinical evidence that exposure to mold and other dampness related to microbial agents and increase the risk of various conditions such as, sinus irritation, sinusitis, and also evidence that supports that there are diverse inflammatory reactions things that can lead to infections, so it's critical that we take care as we're working in these mold-infested environments and to protect ourselves and to make sure that we are doing the cleanup properly so that we don't have future mold growth and mold remediation in our homes.One of the main things that we're going to do, is to provide protection for us and to wear a respirator or mask. The minimum that you should look for is on the mask and it should n95 rating or a HEPA filter or a PRN100, indicating that it's going to be filtering out mold spores. We need to make sure that it has a proper fit and realize that there is going to be some labored breathing associated with breathing and through that mask it helps us to overcome some of that labored breathing. There are some masks that have a valve in it, that allows you to exhale or through the valve and then as you inhale. It comes through the mask and is filtered and I really strongly encourage you to be using respiratory protection whenever you're doing any of the flood cleanups and it's also important to use goggles to protect your eyes when you're going to be working in a very dirty environment. Some types of coveralls are good idea rubber gloves, so you have protection for your feet your, hands, and the body is protected. As you're working in these homes and whenever there's have a flood event, it seems like there's a tendency for people to look for easy or solutions quick solutions to some of these problems. We'll be found in our homes and it's important to realize that there's very limited benefit from air cleaners filters and remove only some of the spores do not and remove the volatile organic compounds. We'll only marginally beneficial units that produce ozone and many times it's referred to as a kind of cleaning the air like rain. Those units are not effective against mold and now there are hydroxyl units, that are somewhat similar again. These may be effective but not in the environment that will typically be working in. Our homes must very very cautious about using any of these and we really need to focus on thorough cleaning of that. Home has been that first segment of the flood cleanup presentation and we'll be looking now at the process or steps that we go through and in the next segment.