Water Damage and Content Cleaning: Steps to Restore and Prevent Mold Growth

When water floods a home, it doesn’t just impact the floors, ceilings, and walls. Aside from the structural damage, homeowners are also left with destroyed personal belongings. Everything from furniture and documents to clothing and art can be impacted by water damage.

Without professional help, some of these items might seem like they are beyond repair. Others might succumb to mold damage. In fact, it only takes 24 hours for mold to start growing after water enters a home.

Fortunately, homeowners can reduce the total amount of loss by hiring a content cleaning crew to assist them with the restoration process. Homeowners should keep reading to learn more about how content cleaning is done with water damage to prevent mold in the future.

Types of Content Cleaning

It’s important to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to content cleaning. Since the type of contents in a house can vary drastically by size, fragility, and material, it’s important that the content cleaning specialists deploy several different techniques. The best team of water damage contractors should be able to offer customers the following types of cleaning: 

• Dry Cleaning: Experts use this method to pre-clean some items before wet cleaning, but it can also be effective in removing light residues from non-porous surfaces.
• Wet Cleaning: Items soiled with moderate to heavy residues should be treated with this method.
• Foam Cleaning: Upholstered fabrics may shrink or bleed if they are wet-cleaned, so contractors should use foam to prevent further damage.
• Spray Cleaning: If an item cannot be cleaned with wet or foam cleaning, it may be able to be restored with a simple spray of disinfectant.
• Abrasive Cleaning: Contractors can gently agitate certain surfaces with an abrasive tool to remove residue.
• Immersion Cleaning: Some contents may be submerged into a cleaning product bath to fully clean and disinfect.

Steps to Restore and Prevent Mold Growth

As mentioned, the exact steps that will be done to restore contents depend on the type of water damage and the types of affected items. In general, however, homeowners can expect a content cleaning contractor to follow these four simple steps. 

Assessing & Sorting

To start, a contractor comes to the property to assess the type of damage that occurred. They will look at what items appear to be salvageable. Based on their experience, they can advise homeowners which pieces should be discarded and replaced. The items that are kept to be cleaned will then be sorted by the type of cleaning method they will require.

Packing

Next, the restoration specialists will begin to pack up the items. This step is done with extra care to prevent further damage from occurring. Small items will be placed in clean, dry boxes so that they can be safely removed from the property. Larger things will be wrapped in plastic to protect them in transport. From there, all of the belongings will be transported to the cleaning facility.

Cleaning

The biggest step in the process is the actual cleaning itself. This can take several days or weeks to get the job done, depending on how severe the damage is and the number of items to be cleaned. However, the content cleaning crews will use all of their specialized tools and training to deliver the most effective results. 

With their equipment, they can clean delicate items like electronics, photographs, and documents. They can also restore rugs, couches, wood furniture, home décor, clothing, and so much more. The best part is that all of this is done while the house is being fixed, so they can minimize the total time it takes to return the home back to normal.

Storage & Return of Items

If the content cleaning process is completed before the house, the restoration company can safely and securely store the belongings until they are ready to be received. All of the items will be packed safely in new, clean boxes until the homeowner is ready to have them delivered. Once they get that call, the crews will return and unpack all of the items until everything is put back in its place. 

Find out More About Content Cleaning Solutions Offered by ABC Environmental Contracting

Have more questions about the tools and methods used to restore household belongings? Homeowners in need of professional content cleaning solutions should contact ABC Environmental Contracting to learn more about how the job is done. 

The company can be called 24/7 for emergency water damage restoration services, or customers can take a moment to submit their information through a simple online quote form.