Water Mitigation Process for Local Businesses in Tallahassee

5/2/2022 (Permalink)

Leon County office endures serious water damage

SERVPRO Can Help Develop the Right Water Mitigation Processes for Tallahassee Businesses to Minimize Disruptions

Water can mess with your business operations in different ways if there is an uncontrolled leak or other sudden intrusions at your retail outlet. You can expect interruptions whether the water spill affects the service areas, storage sections, or utility areas at your Tallahassee business premises. Incidents affecting the areas accessed by customers tend to have more noticeable impacts.

What concerns does the water mitigation done at your Tallahassee premises need to address to eliminate work disruptions?

• Failure of some of the infrastructures that support your business
• Risks of injury to customers or staff members
• The vulnerable feeling you have that the incident might recur

Water is a universal solvent that affects many materials found in buildings. For instance, it can corrode power cables interfering with the flow of current to lights, electronic appliances, and other utilities that you need to deliver services to your clients. Indoor rated data cables are affected when water permeates the jacket material, thus disrupting signals. Moisture can also eat into structural materials. If water removal and other restoration processes do not address such deterioration, you might be forced to close the business indefinitely at a later date to make expensive repairs and replacements.

Our SERVPRO technicians help scrutinize all areas by opening up sockets, checking recessed lights, and inspecting various types of cables for accumulated water, or signs of moisture intrusion. Alternatively, we inspect wall cavities, ceilings, and other areas using non-invasive methods such as scrutinizing them using thermal cameras.  If we find water in any of the cavities that we inspect, we can remove it using mechanical approaches such as drilling weep holes or by using sophisticated systems such as drying mats or injecti-dry systems.

What injuries can water intrusion cause?

Water is mostly harmless when you consider the quantities that leaks or other types of spills involve.  However, interaction with other materials at the property can create risky conditions for the people that visit your business premises. For instance, the water that spills on floor surfaces leaves them slick, increasing the chances of slip and fall accidents. The immediate response to water intrusions is to mark and isolate wet areas using warning signs meaning that people can no longer access those areas. Since the signs are mostly placed outside the building, some potential clients may end up avoiding your business altogether when they notice the warning signs. Completing water extraction faster can ensure the signs only stay in place for a short while, minimizing the disruption.

Water removal may require the use of pumps, extractors, and other equipment that utilize different types of hoses and power cables, which end up creating obstacles that can trip people as they move around your business premises. Our technicians use various approaches to ensure that the restoration process is organized.  For instance, we must have a staging area for the equipment and supplies we need to fix the damages caused by water intrusion. We also group cables or hoses and secure them with Velcro straps or other fasteners. An arranged loss site poses minimal risks to customers and other visitors.

How likely are water damage incidents to recur after mitigation?

The primary reason water damage in Tallahassee might recur is likely to be associated with the cause rather than the mitigation efforts.  Water intrusions affecting commercial establishments mostly originate from:

• Leaky roofs
• HVAC condensation issues
• Faulty appliances
• Leaking pipes

Establishing the exact source of the water that damages your business, and taking steps to fix it helps eliminate any feeling of vulnerability that you might have. Most of the source points are located in hidden areas such as crawlspaces and cavities, thus necessitating a skillful approach to pinpoint the origin of the intrusion. Choosing a comprehensive repair option such as replacing all damaged and worn out parts from the utility systems, helps forestall the possibility of immediate recurrence, which would be detrimental to your business.

Lack of thoroughness during the mitigation process can lead to the recurrence of secondary water damage. For instance, failure to dry materials to the correct level leaves moisture residues that can spark mold development, rotting, or other kinds of deterioration.  Our SERVPRO Structural Drying Technicians work with specific moisture content figures to guarantee sufficient drying. For instance, when drying solid wood, we confirm that the moisture drops to an average of 10% in all affected wooden materials.