Keeping lists and records
Although your restoration contractors may take plenty of photographs and develop lists, work with them to develop your own sets of photos and lists of destroyed, damaged and unaffected items. Make sure that you record the rooms involved, the date and time and anything else that may be helpful in resolving disputes about what needs restoring or replacing. Assume that your restoration contractor wants to help but may be required to do only the work that insurance will cover. Be thorough.
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Drying your house
In most fires, firefighters use at least some water to quench the flames. Water can also get in through holes in the roof or walls or through broken windows. Wet materials quickly grow mold, in most weather conditions, with some molds becoming visible within two days.
Preventing mold by drying wet building materials and contents is a high priority.
The first stage in drying is removing liquid water. The second is removing moisture from the air, to allow materials to dry through evaporation from the surface. Normal household dehumidifiers cannot do this job adequately. Restoration contractors have high-performance dehumidifiers that can dry very rapidly — so rapidly that surfaces are usually dry to the touch in less than two days.
Drying the contents
Drying consists of removing liquid water and then reducing the indoor relative humidity (RH) to the point where evaporation from the surface will draw the water out of items. The aim of drying is to get the moisture content down to what it is in materials in normal houses in your area. This requires special techniques and equipment, as well as judgment about what levels are appropriate for your climate and the season. Your contractor may also want to proceed slowly enough with the drying to avoid warping and cracking, so this is a job for an expert.
Preventing mold growth
The vital first step in preventing mold growth is getting relative humidity at the surface of materials below 65 per cent within two days. This is why it is important to start drying as soon as possible. It is important to keep relative humidity below 65 per cent until the interior of materials is dry enough for the relative humidity of the air at the surface of materials to stay at 65 per cent or lower when drying is discontinued. The temperature of the air near the surface of materials can be colder than the room air, such as on an exterior wall in the winter or a basement floor in the summer. This affects the relative humidity at the surface of the material, and the relative humidity in the middle of a room will not be representative of the conditions on the material. Your contractor will likely dry well below that level.
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