Steps in Assessing and Dealing With Water Damage or Mold Damage

Second step: Securing Your Property

After you made sure your house is safe from water damage hazards, you should take steps to protect and secure your property and personal belongings from further damage.

Even though it is recommended to ventilate your property to assist with drying out, you should still make sure you lock and secure your property when not occupied to prevent looting. Keep in mind that alarms may malfunction if the electricity or telephone service has been interrupted.

Once the structure is secure, try to salvage your belongings by relocating them to a dry and ventilated part of the structure. If your property is too damaged to be secured against burglary, you should remove your dry valuables to a trusted location where they will be kept during the restoration process.

To protect larger items such as furniture and appliances, you may also want to consider a partial or complete move out.

Expense Reimbursement- It is important to know that the costs of securing your property or temporarily evacuation are often covered by home owner's insurance policies. Contact your insurance agent to verify the property protection coverage

Third step: Assessing the Damage

In order for your insurance adjuster to efficiently process the damage claim, you have to understand the extent of the damage caused to the structure and personal belongings.

It is recommended to hire a professional restoration constructor for a fast and accurate assessment.

The Damage assessment includes inspections of the following:

· Structural Damage Assessment

Exterior Signs of Damage- You should mare the water levels on the walls for reference, and prepare a visual record of the damage using annotated photos or video.

On your exterior inspection, you should check these areas:

The roof- Check for missing or damaged roof shingles, bent or damaged gutters or collapsed portions of the roof.

Exterior walls and windows- Check for collapsed walls, wet bricks or exterior walls, broken or cracked windows or signs of water intrusion through basement windows or window wells.

Interior Signs of Damage- After inspecting the outside of the structure, you should check the interior of the structure, starting from the top down and taking extreme precautions

On your interior inspection, you should check these areas:

The attic- Check for wet or cracked ceiling, walls and floor, wet or damaged vents and ducts or wet insulation

Rooms- Check for wrapped or damaged wood, sunk electricity and phone jacks, wet or cracked ceiling, walls, and floor or cracked or broken windows and doors.

Bathroom- Check for leaky or slumping ground around toilet tank, damaged bathtubs or stained sink and countertop.

Basement- Check for stained or damaged duct work or wet or cracked foundations, walls, and floor.

You may also want to consider performing special inspections to closely examine your in-wall plumbing and to detect all invisible moisture sources including behind walls, above the ceiling, and under the floor.

· Personal Belongings Damage Assessment

After you are done with structural assessments, you should move on and evaluate the damage done to your belongings. The best way to do so is to prepare a list of damaged or lost items for your adjuster and, if available, give the adjuster receipts for those items.

The list you are making should be as thorough as possible, and should include a room by room list of damage.

Here are a few guidelines which can help you make your list:

• Carpets and upholstery: list all wet carpets, rugs, fabric curtains, and upholstery


• Paper products: list all wet or moist books, documents, photographs and paintings


• Digital media: list all wet digital media such as tapes, CDs, DVDs, computers and hard drives


• Furniture: list every damaged piece of furniture. Inspect wood furniture closely to detect signs for mold


• Cabinets and dressers: open all cabinets and dressers and inspect inside. Touch all sides and panels and list if wet. Make sure to list all wet content as well

· Appliances: do not switch appliances on if they were exposed to water. Simply, mark every appliance that is suspected to be wet. These appliances will require an electrician test later

· Conveying Your Assessments

After you have collected all the information required for damage assessment, you should convey a copy to your insurance agent / adjuster for further processing of your claim. Make sure you give another copy of the assessment to your restoration contractor to develop a prioritized plan of stabilization, repair, and restoration.