8 Easy Tips for Cleaning Flooded Basements

1. Assess the Damage
We realize we always say this first, but it truly is the best first step out there when it comes to water damage. A lot of the time, even most of the time, water damage can be mostly cleaned without the assistance of a professional. However, if you assess your water damage and realize the job is to big for you, a professional should be called.

2. Enlist Helpers
Due to the possible heavy moving and probable hours of tough work, you should absolutely enlist some helpers to assist you with this job. As soon as you have decided to do this yourself, the phone should be in your hand though. Mold grows quickly, and you need to act even faster!

3. Protect your Health
Leakage waters and floodwaters in particular may contain hazardous waste which you should definitely not have contact. Do not let any one go near the waters without first putting on appropriate attire of gloves, a mask, high waterproof boots, water resistant clothing, and goggles, at the least.

4. Move Everything
If there is a dry area in your flooded basement, move everything there. If there is no dry space, move what you can upstairs or outside, and put the rest into one corner. The basic idea with this step is to get as much as you possibly can up and out of the water. The longer items sit in water, the more they absorb, and the more likely it becomes that they will be soiled permanently.

5. Quick Trash Run
Before you can start removing water, you should free up some space by removing as many items as possible from the area. This also means you should take the first step in throwing away unsalvageable items. If cardboard boxes were soaked, remove items promptly to see if you can save any inside. Furniture and clothes can be set out to dry, but if mold is already appearing it may be better to just throw them out. If your washer and dryer are not in the basement, you can start some loads of laundry now.

6. Extract Water
While you are going through soiled items, you should instruct some of your helpers to begin extracting the water. While a sump pump would be ideal for this job, you can also extract the water by using buckets (or a shop vac) and dumping the water in an outside drain. If there is a very large amount of water, you may want to call a professional for this job alone. You can enlist help for just the water extraction, which will be cheaper than having a team do the whole job.

7. Clean Up!
If your basement has a concrete floor, you are in luck because it will be easiest to clean. Make a bleach-based cleaner to sanitize and clean down the now dry walls and floors. Open all windows and doors, and run fans to protect your lungs from the cleaning fumes, in addition to wearing a mask. If you have a carpeted basement, the carpet will most likely need to be pulled up. In some cases the carpet can be cleaned, dried, re-stretched, and re-installed. However, this process can sometimes be more expensive than buying and installing new carpet.

8. Dry Everything
Once you have sufficiently cleaned every inch of the floor with your cleaning solution and wiped it all down again with a water rinse and clean towels, you should let the whole area dry out. Even if all the water seems to be gone, your walls or other furnishings in the room may have absorbed some of the water and could be developing mold spores as you stand. Bring every fan in the house to the room, and keep the area well ventilated for as much time as you can spare.