Some people ask, can you carry out damage restoration yourself?
As you’re reading this we’ll guess you’re pretty good at DIY. If you know your way around walls or ceilings it can be tempting to try to restore your home yourself if you’ve suffered a disaster. However, you should bear in mind the following.
Doing Any Kind of Water Damage Restoration Yourself
Insurance
Are you making an insurance claim for the damage? If so, you may be entitled to complete the repairs yourself. But if you repair something and later there’s a problem with it, your insurance won’t cover it. If a licensed contractor like Save The Day Restoration carries it out, the repairs will be insured.
Risk of Injury
Restoring a building after damage is quite different to doing DIY on a home under normal circumstances. There are likely to be weak points in the walls, ceilings or floors that weren’t there before. And being trapped under a collapsed ceiling or wall is no joke.
Structural Challenges
When professionals carry out water damage restoration, they consider the structure of the building. So, thinking of doing any kind of damage restoration yourself, have you taken this into account?
For example, depending on where the water damage is, a ceiling might be bearing more of a load than you had thought. Or fire might have burned out the base of a wall that bears a heavy load.
Don’t risk having a wall or ceiling collapse on you.
Equipment
You probably have decent enough tools at home. But for something as sensitive as damage restoration, home power tools just won’t do the job.
Nor will the type of protective equipment you can find in stores or online for sale to the public.
Odor
If your home’s been damaged by water leaks, flooding, mold or fire, there may be a bad smell. With water especially, you might notice an odor after a few days if you don’t get it sorted out immediately.
So what your home needs after the clean-up is powerful odor neutralizing chemicals. However, these just aren’t available for purchase for non-professionals.
Carrying Out Fire Damage Restoration Yourself
Fire damaged homes have less obvious hidden dangers after the fire is put out. Soot and ash get right into air conditioning and other HVAC appliances. Then they can corrode them from the inside. So you need the knowhow to get right in there, clean them up and make sure they’re safe and functioning.
Soot and ash can also be toxic if you inhale them during the course of the restoration. You can’t very well just make do with your usual pandemic mask or dust mask. Better to leave fire damage restoration to Save The Day Restoration, since we have heavy-duty breathing equipment.
Chemical Pollution
One problem with the aftermath of a fire is that you can’t always see exactly what burned. It’s not just timber, it’s likely to include plastics. This is especially true in a kitchen or room that’s used for storage.
Not forgetting products you have in the home like cleaning products or paint.
None of this is stuff you want to inhale, and you’d need professional-grade breathing equipment to tackle it.
Doing Water Damage Restoration Yoursef
Entering a water damaged home can be shocking. Your home is so familiar but at the same time it’s hard to get your head around the damage. But this familiarity can be dangerous if you take risks without knowing it.
The biggest danger people don’t consider is electrocution. Then, damage to floorboards or ceilings that you could fall through.
How Long Has the Water Been There?
If there’s water sitting in your home or commercial premises, the most important thing is to get a water damage restoration company to pump the water out. If there’s a large amount of water, it won’t dry out by itself any time soon.
How long was the water there for? This brings us on to…
Attempting Mold Damage Restoration Yourself
How much mold do you have? If it’s a very small quantity then it’s OK to clean it up yourself. But beware! When you clean mold, it goes airborne. And you do not want to risk breathing it in.
If you have, say, a section of a wall with mold then it’s best to leave it to an expert mold damage restoration company. Like with water damage and fire damage, if mold has eaten into the structure it may be fragile although it might not look like it.
Mold likes to grow in private, so our team will check all the places that homeowners usually overlook, or find it hard to access. Like under carpets or couches.
Stop: Do Not Attempt Asbestos Removal Yourself
Eek. Just please don’t even consider it.
As you will know, asbestos is incredibly dangerous. In fact, 90,000 people a year around the world die because of exposure to it. The problem with asbestos is that some of it will become airborne when you remove the wall with it in.
Asbestos can break down into microscopic particles so you need industrial-grade equipment and special protective clothing to handle it. These tiny particles could get through your store-bought mask and past your safety glasses with no problems.
Some of our clients need asbestos removal because it was in the walls that got damaged by fire. So it’s doubly toxic.
Call the Leading Damage Restoration Experts in Los Angeles
Don’t risk injury from structural damage or from inhaling anything toxic. Save The Day Restoration is here to restore your property in Southern California, whatever damage occurred to it. You can rest assured your home is in good hands with our expert team. And when you and your family return to it, your home will be totally safe.
Give our friendly team a call now at (562) 246-9908 or get in touch by email. We even have 24/7 emergency services to get going promptly.
