Restoration tips

Shut off the water at the main. If the water is near outlets, a panel or hardwired equipment, kill the power to that area at the breaker before you walk in it. Then call us. Do not start pulling up flooring — documenting the damage before it is disturbed matters for the claim.

Roughly 48 hours in the right conditions. That is the whole reason emergency drying is urgent rather than a next-week job, and it is the single biggest factor in what a restoration ends up costing.

Household fans move air but do not remove water from the air, so moisture migrates into walls and framing instead of leaving the building. Structural drying needs commercial air movers plus dehumidification, and a meter to prove the structure is actually dry rather than dry on the surface.

Call us first if water is still moving — stopping the source and starting extraction protects the claim. Then call your insurer. We document moisture readings throughout the drying, which is what an adjuster needs to sign off the repair phase.

A sewage backup is Category 3 water: it carries bacteria and viruses. Porous items that absorbed it — carpet, pad, drywall, upholstered furniture — usually cannot be saved and should not be. Hard surfaces can be cleaned and sanitised. It is not a shop-vac job.

Very. Soot keeps corroding what it settles on: within hours kitchen appliance finishes yellow, glass etches and metal tarnishes. Smoke odour sets into porous materials. Every day of delay moves items from cleanable to replaceable.