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Home Mold and Water Damage
11/1/2017 (Permalink)
Mold infestation from water damage
Leaking Water Leads to Serious Mold Problems
Redding and Shasta County residents call us every day for home water emergencies. A water valve breaks, a toilet leaks, a tenant moves out and breaks a water line, no pun intended but when it rains it pours. SERVPRO North Shasta, Trinity & Greater Tehama Counties is an emergency water and mold damage service priority responder to just such unexpected incidents. The following are front line examples of just how quickly a water line break can expand into extensive residential property damage.
SERVPRO water restoration professionals arrived at a vacant manufactured home and found furniture was still inside increasing the expanse of the mold infestation. The purpose was to inspect for a serious mold problem which is exactly what they discovered. There was mold on the exterior walls in three bedrooms (probably leaking from the siding and windows). The walls were constructed of drywall and the interior of the walls needed asbestos abatement because of the age of the dwelling.
On another emergency call priority response technicians discovered the dishwasher leaked producing a wet, squishy floor. Removing the laminate flooring to expose the sub-floor they found migration lines of mold continued into cabinets and the trim from the affected walls and into the dishwasher cavity. The mold finding was very serious. Mold spore containment sheeting was placed over the area. In fact, the cabinets needed removal to address the mold issue throughout the drywall.
Broken water pipes hidden within a wall are quite common. Servicing a Shasta County home we discovered the culprit was a cracked and leaking copper pipe. The kitchen and dining room area were heavily water damaged through tile flooring and sheet rock. The walls required baseboard and drywall removal. Our highly trained technicians cut out the drywall in the kitchen including mildew and mold soaked insulation. We needed to install extensive SERVPRO drying equipment.
Toilets, from our several decades of experience, can become major sources of water damage.
We arrived at a job site and found that a toilet float valve assembly broke causing overflow to an upstairs bathroom, living room, entry, kitchen, closet, stairway, master bedroom and lower level game room, bedroom, closet, HVAC room (the ducting had water pouring out) and bathroom. The water damage also affected the insulation in the crawlspace between the floors and a second crawlspace below the lower level. We pulled out the refrigerator and found the drywall to be dry but the ceramic tile floor had a wet area under the fridge. We cut out the carpet and pad from the living room and closet since it was delaminating and set up our dehumidifier and powerful air movers to quickly dry the sub-floor. Our SERVPRO team removed laminate, tile with cement board upstairs, cabinets, and an upstairs bathroom vanity. Lower story insulation and drywall were removed from ceiling and walls.
Our advice to home and residential property owners is to regularly check your water connections – toilets, faucets, pipes and flow valves into home appliances. Be aware of the external location of the water shut off valve and how to shut it off. When water damage does occur SERVPRO of North Shasta, Trinity & Greater Tehama Counties is here to help 24 Hours a day 365 days a year.