Water Damage in Your Thomasville Home from a Toilet Overflow

3/14/2017 (Permalink)

Water Cleanup in a Thomasville Bathroom Can Use the Help of SERVPRO

Rely on SERVPRO to Safely Restore Contaminated Water Damage Properties

One of the top five causes of water damage in homes is an overflowing toilet. Whether the tank malfunctions or it is a clog in the bowl, the damage can be devastating. When the bathroom is located upstairs, this is particularly the case because water drips down to the downstairs level of your home. At this point you have a class 3 water loss, which means water damage has happened from top to bottom, affecting ceilings, wall cavities, insulation, flooring, and more. To put it bluntly, you have a big mess on your hands which requires the help of a professional water restoration team like SERVPRO.

Assessing the Damage
As with any damage, the first thing our SERVPRO tech does when arriving at your Thomasville home is assess the water damage. A lot of the damage is not visible to the human eye, so this is not as easy as you might think. If the damage occurred in your bathroom upstairs, with a wall in the bathroom being a wall on the exterior of your home, most people think the water just travels along their second story floor, and they can mop up the water, and that is it. However, this could not be further from the truth.
 
There are several things which can occur in an emergency like this. These include things such as water getting trapped under your bathroom cabinets, water traveling down your exterior wall and soaking your insulation, and water wicking up the bathroom wall and ruining the drywall and possibly affect any electrical wiring housed within the wall cavity. Water dripping through the subfloor and soaking the space in between your first and second floors is also possible.
 
As a water damage restoration company, one of the biggest problems we see is people underestimating how bad the loss is. That is true in the case of a toilet overflow. All of the above are difficult to diagnose without the right equipment. Would you honestly be able to spot a problem of water damage inside your wall? Especially if the wall was dry to the touch? That is just one small area which was affected, and you should think twice about trying to clean up the damage yourself after such an emergency.
 
Water Containing Sewage
When a toilet overflow includes sewage cleanup, the stakes rise dramatically. If you realize that raw sewage is in the water, shut the supply line off and leave your home, then immediately get in touch with us.
 
At SERVPRO of North Davidson County, we handle all kinds of water loss emergencies, so if you have water damage from an overflowing toilet, you need to have us come check it out right away. We are only a phone call away at (336) 224-2565, and we are available anytime you need us.