Before

After

Three Day Weekend Leaves Large Amount of Commercial Water Damage in Cutler Bay Office

SERVPRO received a call from a local Cutler Bay business owner for emergency services water damage cleanup. During a long holiday weekend, the main water line burst and flooded the structure's first floor. It turned into a standing water situation leaving the subfloor and drywall damage along with the flooring. The Before Photo shows the scene that greeting the SERVPRO technicians when they arrived to perform the water restoration services with water in the halls, offices, and equipment such as the copy machine.

The owner of this Cutler Bay business was anxious to get reopened as soon as possible. SERVPRO technicians extracted the water around the furnishings in as many offices as possible to limit moving items. The items that did get removed, such as the computer equipment, servers, and copy machines, were relocated to a safe, low-humidity area. SERVPRO recommends that electrical devices exposed to water damage should get inspected by a certified professional to ensure it is safe to operate.

Actions Needed During Water Restoration Services

The standing water seeped easily through the carpet and saturated the substrate underneath. The only way to completely dry it is to remove the carpet. The techs extracted the water making the carpet safer to handle as it weighed far less. Once disposed of, the techs used their extraction wands over the exposed floor to pull out as much moisture as possible to lessen the time needed for drying.

True Scale of the Water Damage

The After Photo shows an overview of how much water damage was done by under an inch of water in this Cutler Bay building. The carpet has been removed; the baseboards have been lifted. Fortunately, the walls did not require any controlled demolition actions as the water did not wick into the building materials.

SERVPRO technicians placed the desks and chairs in the individual offices up on blocks during the drying to allow the furnishings in each office to dry in place. The techs put multiple air movers and several dehumidifiers around the structure to capture and port away moisture during the drying phase of the water damage restoration. The technician's estimate:

• The amount of time it will take to dry a structure with water damage based on both internal and external factors
• Then, they monitor the process very carefully
• Make adjustments as needed to ensure that drying goals get attained.

Before this office can reopen in Cutler Bay, it will get a deep cleaning using antimicrobial and antibacterial cleaning agents because the water sat over 24-hours. Then the structure will be ready for the installation of new carpet and other touches to get it prepared to reopen.