Your antique furniture is swimming in hot water, and now you're really in hot water as well. All your mother's prized antique furniture, even the Louis XVI armchair, is stewing in a half-foot of cloudy water. Yesterday, each piece had survived centuries of children, insects, natural disasters, and naughty animals with surprising grace.
Today, it looks like they might as well have gone down with the Titanic. It's not just the appearance, either. The smell is equally overwhelming. Bacteria and fungi have good taste, and they are very eagerly devouring the elegant furniture. This isn't water damage. It's water desolation.
You have to save it. You run from the room, ready to do everything you can to restore centuries worth of careful preservation. You grab your cherry-scented air spray, a bucket, and paper towels and have almost reached the doorway when you realize that paper towels are not going to fix this.
Many people don't realize that there are many types of technology that can help to remedy water damage, and that the average household does not have the capability to deal with such a disaster. It's time to enlist professional help. You might not know a lot about the restoration and cleanup industry because it's not the kind of thing you have to deal with every day. Even so, they are on call, ready to help save your beautiful furniture.
If you call a 24-hour emergency response team, within four hours, you can have trained, uniformed cleanup experts at the scene of your disaster to help minimize the damage. Their truck-mounted cleanup units will effectively remove water, and submersible pumps allow them to remove even high levels of standing water quickly. After the bulk of the water is gone, hygrometers, moisture detectors, and other advanced meters help detect the level of water saturation of your belongings, and if necessary, infrared cameras help identify the location of any remaining moisture.
Advanced deodorization products help mitigate the odors from moisture, and professional-grade disinfectants kill bacteria, mildew, fungi, and other harmful organisms to ensure that the culture of your furniture remains the intangible kind.
Professional drying equipment prevents swelling and warping of wood and other materials. Industrial grade dehumidifiers ensure that even furniture and other items that did not directly come in contact with the water do not receive secondary damage as a result. High-speed air movers accelerate evaporation by moving air quickly across carpets, walls, and surfaces.
Now, less than twenty-four hours after that initial panic, it looks and smells as if your crisis was only a bad dream. Water damage restoration is best left to companies with state-of-the-art drying techniques and training. If you find yourself in over your head, there is professional help for these kinds of situations. You made the right choice, when you decided to call the experts, after all you and your paper towels wouldn't have stood a chance.