Restoration 101 A General Overview of Restoration

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Restoration 101 A General Overview of Restoration

Water Damage and the Categories & Classifications of Water

The Drying Techniques with regular drying as well as Structural Drying & Specialty Drying techniques.

Fire and Smoke Mitigation - Odor Removal - Abatement Levels 1, 2, 3

Abatement Remediation – Mould - Lead - Asbestos

This article will discuss General Restoration 101 techniques and all the factors that go with restoration, Water Damage and the Categories & Classifications of Water.??The Drying Techniques with regular drying as well as Structural Drying & Specialty Drying techniques.?Fire and Smoke Mitigation is very complicated and requires multiple techniques to repair.?Odor Removal is a constant when dealing in restoration Mould Abatement has multiple levels, Levels 1, 2, 3and is important to ensure when moving forward., as well as Abatement and a How to Guide for smaller projects.

Premium Restoration has been dealing with emergency restoration since the early 2000’s and has handled over 10,000 jobs to with over 1,000, 000-man hours in work completed.?Premium has hired some of the best professionals in the industry from emergency technicians, contents staff, project managers and especially the administrative staff that can handle any task assigned to them.

With water damage and fire claims becoming more prevalent and more and more people working from home, everyone needs to know who to deal with water damage and hopefully prevent massive flooding their home and businesses.?Also due to the age of buildings in the Greater Vancouver Regional District GVRD and the Fraser Valley Regional District FVRD, Environmental Remediation for Asbestos, Lead, Mould etc. and now COVID 19, this can be a large and expense undertaking and needs to be handled by the appropriate professional otherwise physical and mental health can be compromised.

Kris Kuran has been in Emergency Restoration for the past 10 years and dealt with the average home restorations – basement floods, to most complicated arenas, hospital and municipality restoration.?Kris Kuran also offers continuing educational courses for brokers and insurance companies.

Water Damage?

Water damage happens in many ways into your property due to sewer line and toilet backups, sump pump and water heater failures, broken pipes, washing machine and dishwasher leaks, ice maker line leaks, heavy rain roof leaks, ground water seeping into the basement and natural disasters.

When it comes to a flood or water damage emergency in your home, every minute counts. If floodwater inside your home is not dealt with quickly, your walls, as well as your carpet, flooring, ceiling and personal property can quickly become waterlogged and damaged beyond repair. Flooded zones can quickly become unsafe for human exposure. Consider that dangerous bacteria begin to multiply in wet environments, not to mention rot and mold growth. All it takes is a few inches of water to create a serious threat to your home or office. The harmful effects of water damage can be reduced greatly by the prompt and reliable emergency flood services from Premium Restoration.

Categories of Water

The Categories of water will determine the response necessary to ensure how each restoration professional deal with the claim.?The categories determine how dirty the water is and how much potential threat to of disease persists.

????????Category 1 – Clean water, caught immediately

?????????no real hazard if addressed immediately - Overflowing Sink

????????Category 2 – Clean water that has been released for more than 24 hours

????????Requires removal of some porous materials (carpet pad, insulation) can carry pathogens

????????No fecal Matter

????????Category 3 – Dirty water, Sewage, water that has been escaped for more than 48 hours.

????????Requires removal of all porous materials, heavy sanitization. Carries biological contaminants, gram negative bacteria, viruses and pathogens.

????????Heavy PPE requirement for workers

Classifications

The Classification determines the amount of water that been dispersed and the type of materials that the water has gone through or dispersed onto.

Class 1 – Water affects small area, non-porous materials

????????Slow rate of evaporation

Class 2 – Water affects complete room(s) porous materials involved,

????????Fast rate of evaporation (floor level loss)

Class 3 – Water affects complete rooms, typically from above, porous materials involved

????????Fastest rate of evaporation

Class 4 – Complex drying situations (Plaster, multiple layers, crawlspaces etc.

????????Massive Complex – Arena – Entire Hotel – etc.

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Drying Techniques

After a flood, it is highly important to remove the water from the flooded structure and contents as soon as possible. In the past, limited technology was not only slow, but resulted in removing and discarding damaged carpets, pads and drywalls. Thanks to today’s powerful equipment, professional disaster restoration companies can completely restore water damaged properties and contents to their pre-loss condition with minimal intrusion or disruption.

The benefits of the advanced drying techniques include:

1.?????LGR Dehumidifiers?can reduce the relative humidity to as low as 10%, removing up to 16 gallons of water from the air per day. Older dehumidifiers were able to reduce the humidity to only 40%, removing about 5 gallons of water per day.

2.?????Drying is much faster?– 24 to 48 hours with modern equipment, as opposed to 4 or more days with older equipment.

3.?????Thanks to faster drying,?mould and other fungi?are less likely to develop. The health problems associated with mould are alleviated.

4.?????The?irreversible swelling in porous materials, such as wood and drywall, is prevented.

5.?????Using?desiccants,?which?release very dry and warm air (5% relative humidity and 40oC) into humid areas, helps eliminate moisture.?Silica gel?is also used to absorb humidity from the air.

6.??????Intra-wall drying?helps the drying process inside of walls without removing drywall. Air is forced into cavities behind walls through drilled holes, greatly reducing the drying time of the wall.

7.?????With powerful extraction techniques, water can be extracted from the pad, through the carpet, leaving the underlying pad slightly moist but not wet.

Completely drying water-damaged properties and contents requires the advanced tools and techniques used by professionals such as Premium Restoration. In the unfortunate event of a flood, don’t hesitate to call a certified restoration company.

There are multiple types of drying techniques that restoration experts use from invasive procedures to non-invasive procedures.?Most professionals use non-invasive procedure so as to keep cost lost for clients.??The instrument you use are the most important.

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Instruments for Measurement of Water Damage

????????Contact Moisture Meter

????Thermal Imaging Camera

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Structural Drying

Low Grain Refrigerant Dehumidifiers (LGR’s) work on principal of evaporation through evaporative cooling which allow the wet materials to dry in place, instead of ripping everything out and causing more damage and cost to the insurers

????????Backwards air conditioner

????????Require a drain to pump water too

????????Process Air ranges from 80 to 250+ CFM –(Cubic Feet per Minute)

????????Temperature range (interior) 12C to 35C

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Specialty Drying

Air movers are also installed to ensure proper air circulation and no these are not you regular fan.?Technicians use a calculation to ensure the proper amount of air movers are s

????????Air Movers help circulate the air

????????Create air currents in rooms to accelerate evaporation from building materials

????????Snail type and Axial are most common

Comes in many sizes and colors

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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Snail type and Axial are most common

Injectidry Systems

Injectidry Systems can do cavity drying which is specifically developed to target areas that need high air exchange rates. Sets up in minutes.

Replace fewer walls & ceilings. Dries beneath and behind cabinets and stairwells.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

????????Evaporation moisture from the air through the use of a heated desiccant wheel

????????Expel moisture to the exterior of the building in a stream of reactivation air

????????Operating Range is almost infinite

????????Process Air ranges from 80 cubic feet per minute to 25,000 cfm

????????The only real option for large commercial projects.

?Fire and Smoke

When your Vancouver home or business suffers fire damage, it’s absolutely devastating. If a team of firefighters was involved, your property will also have water damage from the fire team efforts. This is certainly a highly stressful and confusing situation, where you will need a caring fire restoration company to guide you through this crisis and back to comfort.

Mitigation

????????Smoke travels everywhere

????????Soot is deposited as smoke cools

????????Soot particulate can be very small

????????Most soot particulate is extremely carcinogenic

????????Type of soot is governed by the materials that burned

????????Oily, Dry, Protein

????????Type of soot drives mitigation process

Restoration specialists start smoke removal?by cleaning all surfaces.?Once the technicians finish cleaning the visible surfaces, using specialized equipment is often necessary to remove the very last of the odors that are not accessible.

????????Examples: (Look Around your Space)

????????Wall Joints??

????????Inside the Wall Cavities

????????Inside Vents

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What is required to clean up to keep everyone safe?

PPE Equipment necessary to completed fire and smoke restoration

????????Respirators

????????P100, N95, P100 OV

????????Half face, Full face,

????????Tyvek Suits

????????Gloves

????????Booties

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Odor Removal

Ozone Machine

????????Ozone?treatment for?smoke?damage is basically used to remove any kind of bad odors that linger after the?smoke?damage. After the fire is put out, soot and?smoke?tend to stay inside the house. The soot and?smoke?from fire has an odor which is quite harmful for your health.

????????Ozone?generators?work?by: Silent corona discharge: These?machines?use electric discharge to produce?ozone?by splitting the normal oxygen molecules in the air into single atoms.??These atoms then attach to other O2?molecules in the air to form?ozone?(O3).

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Air Scrubbers

????????Remove particulates in the air

????????Common Sizes 500, 750, 2000cfm

????????Most have 3 layers of filtration

????????Primary matt filter for large particulate

????????Secondary pleated filter for smaller particulate

????????Main HEPA filter

*All Filters are 1 time use and disposable

Note: Charcoal filters for smoke because it also removes smells

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?Mould

Mould is a respiratory and mucous membrane hazard. Mould can and will from in any damp environment on almost any surface and requires 3 things to grow:

????????Moisture (humidity in the air is sufficient)

????????Lack air

????????Lack of direct light

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Mould Abatement Levels

????????Level 1 – less than 10 square feet impacted by visual growth. (Can be handled by home owner)

????????Level 2 – 10-100sf impacted by visual growth or high spore count on surfaces. (Can be handled by home owner)

????????Level 3 – Greater than 100sf (call a professional)

Test Test Test, testing is important and Premium will not start a job without testing for any hazardous materials.

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Lead

Exposure

Removing lead-based paint, or demolishing walls coated with it, can release lead dust into the air.

????????Paint

????????Demo of Walls – Coatings

????????Tiles

The Risks

????????Lead is toxic to almost all of our organs. The body will naturally get rid of lead over time but lead can accumulate faster than your body can get rid of it.

????????Repeated exposure to low doses of lead, or short-term exposure to high doses, causes health problems

????????to low doses of lead, or short-term exposure to high doses, causes health problems

Test Test Test, testing is important and Premium will not start a job without testing for any hazardous materials.

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Elimination or Substitution of Lead

????????Eliminating the hazard by substituting a safer process or material, where possible, is the most effective control. A question to consider:

????????Can you replace lead-based materials (e.g., paint) with lead-free alternates?

Engineering Controls Removal of Lead

????????Making physical modifications to facilities, equipment, and processes can reduce exposure. Some questions to consider:

????????Can local exhaust ventilation be used or improved?

????????Can workers be enclosed away from lead-generating processes?

These are the types of questions to be asked prior to performing any work.

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Asbestos

????????Found in many building materials installed prior to the 1990’s

????????Respiratory Hazard only

????????Highly carcinogenic

????????HIGHLY regulated in most provinces

????????Criminal penalties for building owners and abatement contractors if not properly handled

Test Test Test this important and Premium will not start a job without testing for any hazardous materials.

When it comes to any type of abatement, please ensure to use a professional for a least an opinion for all those Do It Yourselves’ to ensure your health isn’t compromised as well as your wallet.

If you have had the unfortunately event of a flood or fire at your home or business, ensure to call the right people to mitigate and repair the situation improper techniques can cause more damage and more costs to the claim.?

Premium Restoration has been Restoring Comfort from Crisis since 2006.?

Kris Kuran - Director of Business Development at Premium Restoration