Five Steps to Handle Commercial Water Damage Emergencies
How to Succesfully Manage Water Damage Restoration
In our 40+ years of working with buildings, we have found that one of the most damaging forces in a building is moisture.
Whether it is a burst pipe, flood damage, or an overflowing drain, your building can take on unwanted and unexpected water. These kinds of emergency water leaks can happen at a moment’s notice. Knowing how to respond properly to these emergencies can dramatically control the cost and loss you experience.
What is Emergency Water Loss?
“Water loss” is a technical term for any unplanned water that enters a facility.
Water can enter your facility in a variety of ways, ranging from natural disasters to deferred maintenance issues. Types of water damage include:
Broken sprinkler head
Leaking Pipes
Sewage backup
Roof leaks
HVAC leak
Overflowing appliance
Blocked drain
Clogged gutter
Water damage can be particularly destructive for commercial properties such as hospitals, hotels, senior living communities, and more. Beyond the cost of repair, waterlogged building materials can present infection control risks and mold growth issues that need to be safely managed.
Excess water in building materials also poses a significant risk to commercial businesses by potentially leading to operational disruptions and downtime. This could mean patients not receiving care, senior living residents being separated from their homes, hotel guests being turned away, or customers going unserved.
What to Do When You Have an Emergency Water Loss?
Dealing with the aftermath of water damage can be an overwhelming task. The pressure intensifies when there is a need for swift action. With the occupants depending on the facility's operations and delays only exacerbating the damage, a prompt response becomes paramount.
The five below steps can equip you to navigate these emergencies safely and quickly, while also finding professional partners to manage critical damage:
1. Find the Water Source and Stop It.
The most important first step is to stop the influx of water into your facility.
Below are some of the most common water shut-off methods:
In the case of leaking pipes, broken sprinkler heads, or domestic water issues, water is often stopped by a shut-off valve. Make sure you know where your building’s shut-off valves are located.
For a sanitary system backup, you will want to stop the use of water upstream from the blockage. In other words, the sinks, toilets, showers, etc. that are fed by pipes ahead of the blockage will need to be restricted to prevent water from flowing into the blocked area. A plumber may also need to be contacted to clear blockages in the pipes.
In the case of flooding from a natural disaster, storm drain overflow, etc., you may need to let the water drain naturally or have it removed.
However, water loss can also occur deep within a building’s layers and infrastructure. In these cases, you may only be able to identify the water intrusion by the occurrence of a musty smell, humid indoor air, visible appearance of mold growth, or deteriorating building materials. In these cases, professionals like emergency response and restoration teams can help you investigate inside the walls of your building or site infrastructure to detect the source.
If any electrical devices or outlets are in proximity to the water loss, also be sure to cut off electricity to affected areas.
2. Clean Up Standing Water.
Once water infiltration has been stopped, it often leaves behind standing water that can cause further damage. This water damage cleanup is impariative so property damage can be properly assessed and repaired.
In cases of flooding from natural disasters or storm drain overflows, the water may need to drain naturally out of the building.
If there is only a minor amount of standing water, your facility’s maintenance crew may be able to mop up the water. In other cases where there is too much standing water for an in-house team to manage, restoration experts with commercial wet vacuums can be called to manage the water removal.
Another factor in water extraction to keep in mind is the type of water—Category 1, 2, or 3 Water.
Category 1 Water originates from a sanitary water source and does not pose a substantial risk to human health.
Examples of Category 1 water damage include but are not limited to:
Broken water supply lines
Tub or sink overflows with no contaminants
Melting ice or snow
Falling rainwater
Toilet supply tank overflows or cracks
Toilet bowls that do not contain contaminants or chemicals
Category 2 Water contains significant contamination and has the potential to cause discomfort or sickness if contacted or consumed. Category 2 water can contain microorganisms or nutrients for microorganisms as well as organic or inorganic matter (chemical or biological).
Examples of Category 2 water damage include but are not limited to:
Discharge from dishwashers or washing machines
Overflows from washing machines
Overflows from toilet bowls on the room side of the trap with some urine but no feces
Seepage due to hydrostatic pressure
Broken aquariums
Punctured water beds
Wind driven rain from hurricanes
Tropical Storms
Category 3 Water is grossly contaminated and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic, or other harmful agents.
Examples of Category 3 water damage include but are not limited to:
Sewage
Toilet backflows that originate from beyond the toilet trap regardless of visible color or content
All forms of flooding from seawater
Ground surface water and rising from rivers and streams
Above sources carrying silt, organic matter, pesticides, heavy metals, regulated materials, or toxic organic substances
It is important to note the cleanliness of Category 1 or 2 water can deteriorate for many reasons, including but not limited to contact with building materials and mixing with soils or other contaminants.
When dealing with Category 2 and Category 3 Water, you will want to wear proper personal protective equipment (PPE) that protects your skin, eyes, and mouth. However, it can be difficult to determine the type of water without professional help. As a rule of thumb, it is best to assume the water you are working with is contaminated and take adequate precautions until a professional can rule out contamination.
3. Assess Building Damage.
Dry Out Wet Materials
If you have experienced minor water damage from Category 1 or 2 Water, your team should be able to dry out all wet materials. Mold growth can begin in as little as 72 hours, so it is important to begin the drying process as soon as possible. This can be done by putting fans on the wet areas, bringing in dehumidifiers, and airing out spaces where possible.
Porous materials like wood, drywall, carpet, and plaster typically absorb the most water and need to be watched closely. Casework like cabinets and desks also need to be dried quickly and monitored closely as they often develop an off-putting odor if not dried immediately. Non-porous materials like vinyl or resilient flooring are typically durable against water. However, keep in mind that ceramic and natural stone flooring can be porous, so you may need to investigate behind a section of any flooring to ensure water is not hiding underneath.
You can typically judge if a building material is salvageable with these three questions:
Has the dryness of the material been confirmed by a moisture meter within 72 hours of the water intrusion event?
Has the structural integrity of the material held up after drying? Is there any crumbling, cracking, swelling, or other damage?
Do you notice any non-typical odors or visible staining/discoloration?
If water damage in your facility is more widespread, you should contact an emergency response (ER) consultant to assess the extent of damage and provide water damage restoration recommendations.
Get Professional Help to Manage Water Damage
Many professional emergency response teams will respond within 24 hours of your call, depending on location and access to your facility.
Upon arrival, a digital map will be created of your property. As the emergency response team walks through your site, the map will be marked to indicate any areas where wet building materials are found.
Often, once standing water is removed, it can be difficult to visually see which materials are wet. This process provides a clear picture of affected areas. The moisture levels of all potentially impacted surfaces are measured with moisture meters for accurate results.
The emergency response team consults with a restoration company to dry out the identified wet materials through the use of industrial fans and commercial dehumidifiers. If materials have not dried within 72 hours—at which point mold growth can begin—their removal and replacement will be recommended. The emergency response professionals will provide restoration experts with the guidance and intel they need to perform the correct repairs.
Bring in Specialists
Sometimes specialized issues can occur, and the emergency response team will bring in corresponding specialists to provide solutions. For example, natural disasters can damage a building’s envelope or roof. In these cases, the emergency response team would engage forensic architects to assess damage. Or, the emergency response team could uncover a systemic issue when responding to a burst pipe—leading to the full replacement of the facility’s sanitary and stormwater piping over the course of several years.
4. Call Your Insurance Provider.
Once the situation is stabilized, you need to notify your insurance provider of the issue, so they can begin the coverage process. To file an effective insurance claim, keep the following tips in mind:
Call your insurance company as soon as possible after the affected areas have been controlled. Make sure you know ahead of time how best to contact your insurance agent and how to file a claim.
Take photos of the property damage and any affected equipment.
Records such as a moisture map are invaluable, along with a report from an independent consultant to confirm the cause and origin of moisture damage.
Keep any receipts and invoices.
Get a claims adjuster on site as soon as possible to document the damage and determine coverage.
Additionally, keep in mind that what your insurance company will cover does not always align with what restoration companies may recommend. It is helpful to get a third-party review of any contractor’s scope of work before construction. The third-party consultant can objectively compare the scope of work against what they believe insurance will cover and what is necessary for the health and safety of the building.
For example, one contractor may recommend the removal and replacement of an entire wall that is only partially damaged. However, a third-party reviewer may find that only a portion of the wall should be replaced based on actual damages. In this case, the insurance company would most likely only cover the partial replacement—meaning you would need to pay the difference in cost if you replaced the full wall.
Adjustments to the full replacement value by insurance may take years to resolve, but water damages should always be cleaned up and corrected according to accredited guidelines for restoration including the EPA’s Guide to Mold in Commercial Buildings and the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IIRC)’s S501 and S502 standards.
5. Repair or Replace Damaged Materials.
When repairing damaged materials in facilities, containments need to be set up for occupant and worker safety. The degree of these containments will vary depending on the regulations applying to your building and the health needs of your building population.
At the minimum, you want to separate work areas with a barrier to control dust and debris from entering non-work areas. Dust mats at work area entrances can further reduce the spread of dust. Additionally, you can create negative air pressure within containment areas to ensure air is not blowing out of the work area, carrying airborne dust and debris into non-work areas.
For healthcare and senior living buildings, your Emergency Response Project Manager and restoration contractors will need to fulfill Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) industry standards to protect vulnerable patients and residents. Often, this ICRA containment will be created in partnership with and to the approval of the facility’s Infection Preventionist.
Your Emergency Response Project Manager will remain onsite throughout the restoration process, coordinating needed permits, inspecting containments, and documenting work performed. The Project Manager will work with the restoration team to ensure repair work is completed in compliance with the agreed upon scope of work, your facility’s standards, and relevant regulations.
After build back, restored areas are given a final inspection. The Emergency Response Project Manager will conduct air clearances to certify the area is ready for re-occupancy. A final report with all project documentation will be provided which can then be used in finalizing your insurance claim.
“The biggest difference between success and failure in emergency responses is communication.”
—Rich Crim, GHP’s Vice President of Project Operations
The Importance of Communication
When it comes to emergency water damage situations, there are a lot of moving parts. Depending on the scale of your project, many contractors, vendor partners, and stakeholders will be involved. Keeping people on the same page is vital to a project’s success. Miscommunication can lead to critical delays.
“Even a day lost based on miscommunication is another day a facility does not have their space to provide care and services the community needs,” said GHP’s ER team lead Rick Crim. “That one day can have a major impact.”
Having a clear chain of command, utilizing a central file-sharing software and communication platform, and holding regular team progress meetings can help streamline team communication. Bringing on an Emergency Response Project Manager will also equip you with a single point of communication as they will manage other vendor partners on your behalf.
Know Who to Call
When it comes to emergency water damage, the best reaction comes from preparation. Know who to call before an emergency strikes. When creating your Emergency Response plan, keep GHP in mind as a partner. Typically on site within 24 hours, we can help provide you peace of mind and get your facility back online quickly and safely.