An Introduction to Structural Drying
Have you just found that your basement or laundry-room floor is covered in water due to a plumbing disaster? Has a recent flood or other storm turned your commercial property into a wading pool? If so, you’re probably wondering how to clean that mess up — and whether structural drying needs to play a role in it. Let’s take a look at the basics of structural drying, when structural drying might be necessary, and how restoration companies such as Zona Restoration can use these drying techniques to help prevent secondary damage to your home or building.
Important Tools for Preventing Water Damage
How much work you need to do to keep water from wrecking your property depends on how much water you see on the floor. If you’re just getting your shoes wet from 1 to 2 inches of water, chances are that you can simply use time-honored methods such as a wet vac, mop, towels, and a nice strong fan to get the water up before any serious damage can occur. But if you’re looking at a genuinely flooded space, you’ll need more serious drying techniques to protect your space against rot, mold, and mildew.
That’s where structural drying comes to the rescue. Structural drying aims, not only to get obvious water off the floor, but also to get the air, walls, and flooring back to their normal level of dryness as fast as possible. Damage restoration companies do start by pulling all the loose water out of the room — but that’s just the beginning. They also check every part of the room for little gaps, holes, or hidden puddles that might cause damage. The next steps involve tools such as:
Air Movement
Strong, high-speed air movers can dry out damp floors and walls before damage sets in. The more power and the shorter the drying time, the better. We need to make all that trapped water evaporate — because once we get it into the air, we can pull it out of the air as well.
Desiccant Dehumidifiers and Refrigerant Dehumidifiers
These machines draw the water vapor out of the air to get the humidity down and protect the space from mold growth or other damage. Refrigerant dehumidifiers pull moisture from the air by running it through a compressor that cools it down, turning vapor into water. Desiccant dehumidifiers run the air through an area containing absorbent rocks or similar materials. We may use either or both machines to remove all the moisture from your space.
Temperature Control
Temperature has a big influence on how whether you have water vapor or liquid water. Depending on the stage of the structural drying process, we may need to heat or cool the space to achieve either goal. Running heated air through the air movers can boost evaporation for easier water removal. We can then use refrigerated dehumidifiers to cool that vapor and remove the water from the air.
Learn More — and Get Help — at Zona Restoration
Zona Restoration is proud to offer structural drying and other water damage restoration services for Tempe, AZ and surrounding areas. Contact our company today to request a free estimate so we can help save your home or business property!
