What You Can Do to Reduce Water Damage

When water damage happens in your home, you need to act immediately to minimize the potential damage you could accumulate. There are tons of ways you can minimize your household damage and capitalize on your time. You should also call professionals to handle your water restoration in Los Angeles immediately to minimize the catastrophe.

Eventually, everyone who owns a property will encounter water damage because this situation is common for every property. Continue reading to learn how to reduce damage to your home proactively.

Take Any Mysterious Smells Seriously

Sometimes water damage happens, and we have no idea because we don’t see any of the damage physically. When encountering any mildewy or moldy smells, it would be best if you took them seriously. These smells are strong indicators of hidden water damage that you must treat immediately.

There’s a chance you might only smell the mold when it’s hot out, and you still need to treat it no matter the circumstance. Just because you only smell it occasionally doesn’t mean it’s only occasionally present. Do not minimize any mysterious smells throughout your home, or you could cost yourself thousands of dollars from your negligence of water damage.

Stop Any Leaks You Find

Another strong indicator that you have some water damage throughout your home is any wet spots on the floors, ceilings, or countertops. These wet spots mean you have a leak somewhere, especially if they’re persistent. You must determine where the leak is coming from and patch that hole as soon as possible to reduce water damage.

If you let the leaking keep happening without sealing it up, you can cause mold, wood damage, and electrical damage throughout your home. It would help if you also dried up any wet spots that your leaks cause to reduce water damage.

Look For Mold in Your House

If mold grows in your house, it could make you sick frequently. Mold causes allergens that can get into your lungs and eventually lead to respiratory issues when you don’t treat them. So if you suspect any water damage in your home, you need to look for mold and take care of it as soon as possible.

Too much mold in your house can also wear down your wood floors and damage your structure. The sooner you find your mold, the sooner you can treat it and prevent any negative health or structural defects.

Treat All Mold with Bleach to Minimize the Spread

Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to minimize your water damage is to treat any mold you find in the house after you seal the leak. All the supplies you need to treat mold, our standard household products, and dry cloth. Remember, always seal any leaks before you treat the mold, or it will just keep coming back. Follow these steps to treat your mold as soon as you find it and minimize the spread.

1. Pour bleach into a spray bottle, so it’s easier to tackle the mold.
2. Spray the bleach directly onto the mold and the surrounding area just in case the spores have already spread.
3. Allow the bleach to set on the area for a few hours to ensure it kills the root of the mold.
4. Wipe up the spot with a dry cloth or paper towel after it’s set.

If you don’t have any bleach on hand, you can do this with undiluted white vinegar. However, do not mix these ingredients if you have both in your house. White vinegar has ammonia, which will directly interfere with the bleach and cause a toxic gas to release into the air upon contact.

Sometimes, mold can be pretty hard to spot, so you should always call a professional if you notice any water damage to ensure all the mold is gone. For example, you might not notice any mold in your floorboards or under your wallpaper but a professional will. An expert mold remover can also give you insight into areas you need to monitor throughout your house to keep yourself and other residents in great health.

Use a Dehumidifier

After you’ve treated all the mold and water damage throughout your home or contacted a professional, you can purchase a dehumidifier to reduce further water damage. California can get hot and muggy, so you need to counteract this situation by maintaining a climate in your house that won’t allow mold to thrive.

If you remove the humidity throughout your home frequently, ensure that your water damage stays to a minimum. Water damage can’t thrive if there’s no moisture in the air.

Another way you can monitor the climate of your household so that mold can’t grow is to buy an air conditioning unit. Mold grows the fastest in warm wet climates, so mold cannot grow in the area if you tackle both problems. When you reduce the mold in your house, you reduce the water damage.

Be Cautious Around Any Exposed Outlets

Electrical damage is a more cumbersome issue you could experience when you have water damage in your home. For example, if you notice liquid drywall bumps around your electrical sockets, you must avoid using them until you call an electrician. In addition, if you plug any devices into an outlet with water damage, you could completely ruin your device.

Do not try to resolve any electrical damage that happened from water damage by yourself because you can receive serious injuries. You do not want to cause an electrical current to go through your body and hurt you.

Call a Professional to Prevent Expensive Structural Damage

One of the best ways to reduce water damage in your home is to call one of our experts immediately. We are the leading experts in water damage restoration in Los Angeles and service places like West Lake Village, Westwood, and Venice.

If you have a water-damaged home in California, call us so that we can give you the premium care that you need. Don’t let your water damage spiral out of control.