When your roof springs a leak, time is not on your side. Moisture is your home’s enemy. Too much of it permeating into your wood and drywall can lead to extensive water damage and big bucks coming out of your pocket to fix the problem.
Let’s walk you through how to fix a leaky roof instead. Taking quick action can go a long way towards keeping your home from getting damaged and posing serious risks to the structural integrity of the property. Water damage isn’t just destructive but it can also make you and your family sick as mold and mildew grow and thrive. You don’t want to breathe in those harmful spores.
So, here are the things you want to do to minimize the damage to your home. Do these things before you call your roofing company in Des Moines to have one of their experts come out to your home to assess the problem and repair it as fast as possible.
Protect and Prevent
The minute you discover a leak you need to catch the water that’s coming through the roof. But you must also take steps to protect your things and prevent water damage from occurring. Lay down plastic or tarps over your furniture and carpeting.
Move any electronics that could become damaged from exposure to moisture. A loss of these items due to water damage may not be covered by your insurance, so be sure to safeguard anything of value that could get ruined.
Once everything has been well secured, place receptacles underneath the leaks. It’s better to collect the water than allow it to splash and soak into your belongings and your home’s interior.
Drying the Affected Areas and Belongings
Once you have dealt with the leak and stopped it from continuing to make everything wet, the next step is drying everything as quickly as possible. You want to be sure you get the carpet dried particularly fast as a wet carpet can breed mold and mildew. The same goes for your padding underneath and when moisture is allowed to seep in and permeate that barrier, you could be looking at some serious water damage to the floors.
If that occurs, you could end up tearing out your carpet just to repair the ruined floor. You can probably imagine what that will cost. Not just the cost of ripping out your carpet and repairing the flooring but the cost of replacing that carpet with a new installation.
Your best bet for drying wet carpet and furnishings is to get as much air flow going through the room as possible. Open your windows, turn on some fans, you can even bring in a dehumidifier to do the work quicker. Do not use heaters, that will just keep the moisture in the air and prevent it from coming out of your carpet and other affected items.
If there is simply too much water to remove, you may not be able to do the work yourself. That might require the services of a water extraction company.
