Everyone has let the bath tub or the kitchen sink overflow because we just forgot that the water was running, but if it happens often, you might want to think about the consequences of letting it. Water damage is quite a serious thing and can cost a decent bit of money to have repaired, so letting the tub, sink, or toilet overflow on a regular basis could end up costing you in the long run. While there is not much advise to help with that problem other than to just be less forgetful, there are other things that you can do to help prevent water damage from happening to your home.
Whether you take a shower or a bath, they both give off steam in the bathroom, but there is not always anywhere for the steam to go if you do not have a vent installed for just this purpose. Your ceiling and walls will absorb the steam over time and become damaged. Over time, mold will also start to grow on the walls and you will have a brand new problem to deal with.
Any plumbing that goes to your dishwasher or the washing machine in your laundry room needs to be checked for damage on a semi-regular basis. Any appliance in your home that uses water that comes directly from the plumbing system needs to be checked for cracks or weak spots. Check also under the kitchen and bathroom sinks for these kind of problems. Leaks can pop up anywhere in the home and at any time, but sometimes they are due to simply not keeping a check on the plumbing.
A roof that has a leak in it is also a serious cause of water damage. It not only wets the insulation in the attic (causing it to be useless and heavy on your ceiling), but it also leaks through that insulation and soaks the drywall on your ceiling, discoloring it and allowing mold to grow.
If you do have a spill, especially anywhere that you have carpet, soak up as much of the water as you can and if it is a large amount of water, it might be a good idea to pull the carpet up and get under it, too. Unless you have a carpet shampooer and can pull up the water in the carpet immediately, the padding underneath the carpet will also get soaked. Carpet is notorious for allowing mold to grow for a long time without you noticing that there is a problem.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
You Only Have 20 Seconds To Save Your Cell Phone From Water Damage
Odds are good that if you have a cell phone that cost you a few hundred dollars to purchase, the last thing that you want to happen is to allow it to be submerged in water for any length of time. Unfortunately, accidents do happen and most cell phone warranties do not cover water damage at all. Cell phones have recently been equipped with stickers both on the inside of the battery compartment and on the circuit board that change color when they have come into contact with water. These stickers also have been known to trigger when exposed to high levels of humidity, resulting in a number of people who have never let their phones come into contact with water being denied a claim on their warranty.
If you do happen to drop your cell phone into the kitchen sink or the pool, there is something that you can do to save your phone. Unless you drop the phone off into deep water and you cannot retrieve it in under about 20 seconds, you should be able to revive it.
The first thing that you should do is get the phone out of the water as soon as possible and begin drying the outside. It takes water a few seconds to get inside your phone since the new casings are pretty tight.
After you get the phone out of the water, remove the battery pack and set it aside so that it can dry separately. Remove your SIM card, if your phone has one, as well. These cards can be just as valuable as or even more valuable than the phone itself depending on what contact information exists on the card. You can put it into a bowl of uncooked rice; this will help draw out any moisture that might have made it into your phone. Let it stay in the bowl at least overnight before you put the battery back into it.
Once you put the battery back into the phone, try and turn it back on. If it does not work, plug the phone into a wall outlet in your home. If this works, then you just need a new battery and you should be able to get one of those as long as you are willing to spend the money to get a new one from the manufacturer.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Emergency Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
If you do happen to drop your cell phone into the kitchen sink or the pool, there is something that you can do to save your phone. Unless you drop the phone off into deep water and you cannot retrieve it in under about 20 seconds, you should be able to revive it.
The first thing that you should do is get the phone out of the water as soon as possible and begin drying the outside. It takes water a few seconds to get inside your phone since the new casings are pretty tight.
After you get the phone out of the water, remove the battery pack and set it aside so that it can dry separately. Remove your SIM card, if your phone has one, as well. These cards can be just as valuable as or even more valuable than the phone itself depending on what contact information exists on the card. You can put it into a bowl of uncooked rice; this will help draw out any moisture that might have made it into your phone. Let it stay in the bowl at least overnight before you put the battery back into it.
Once you put the battery back into the phone, try and turn it back on. If it does not work, plug the phone into a wall outlet in your home. If this works, then you just need a new battery and you should be able to get one of those as long as you are willing to spend the money to get a new one from the manufacturer.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Emergency Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
How To Keep Mold From Calling Your Fridge Home
Finding mold growing in your refrigerator is something that we cannot usually avoid, because mold exists everywhere we are and it grows on dead organic materials, just like what we keep in our refrigerator. There are ways, however, to reduce the amount of mold that will grow in your refrigerator.
You should take inventory of your refrigerator and anything that is outdated beyond use should be thrown away because if mold is not growing on it now, it will eventually. The sooner that you forget an outdated item is in your refrigerator, the sooner mold will begin to grow inside it and spread to other items nearby. The spread of mold in this way is especially true of fruits and vegetables that are often stored in a bin on top of each other. One infected item can affect the whole bin and make it inedible. It is best to go through these items as often as possible to make sure anything contaminated is removed.
When you bring fruits and vegetables home from the grocery store, we often have them in the plastic bags that we used in the produce section to pack them in. You should probably remove these items from the bags in order to reduce the amount of condensation they are exposed to. Condensation will build up inside the bag as water evaporates and mold will begin to grow.
Cleaning the refrigerator regularly is also essential to slow the growth of mold. Everything in the refrigerator should be washed thoroughly and since no surface inside it should be porous, using chlorine bleach to wash the inside should be fine to assist in removing any mold that has begun to grow. Whatever you choose to clean your refrigerator with, please do not mix household chemicals when cleaning your home. The results can be harmful or even deadly if you mix the wrong two, such as bleach and ammonia.
Before you really start cleaning it out, take the light bulb out of your fridge because they are not made to be left on for more than a few minutes and will possibly burn out if you leave the refrigerator door open for too long.
After you are done washing the inside of the refrigerator, take a few minutes and go through everything as mentioned earlier and throw out anything that you think is too old. Washing down the outside of the refrigerator is also a good idea.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
You should take inventory of your refrigerator and anything that is outdated beyond use should be thrown away because if mold is not growing on it now, it will eventually. The sooner that you forget an outdated item is in your refrigerator, the sooner mold will begin to grow inside it and spread to other items nearby. The spread of mold in this way is especially true of fruits and vegetables that are often stored in a bin on top of each other. One infected item can affect the whole bin and make it inedible. It is best to go through these items as often as possible to make sure anything contaminated is removed.
When you bring fruits and vegetables home from the grocery store, we often have them in the plastic bags that we used in the produce section to pack them in. You should probably remove these items from the bags in order to reduce the amount of condensation they are exposed to. Condensation will build up inside the bag as water evaporates and mold will begin to grow.
Cleaning the refrigerator regularly is also essential to slow the growth of mold. Everything in the refrigerator should be washed thoroughly and since no surface inside it should be porous, using chlorine bleach to wash the inside should be fine to assist in removing any mold that has begun to grow. Whatever you choose to clean your refrigerator with, please do not mix household chemicals when cleaning your home. The results can be harmful or even deadly if you mix the wrong two, such as bleach and ammonia.
Before you really start cleaning it out, take the light bulb out of your fridge because they are not made to be left on for more than a few minutes and will possibly burn out if you leave the refrigerator door open for too long.
After you are done washing the inside of the refrigerator, take a few minutes and go through everything as mentioned earlier and throw out anything that you think is too old. Washing down the outside of the refrigerator is also a good idea.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Mold Can Hurt Your Pets Health
If you have mold in your place of residence and you are a healthy adult that is not responsible for the health of anyone else, you might think that it is alright to continue living there until you can afford to have the mold removed professionally. But, while there may be no other humans that you are responsible for, do you have any pets? If you do, you might want to reconsider allowing your pet to stay with you until you can have the mold removed. Our pets are particularly at risk for developing mold-related health complications.
Something that has recently come under fire is the use of dogs to detect mold in homes and other buildings. This is not only ineffective compared to other methods, but it is also very harmful to the health of the dog. By the time the health complications of the dog show as symptoms, it is often too late to do anything about it and the animal must be euthanized. These dogs are trained to deliberately inhale mold spores, which is something that humans are repeatedly told NOT to do. Humans are told that they should always wear respirators when having anything to do with mold, so why would it make any sense to use a dog to do this job when there are other methods that are so much more effective? A dog cannot tell you what kind of mold you are dealing with, how toxic it may be, or in what quantity it exists in the home.
Dogs have not only been shown to contract aspergillosis from contact with mold, but also other conditions such as blastomycosis.
Aspergillosis can form as allergic reactions involving coughing up blood, fever, and weight loss, among some other symptoms, but it can also show up as the growth of fungus in different cavities of the body both in humans and in pets. Aspergilloma often have no symptoms at all and when they do finally surface, their symptoms can also include the coughing up of blood along with other symptoms of aspergillosis.
Blastomycosis is caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis and it occurs more in large male dogs that are of hunting breeds than most others, however, all dogs are at risk. It has been known to cause pets to develop pneumonia, other respiratory infections, and skin infections.
If you suspect mold in your home, think not only of your own and your family’s health, but also of your pets. They are some of the most at risk.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Orlando water damage restoration companies and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Something that has recently come under fire is the use of dogs to detect mold in homes and other buildings. This is not only ineffective compared to other methods, but it is also very harmful to the health of the dog. By the time the health complications of the dog show as symptoms, it is often too late to do anything about it and the animal must be euthanized. These dogs are trained to deliberately inhale mold spores, which is something that humans are repeatedly told NOT to do. Humans are told that they should always wear respirators when having anything to do with mold, so why would it make any sense to use a dog to do this job when there are other methods that are so much more effective? A dog cannot tell you what kind of mold you are dealing with, how toxic it may be, or in what quantity it exists in the home.
Dogs have not only been shown to contract aspergillosis from contact with mold, but also other conditions such as blastomycosis.
Aspergillosis can form as allergic reactions involving coughing up blood, fever, and weight loss, among some other symptoms, but it can also show up as the growth of fungus in different cavities of the body both in humans and in pets. Aspergilloma often have no symptoms at all and when they do finally surface, their symptoms can also include the coughing up of blood along with other symptoms of aspergillosis.
Blastomycosis is caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis and it occurs more in large male dogs that are of hunting breeds than most others, however, all dogs are at risk. It has been known to cause pets to develop pneumonia, other respiratory infections, and skin infections.
If you suspect mold in your home, think not only of your own and your family’s health, but also of your pets. They are some of the most at risk.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Orlando water damage restoration companies and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Tips On Preventing Wildfire Damage
While a house fire may be one of the most preventable disasters to happen to a home, a wildfire can be one of the least preventable on a small scale. Prevention of wildfires requires that a large number of people do what they can to make sure that the wildfires that do start are not manmade, but this awareness is only just now starting to catch on. When the fire is creeping toward your home, you are not likely to care what caused it, only what you can do to slow it down and in fact, there are a few different things that you can do to minimize the damage.
You may enjoy living in a more rural area, but you are at a disadvantage when it comes to wildfires because this is where they begin. One of the bad things about living in a rural area is that fire departments are not as prevalent, so the response to your home may not be as quick as you need it to be.
If you are contemplating having a home built for you, have it made of fire-resistant materials. Houses with an exterior made of brick, stone, or even metal will resist catching on fire much more than those that have exteriors made of wood or vinyl siding.
The most important exterior surface of your home is the roof. This is the largest surface area on the exterior of your home and it should be made of fire-resistant materials instead of the traditional wooden or oil-based shingles. Everyone knows that oil catches on fire very easily, so if you live in an area that is prone to wildfires, you may want to have another roofing material put on your home. Something else to do with your roof if a wildfire is nearby is to wet it down with the garden hose. This will give a little extra protection against the firebrands that are being carried in the air by the wind. Wetting the exterior walls of the house and wood decks is also a very good idea.
Do not allow any dead vegetation to build up in the yard. This includes grass cuttings, sticks, dead plants, and leaves. If a wildfire starts before you have a chance to get these dead organic materials cleaned up, all you can do is soak them and the rest of the yard with water via the hose and hope for the best.
Trees should also not be located close to the house, especially if the branches hang over the roof.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
You may enjoy living in a more rural area, but you are at a disadvantage when it comes to wildfires because this is where they begin. One of the bad things about living in a rural area is that fire departments are not as prevalent, so the response to your home may not be as quick as you need it to be.
If you are contemplating having a home built for you, have it made of fire-resistant materials. Houses with an exterior made of brick, stone, or even metal will resist catching on fire much more than those that have exteriors made of wood or vinyl siding.
The most important exterior surface of your home is the roof. This is the largest surface area on the exterior of your home and it should be made of fire-resistant materials instead of the traditional wooden or oil-based shingles. Everyone knows that oil catches on fire very easily, so if you live in an area that is prone to wildfires, you may want to have another roofing material put on your home. Something else to do with your roof if a wildfire is nearby is to wet it down with the garden hose. This will give a little extra protection against the firebrands that are being carried in the air by the wind. Wetting the exterior walls of the house and wood decks is also a very good idea.
Do not allow any dead vegetation to build up in the yard. This includes grass cuttings, sticks, dead plants, and leaves. If a wildfire starts before you have a chance to get these dead organic materials cleaned up, all you can do is soak them and the rest of the yard with water via the hose and hope for the best.
Trees should also not be located close to the house, especially if the branches hang over the roof.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
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