My Flood Experience 2010

[Marian Smith]

I had a rental flood a few years back. The city put out dumpsters and the first thing was to cut the drywall above the wet line (in my case 4 ft) and break out the wet drywall and toss it. (4' x 8' ft is the dimension of a sheet of drywall, so either is a good line to cut...use a straight edge so replacement pieces fit well.) And get rid of the wet insulation on exterior walls. You really need to act fast to prevent mold...48 hours if I remember correctly. Low skill work even homeowners can do. Baseboards and casing have to come off to get the drywall off. Then get rid of flooring, carpet and buckling laminate. (We had a slab foundation but I would imagine pier and beam with wood subfloors and floors would dry just like the framing will). We used a garden hose and broom to get the slab cleaned up. Pine sol in a garden sprayer was recommended for disinfecting framing etc. Once the wet stuff is gone you can use a dehumidifier, run the ac ( expensive w/o insulation, but what are you going to do) or even box fans to dry out the framing. Use a moisture meter $20 at HDepot to check it. You do not have to rent a bunch of dehumidifiers as you have removed all the wet stuff, but one is probably worth it. Once all the wet stuff is out, you can relax a bit. No mold. The drywall install and tape, float and sand will actually further clean the slab as all the dust acts to abrade and gather dirt. So you may not want to pay a truck steam cleaner $1 foot to steam clean the floor until after drywall...to see if it is necessary.