Is your home suffering from water damage? Call Restorerz Emergency Services at (323) 970-4761 for water damage restoration.
Most people know about the significant dangers of untreated water damage, including how it can stain your floors and walls, promote mold growth, and weaken your property’s structural strength. Those effects are bad enough to call a plumber and water restoration company as soon as a leak hits. However, there are even more risks attached to untreated water damage that most people don’t know until they suffer through them.
Untreated water damage can make your home uncomfortable, cost you thousands of dollars, and turn your living space into a health hazard; we’ll explain how below.
1. It Opens Your Home Up for Infestation
Untreated water damage might make your home unlivable for humans, but it turns it into a five-star resort for pests. Creatures like cockroaches, beetles, and several other unwanted bugs love damp environments, and they’ll come running if they sense that your home is their ideal habitat.
Pest infestations are more than just minor annoyances. Bugs can steal and pollute your exposed food, leave messes in their wake, and even trigger sickness. It’s essential to kick these bugs to the curb as soon as possible, but first, you must handle your untreated water damage, so they don’t return.
Some signs of hidden pest infestations include wet droplets on your drywall and carpet and scratching within the flooring and walls. If you notice either, especially after an interior flood, you should call a water damage restoration company in Los Angeles, followed by an exterminator.
2. It Lowers Property Value
Structural and aesthetic damage are two of the most well-known factors of untreated water damage. For example, if a flood from a burst pipe soaks into your home’s floor and walls, it will create water stains and wear down the building material, making it unsightly and unusable. Water damage is even worse for wooden floors and walls because it can rot the structure, significantly weakening it and promoting mold growth.
Despite how well known those adverse effects are, people often overlook their impact on their property’s value. People want well-kept houses over rebuilding projects on the home resale market. Additionally, even if shoppers are content with buying a fixer-upper, untreated water damage is notoriously difficult to restore.
Water stains are difficult to paint over, mold is challenging to remove and harmful to breathe, and the home buyer must replace every damaged surface to improve the property’s structural integrity. Unfortunately, all those common factors of untreated water damage will combine to lower your home’s value.
3. It Poses Severe Health Risks
Mold growth is one of the most common consequences of untreated water damage. Mold and mildew thrive in damp, dark environments, and floors and drywall that have absorbed flood water are prime real estate. Those substances can trigger allergy symptoms and sickness with enough exposure, but mold is far from the only health risk attached to untreated water damage.
Depending on where the flood came from, exposure to water can be just as toxic as exposure to the mold and mildew it brings. Several flood sources like dishwasher leaks and burst sewer lines have chemicals and contaminants that are hazardous to human health and can lead to severe sickness.
You should treat your flood damage as quickly as possible regardless of its severity to avoid health risks, but you must act especially fast for category 2 and 3 floods:
- Category 1 Flood: Category 1 floods come from clean water sources like constantly running showers, sinks, and rainwater in some instances. Though these floods can lead to mold growth, they have no additional contaminants and pose the lowest health risk.
- Category 2 Flood: Category 2 floods leak “grey water” into your home, which contains common household chemicals like dish soap or laundry detergent. These floods often come from broken appliances and contain substances that lead to bacterial growth, which can cause illness.
- Category 3 Flood: Category 3 floods are “black water” leaks from polluted sources like sewer lines and plumbing fixtures. Black water already has harmful bacteria within it, and enough exposure can lead to lung and brain disease.
4. It Can Create Additional Water Damage
Water damage is bad enough the first time, but when you don’t treat it quickly enough, it can corrode your home’s pipes and create even more water damage.
Pipes handle your home’s water daily, but they aren’t strong enough to handle an influx of flood water, especially grey or black water. That rush of water will wear down your pipes, create leaks, and force you through the water damage restoration process all over again.
5. It Can Lead to Fire Damage
The last thing on people’s minds after sustaining water damage is typically their plan for handling fire damage, but these two detrimental home experiences often go hand in hand. For example, if a leak interacts with your home’s electrical system, it can damage the circuits and create a house fire while you’re handling the already-bad water damage.
Even if the leak doesn’t start near your home’s electricity, untreated water damage can shift through your walls and floor and toward an area where it causes electrical harm. In addition, water-soaked electrical wiring can cause electrical shocks, adding to the health risks present with untreated water damage.
Restore Untreated Water Damage Today with Restorerz Emergency Services
Untreated water damage has several drawbacks that can reduce your health and quality of life. With how severe home floods are, you’ll need a team of experts to ensure your house is completely water damage-free, and Restorerz Emergency Services is the team for you.
Our Los Angeles, CA, water restoration company offers speedy service 24 hours a day. We arrive at your home within an hour of your call, drain every drop of water from your home, rebuild the damaged areas, and give you a budget-friendly rate at the end of our work.
Call Restorerz Emergency Services today at (323) 970-4761 for untreated water damage restoration or to learn more tips on preventing flooding in your house.