Standing Water? Standing IN Water? Call now.
If your building is flooded, stop reading and call us!
If you’ve had previous damage from water and it’s less of an emergency, you can call us or contact us by email – click the Contact Us button right here.
Standing Water? Standing IN Water? Call now.
If your building is flooded, stop reading and call 414-571-9977!
If you’ve had previous damage from water and it’s less of an emergency, you can call us or contact us by email – click the Contact Us button right here.
How To Mitigate Property Damage From Floods
People who own homes or businesses in Glendale, St. Francis, Muskego, and the Cudahy area are always aware that nature is unpredictable. If you assume that everything will be calm, controllable, and nothing to worry about, you may find yourself dealing with a tornado or fire that you are unprepared for. The same is true of floods. But, as with any severe weather event, people can do some things to mitigate how much flood damage a property suffers.
Here are a few tips to help make a home more flood-resistant against smaller floods.
Install A Backwater Valve
It’s not often that a flood of Biblical proportions hits the area and raises the water so much that people are forced to retreat to the roof of a building to escape it. In many cases, water levels rise just enough to cause some damage without drowning everything in sight. One of the first casualties of even a minor flood is the central sewage system in urban centers. Because this is underground, water will gather first, and if the flood is minor, it may even stay here. However, if sewers become flooded with water, instead of carrying waste away from homes and businesses, they are instead sending water up through drainage pipes and into buildings.
A backwater valve is a simple barrier that detects the flow of water. If water flows “in reverse” toward a property instead of away from it, the valve will close up, preventing any water from entering the property through the sewage line. This is one of the most effective ways to avoid damage from minor flooding completely.
Elevate HVAC Equipment
If you have a boiler, furnace, or air conditioning unit on your property, the best way to take care of them is to keep them off the ground. AC units outdoors may be placed on the roof of a commercial building or placed on a raised platform or other housing off the ground beside a building. In the case of furnaces and boilers, keeping these units raised a few feet from the floor of a basement or cellar may suffice.
In the case of most floods, the water level rarely rises above a few feet. If you protect these valuable and bulky pieces of environmental maintenance by keeping them off ground level, you stand a better chance of preventing them from getting damaged at all.
Landscaping
The more water-resistant your property is, the more likely water will flow toward your home and reach it. For example, if you have a concrete driveway, water remains on the surface and is free to flow in other directions. However, if you have a gravel surface, the water gets absorbed into the ground instead. And if you have landscaping features such as swales or troughs, these can channel away large volumes of water before they ever reach the walls of your building.
Contact The Flood Mitigation Pros
If your home or business has been damaged by flooding, we can help. Emergency Restoration Specialists have over 30 years of experience right here in Cudahy, serving the Milwaukee area with flood repair and restoration. Contact us 24/7 for a prompt, professional response.