Suck It Up, Mary....

A wise man once said, when you tell somebody something, it depends on what part of the country you’re standing in that determines just how dumb you are.  Touche’, my friends, and with that out of the way, we will delve headfirst into the fascinating world of water extraction.

As anyone knows, the basic idea behind water damage restoration as a whole is to get the water out, and there are any number of ways to go about it, most of which are defined by the size of the spill.  You don’t show up for disaster relief work following a Category 4 hurricane armed with a couple of hand towels, y’know?

At the risk of insulting someone’s intelligence, most small spills can be dealt with quite handily by use of either a mop or a few well placed towels to soak it all up.  Adding pressure on the towels helps things along, or if you’re like me, you enjoy walking on them, mistakenly believing that it actually has any effect.

If you’re dealing with a more substantial spill, you might want to use a wet-dry vac, more commonly referred to by the masses as a shop-vac (don’t ask me why, I don’t know).   These units look remarkably like vacuum cleaners, but are made for sucking up water, and they will effectively remove most of the water in question.  Once again, at the risk of insulting someone’s intelligence, do not try to use your regular household vacuum cleaner to remove water…you’ll only end up buying a new vacuum cleaner.  (Hey, I know it’s insulting, but even hemorrhoid creams have the warning, “Don’t take orally”, which tells me they got at least one phone call).

If we’re talking considerable depth here, as in rolling waves and the occasional surfer dude, you should probably look into a submersible pump.  I would emphasize gas powered only, but 1) I think it goes without saying, and 2) I’ve insulted folks enough for one day.

Take care when pumping water out.  Believe it or not, it is actually possible to be too good at this and remove the water too quickly.  The end result could be a sudden pressure change which could weaken the walls and make them prone to collapse and it’s all bad.  Pump her out at the rate of about a foot a day.  Slow but steady.  After all it wasn’t the hare who won the race, now was it?

All this in the name of getting the water out of your home….but wait…..you just did all this and your floors still feel wet to the touch?  Well, hey, did I say it would get ALL of it?  No, I didn’t, now did I?

So just go enjoy your weekend and on Monday we’ll talk about how to get ALL the water out….I know you just can’t wait……