Before doing actual flood damage cleanup, be ready with your protective gears, your cleaning equipment and materials, and your cleaning products. Read carefully the label of each product before using it. The product may contain allergy-triggering chemicals, or chemicals that can affect the material the product is used on. Some carpet shampoos, for instance, can cause certain carpets to shrink.
If you want to maximize efficiency of flood damage cleanup of your home, you should learn the right way of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting every part of your house and every household material in it. This is in order to increase effectiveness of the cleanup process. You should determine the cleaning method that is apt for each kind of material. For instance, if you are going to disinfect colored linen, using bleach is definitely a bad idea because it can cause your fabric to discolor or fade.
* Cellar
The cellar is one of the most important part of your home that you should put premium on when doing flood damage cleanup. The cellar is where you store your food. If floodwater makes contact with food, they will rot easily. When this happens, molds and bacteria are not far behind.
Before doing flood damage cleanup of your cellar, first sort out foods that need to be discarded from foods that you can keep. Raw foods and foods kept in glass jars with crown caps should not be used again; discard them.
If foods are canned, salvage only those in good condition. Using a waterproof marker, write food content of the can on the lid. Then submerge cans in disinfectant for five minutes. Using 2 ounces of bleach mixed with a galloon of water will do.
Clean all kitchen utensils, then submerge them in a disinfectant solution. Never use disinfectant or bleach solution on your silverware, though; they will tarnish. Boil silverware instead.
Clean the walls, floors, and storage cabinets of your cellar then wash them down with a disinfectant. Rinse, then let dry. Use a dehumidifier and fans for drying. Keep in mind not to source electricity from your own home when doing flood damage cleanup. Use generator or electricity from an outside source to run your fans and other cleaning/drying equipment.
* Floor coverings
Wash floor coverings with lukewarm water mixed with detergent. Rinse thoroughly then hang or spread to dry under the sun.
* Furniture
Use warm water and detergent on your furniture. Before using any commercial disinfectant product, make sure they are suitable for the type of furniture you are cleaning.
* Household tools and toys
For flood damage cleanup of tools and toys, simply wash them with detergent mixed with lukewarm water. Rinse, then dry.
Now what if you have forgotten to empty the garbage in your home before flood entered your home? If floodwater filled your garbage, drain water. Make sure you have protective mask on your face and wearing impervious gloves when doing this. Then wrap the garbage in newspaper. Dispose garbage in tight-lidded, insect-proof container.
Flood damage cleanup is a laborious process. But thorough and meticulous labor is the only way to ensure that your home is clean and safe to use again. Doing flood damage cleanup the right way will also ensure that your house interior and content are properly cleaned and disinfected without incurring further damage on the materials.
