The last thing a homeowner wants is to walk into their home to discover that a pipe has burst and flooded an area of the house. A flood inside your home can cause a lot of damage, and how you react can determine the extent of the damage and how much you will have to pay in the long run to make repairs and restore your home to its previous state. If there is a flood in your home from a broken pipe, avoid the following mistakes:

Neglecting to Turn Off the Water and Electricity

It is normal to panic initially when you see that a room in your house is flooded, but you have to act quickly to contain the flood and keep yourself and your family safe. As soon as you see the flood water, immediately turn off the water main to your home, as well as the electrical main. Turning off the water main will stop the flow of water, and turning off the electricity is important to prevent electrical shock and damage to your electrical system from the water.

Not Calling Your Insurance Company Right Away

While not all homeowners insurance companies provide coverage for floods caused by heavy rain or flash floods, most do provide coverage for floods caused by broken pipes inside the home. As soon as you discover the flood and get the water turned off, don’t forget to immediately call your homeowners insurance company. The sooner you file a claim, the sooner an adjuster can process it so you can get the funds needed to make repairs.

Forgetting to Document the Damage

An insurance adjuster may visit your home after you make a claim, but by that point, you may have begun the cleanup process. Prior to cleaning up, take pictures of the flood damage from several different angles so you can present the photos as evidence of damage if your insurance company requests them.

Failure to Hire a Water Damage Restoration Company

After a flood inside your home, it is in your best interest to hire a water damage restoration service to assist with the cleanup. These types of companies have high-powered de-humidifiers and pumps that can remove the water quickly. If you fail to hire a water damage restoration company, you run a higher risk of mold and mildew growing inside your home due to the excess moisture. Mold and mildew can be very expensive to get rid of, and they may also present a health hazard to anyone living in your home.  

There are several reasons that water could flood your home — flood waters could rise up from the ground to enter your home, falling rainwater could flood your home, or your home’s water system could malfunction, causing your home to flood. Regardless the reason, flood water can be dangerous and wreak havoc on your personal belongings. How you react immediately after a flood could make a huge difference in your family’s safety, as well as the outcome of any insurance claims you need to file.

Avoid Dangerous Situations

If the flood was large enough that it forced your family away from your home, you need to inspect your house before reentering it. Heavy flood waters can cause your home’s foundation to crack or shift, and you don’t want your family to enter a structure that isn’t safe. So, take a few minutes to inspect the exterior of your house for any cracks or holes in the foundation and any visible structural damage. If you believe there could have been any damage to the electric, gas, water, and sewer lines running to your house, call the utility companies to have them disconnected before reentering your house. Make sure you flip the main electrical breaker to make sure electricity doesn’t enter your home, even if the power is out. You don’t want the power to come back on while there is still standing water in your house.

If the flood wasn’t major, switch off the power running to the affected areas of your house at the fuse box. You should also unplug and remove any electronics that are in immediate danger. Additionally, if needed, you should turn off the water running into your home.

Take Pictures

Before you begin drying out your house, take pictures of the flooded areas of your home for the insurance company. After the flood damage repair begins and the water is removed, you should take pictures of individual belongings that were damaged by the flood water. Additionally, you need to make a list of any items that have been damaged so that your insurance company has all of the information needed for your claim.

Stay Safe

Even if the flood water that damaged your home is clear, it could be contaminated. So, before entering the flooded part of your home, you should put on waist-high waterproof boots and rubber gloves that cover your arms up to your elbows. This way, you can remove damaged items from your house without risking your health. Also, you need to make sure you throw away any food that has come in contact with the flood water in case it’s contaminated. If you were the victim of a massive flood, you should also boil any water you use until the proper authorities declare the water safe again.

Cleaning up your home after a flood and making any needed repairs is hard work, but it has to be done before you and your family members can resume your normal day-to-day lives. So, make sure your home and family is safe. Then, contact a local flood damage repair company to help you make necessary repairs.