What to Do if Your Kitchen Floods 2 – Long Term Care
In the first part of this miniseries we looked at what to immediately do after a flood in your kitchen.
The advice goes for other parts of the home which might have been flooded too though we do realise with burst pipes for example flooding can be localised.
By this point, you should have been able to turn off the electrics, have taken photos of the damaged, contacted your insurer, and pumped the water out of the kitchen.
This still leaves a huge mess and untold damage. If you fill a sink up with water then let it drain without doing anything, chances are it won’t leave any mess, but that is untrue of a flood. A burst pipe may cause less damage because a flooded body of water be it a lake or a river will bring with it all kinds of things, plus sewage contamination is going to cause further damage too.
Sorting Through Your Belongings
Once the water is gone you will first need to sort through your kitchen items. Depending on if you had any advance warning or not, you may have been able to save some parts of the kitchen or at least the movable equipment. Now is the time to check the oven, the washing machine, dishwasher, fridge-freezer and so on. It’s probable that they will need to be written off and replaced. The same may be true of smaller pieces of equipment and you will have to decide if cleaning the others – cutlery and plates for example, will be safe enough to re-use or whether they too must go. All fabrics will, however, have to go if flooded with contaminated water or left sodden for a long time.
Time for a Clean Up
Once everything is cleared out that needs removing, you will be left with the husk of your remaining kitchen. Before you can put new things in to replace the old, you will need to clean the kitchen thoroughly. Furthermore, all electrics and pipes will need to be checked and some of the former may need replacing. A thorough decontamination and clean up will prepare your kitchen for its rebirth this includes scrubbing the floor, surfaces, walls, and cupboards if they are salvageable. You may also have to remove any mold which has inveigled its way into your kitchen during or after the flood.
You may require professional cleaning services to deal with the damage in your kitchen. As noted in the previous article, the presence of sewage can make your kitchen a dangerous environment to be in. If your insurance covers it or you can afford it yourselves, hire a professional team to make the kitchen safe again for you to interact with and look toward repairing and renovating. They will work with you to explain what’s been damaged and how it can be cleaned and made safe. We will cover this process – how you can start to move on and rebuild your flood damaged kitchen, in the next article.
