Water damage can occur in every area of your home and property, but there are certain areas that, if damaged, are more problematic and should be watched closely. Check the plumbing pipes and connections in your home's bathrooms and kitchen as well as any pipelines in your basement or crawl spaces for standing water and leaks.

Moisture detectors are important since moisture can cause mold growth and poor air quality. Leak detectors are used for finding hidden water leaks, including those in walls and crawl spaces. Other tools you can use are dehumidifiers and water extractors to help repair water damage.

Documenting your property's damage and relaying the information to Absolutely Dry Restoration can make for a speedier repair. Inspect the exterior of your home for damage. Check out your roofing structure and document any shingles missing or in need of repair. Also note if your chimney or the flashing surrounding it is damaged or missing and list any damages to your gutters. Check your home's siding for warped or loose boards. Note signs of water intrusion through your home's windows and doors and don't forget to check the access points to your basement.

Professional water damage restoration companies, like Absolutely Dry Restoration, have professional tools to first, tell us where the water is and next to properly dry everything out. Furthermore, professional companies deal with water dmaged homes and buisnesses daily. Additionally, they understand the possible health and safety hazard that may be present.

Molds are neither plants nor animals. They are microscopic fungi, related to mushrooms, yeast, and mildew—and they can be found everywhere. Fungi use enzymes to digest food and reproductive cells called spores to reproduce. Molds play an important role in the decomposition of leaves, wood, and other dead plant matter. Mold puts the "blue" in bleu cheese, and mold is the original source of penicillin, one of the earliest and most widely used naturally-occurring antibiotics. Unfortunately, mold is also one of the most common allergens on the planet.

Not all molds are allergenic. As with pollen, certain mold spores are allergenic because they are small enough to float in the air and evade the protective mechanisms of the respiratory system. The most common allergenic, indoor molds include Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys.

Mold requires nutrients, water, oxygen and favorable temperatures to grow. Nutrients for mold are present in dead organic material such as wood, paper or fabrics; mold can also derive nutrients from some synthetic products such as paints and adhesives. Mold requires moisture, although some mold species can obtain that moisture from moist air when the relative humidity is above 70 per cent. Many molds thrive at normal indoor temperatures; few if any molds are able to grow below 40 F or above 100 F. Outside this range molds may remain dormant or inactive; they may begin to grow again when the temperature is more favorable. Temperatures well above 100 F will kill mold and mold spores, but the exact temperature required to kill specific species is not well established.

Almost all of us already have two effective mold detectors: our eyes and our noses. If black or green discoloration is noticed that is fuzzy in appearance and is in a location that is damp or had been damp, it is almost certainly mold. If a building smells musty, there probably is mold somewhere; the mold may be on boxes stored in a basement or in walls or in the crawl space. If you want to find mold, look for the presence of water or a location where water was likely to have been. If there is still any question about whether the black stuff is mold, have a reliable laboratory examine the material. All you need to know is whether mold is seen when the material is examined under the microscope.

The answer depends on how much mold is present and where it is located. If the mold is on furnishings or boxes simply discard the materials. Moldy materials are not considered hazardous waste; they can be sent to a regular landfill. However, it is smart to seal the mold material in heavy plastic to protect the people who handle it in transit and prevent spreading large amounts of the mold into the building as you carry the material out of it. If the mold is on a hard surface but occupies less than 10 square feet wash the area with soapy water (scrubbing with a brush may be necessary), rinse and allow the area to dry before repainting. If you have asthma, severe allergies and a weaken immune system get someone else to do the clean up. Larger areas (greater than 10 square feet in area) should be cleaned by someone with experience in doing this type of work. Remember, determine what caused the moisture problem and correct that problem. Otherwise, mold is likely to recur.