Stanley Steemer Mitigates Damages in Five Days

January’s cold spell may have been short, and not brutally cold, but it was enough to freeze a pipe in a stately home just north of Tully. A pipe froze and broke in one of the home’s second-floor bathrooms, running for several days until the homeowners returned home from a short trip. Water saturated a majority of the first floor and completely saturated the entire finished basement.

The homeowners were nearly finished with a total home renovation when the loss occurred. The last room to be remodeled was the upstairs bathroom and at the time, the room was stripped to the studs, exposing the water pipes, which aided the freezing.

The homeowners contacted their agent and were referred to Stanley Steemer, who arrived at the home within an hour of the emergency call. Upon arrival, the level of damage was staggering.

Hardwoods throughout the first floor were cupping, ceilings had fallen and the walls were saturated. The sprawling finished basement which included two game rooms and a bedroom was completely saturated as well. In addition to the sheetrock ceiling falling, the carpeting in the basement was among the highest quality carpeting, on top of an expensive subfloor system which was laid over the cement base.
Since both could not be saved in place, the carpet had to be removed to save the more expensive interlocking subfloor system.

As the first step, a large crew of technicians immediately began removing the saturated and falling sheetrock. Where walls could be saved, baseboard was removed so air could be forced into the wall cavities.

To address the wet, cupping hardwoods on the first floor, hardwood floor drying panels were installed to dry and flatten the floors and subfloors. Meters measuring moisture content of wood ensured that the floors were dry throughout to eliminate the possibility of mold growing as a result of the damage.

After the debris removal process was complete, a high-output desiccant trailer dehumidifier was installed, with ducts running throughout the home pumping in hot dry air to efficiently remove all the moisture. After three days, the structure was dry.

As with all projects, special care was used to protect all contents in the home during the work, as well as the removal of all nails and screws from walls and ceilings to make for a seamless transition to the reconstruction phase.