Flood damage companies assess your flooded or previously flooded areas to determine the extent of the damage. They can provide a wide variety of flood damage services, including a full report on what they intend to do, what items will need to go, and what items can stay. If you have any questions about your belongings and what can be saved or salvaged, the restoration and damage crew can answer them for you. In general, however, the following is how flood damage companies determine what is salvageable and what is not. 

Carpeting

If you have high-pile carpet that was buried under several inches of water for more than a couple of days, it is probably well on its way to rotten already. The crew will peel back a corner and check it out for you, but there is a very good chance that the carpet will all have to go. In instances where hurricanes brought floods in recent years, many homes had to pull out carpet and carpet pad because it was not only saturated by floodwaters, but also with bacteria from sewers. The circumstances surrounding the flood that soaked your carpeting will dictate whether or not the crew can suck all of the water out, clean the carpet, and then rapid-dry it to save it. 

Furniture

Most furniture that is completely wood can be cleaned and then dried. Unless there are significant signs of warping or the development of rot after the wood furniture has been set out to dry, you can keep it. Mattresses that are saturated from the floodwaters have to go. Even though mattresses can be professionally cleaned, mattresses that are waterlogged cannot be saved. Couches, loveseats, sofas, etc. can go or stay; it depends on the extent of saturation, the length of time that these particular pieces of furniture have been wet, and whether or not you have plastic protectors encasing most of the furniture or if they are made of leather instead of a cloth that absorbs liquids. 

Books, Magazines, Things Made from Paper, and Electronics

These items typically are garbage after a flood. They soak up so much water that it becomes impossible to separate pages and completely dry out the items so that they can be used or read again. Even if you can dry out and separate every last page, or you are able to get all the water out of the electronics, the water will affect these items to the point where booklice will become quite a problem and wiring will short out. Write down the names of all of the books and electronic items that you have to throw away, and then you can buy them again if your insurance cuts you a check for your flood losses. 

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