When your home floods, either due to a natural disaster or a plumbing problem, your first order of business needs to be getting the water and anything seriously wet out of there. Once the major water damage has been repaired, you can move back in — but that doesn't mean your work is entirely done. Here are three more things you should do in the months following a flooding episode.

1. Get mold testing done.

Mold grows anywhere that is moist and warm. Having all of the water and wet materials removed promptly after a flood should greatly minimize the amount of mold growth your home experiences, but you may still have some residual mold if the humidity levels remained high after the flood. Since mold can cause all sorts of unwanted health symptoms, from nausea to fatigue, you may want to have mold testing done a few weeks after the flooding episode. If any mold is identified, then you know you need to take further measures to better dry the home out. This could involve running a dehumidifier, installing a better air filter to remove mold spores, or removing some damp building materials that were overlooked by the water damage restoration team originally.

2. Take action to prevent future flooding.

Now that your home is back in livable condition, you need to take action to make sure the same flooding incident does not happen again. The exact action, of course, depends on the cause of the flood. If water came in after a storm, you may need to repair your foundation to seal cracks and prevent a flood the next time a big storm rolls through. If an old pipe burst, you may want to have all the plumbing redone so another pipe does not cause the same issue in a year or two.

3. Document the repairs.

Make sure you take photos of any repair work that has been done and of what the home looks like now. This way, if you do have another flooding incident, you'll have these photos as reference when making a claim with your homeowners' insurance company. Without evidence that the previous repairs were done, the insurance company may refuse to pay for subsequent damage, insisting that it was due to the first flooding incident.

Having your home flood is a real burden, but if you take the steps above, you'll save yourself some additional headaches.

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