WHAT I KNOW NOW...IN THE AFTERMATH

ASAP phone calls to or online contacts with:

• Flood Insurance Agent

• Homeowners if you don’t have flood insurance – they’ll turn you down and this will open the door for other assistance.

• Automobile Insurance Agent - if vehicles are affected – Comprehensive Coverage will pay for flooded vehicle.

• Storage facility or PODS - if you’re going to be able to save some of your furniture and other things.

• Contractor - if you know one or have used one in the past. You’ll need to get on his list FAST in order to get your repairs going timely.

Before you start:

• Walk through the house and look at everything

• Take a picture that will show depth the water got to – perhaps have someone standing beside a very definable water line

• Take pictures of each room from several angles (use a camera or camera app that has a date/time stamp – some claims adjusters require this)

• If you have other people helping you by taking pictures, set up a drop box folder or similar location so that everyone’s pictures wind up in the same place.

• Mark any furniture you want to keep even if it looks to be destroyed

• Mark other possessions you want to keep regardless of condition

• Collect your important papers even if they're soaking wet – I dried mine on the bushes and in the back of the truck

• Collect all of the wet pictures you want to save – there are places that can restore these

• Collect any wet books you want to save – there are places that can save these

• Find tools and put them in a convenient place - Allen wrenches, screw drivers, crescent wrenches, etc. will be needed for taking some furniture apart. Hammers and crowbars will be needed for knocking out drywall.

• Wipe down one or more toilets with bleach water – they’ll be needed

Supplies needed:

• Drinking water – LOTS

• Bottled bleach

• Paper towels

• Buckets

• Rags

• Latex gloves -- lots of latex gloves

• Masks -- for some tasks they're nice and for some (especially involving chemicals) pretty necessary

• Box cutters – will be needed for cutting drywall and carpet

• Garbage bags – will make it faster to get rid of and haul out a lot of stuff

• Hand sanitizer

• Insect repellent

• Peroxide

• Sunscreen

• First aid kit – people are going to get cuts and scrapes

• Pinesol – Clothes and linens that wet but not gross or moldy can be salvaged by washing with a good dose of pinesol (a couple cups) in hot water.

• Mops – especially the squeegee kind

• Zip lock bags – really handy for hardware from furniture that has to be taken apart to move (tape the bag onto part of the furniture so it’s there when it’s time to put it back together)

• Masking tape – for zip locks, etc.

• Strapping tape

• Moving boxes of various sizes – be careful that they don’t get wet

• Totes with lids – especially good for kitchen, desk and bathroom stuff

• Milk crates – great for hauling several things out of the house at once so that packing up can occur in a dryer space (like carport or garage)

• Sharpies – for labeling boxes and zip lock bags

• Utility tables – these are a dry space for serving food to those working, for packing up boxes, etc.

• Concrobium Spray – can be used on furniture after it’s thoroughly wiped down with bleach water; it kills mold growth

• Pump up chemical spray bottle

• JoMax (or a similar product) – spray on studs and floor after the drywall, carpets and flooring are out to stop mold growth

• Wheel barrows – for hauling flooring, carpet, drywall, etc. to the street

• Crow bars

• Toilet paper – it probably drowned

• Fans – it’ll be unbearable in there, and besides you’ll need them to help dry the place out

• Pressure washer – good for completely spraying off the floor and getting the studs cleaned off after everything is torn out; also helps with the driveway because it’s going to be really awful before it’s over

• WD40 – once you’ve gotten wet metal dry, spray to help keep the rust down

• Furniture dollies

• Tarps

Assistance:

• If someone volunteers say “yes, thank you!” – it’s a HUGE job

• If a particular task (say furniture take down) needs to be done a particular way, detail someone to manage it

• If help brings chairs, tables, ice chests, etc. make sure they’ve put their names on the items

• Make sure your help knows the things you want to save

• Turn them loose on the rest of it to make their best call – you can’t be everywhere

• Have a place (a decent sized box or something) where everyone knows to put parts to furniture and appliances that somehow manage to get separated.

Furniture:

• If it's solid wood, it's salvageable – don’t throw it out unless you just don’t want it anymore

• If its high quality veneer, it may be salvageable

• Lamps will probably be fine (electrically speaking) when they've dried – you don’t have to pitch them

Kitchen:

If it’s plastic and it came in contact with flood water get rid of it

Cast iron will look awful, but it can be cleaned and reseasoned

Stainless steel, aluminum and glass will sanitize fine

Appliances:

• The refrigerator and freezer are history unless you just got three or four inches of water and the power wasn’t off more than a couple days.

• Pedestal washers and dryers may be just fine if the water didn’t get over about 30 – 36 inches – they can be cleaned

Power tools:

Many of them will be fine once they’ve dried completely - my table saw, air compressor, weed eater, hedge trimmer and some other power saws were all fine

Miscellaneous:

• Ammunition is likely just fine

• If cardboard boxes with things stored in them got wet, make sure the boxes are checked before they’re thrown away – I almost lost two guns that were stored in golf club boxes; the boxes were so saturated that my helpers thought they were empty

Tear out:

• When you’re ready for tear out (and get there as fast as you can) measure how far up the wall the water has been wicked past the high water line. Talk to your insurance agent or claims adjuster and have him tell you how far up the wall to cut out. If water and wick line are both under four feet, that’s the usual cutline.

• General rule is tile flooring stays and gets regrouted – don’t tear it out unless you’re told to by claims adjuster or agent

• Keep a small bit of the flooring for each room so adjuster can see what you had