One of the most common areas affected after a water incident such as flood is the basement. Cleaning up a flooded basement is never easy, and it might take a good amount of time and dent your finances. Even worse, flooding in the basement exposes you and your family to the risk of disease caused by mold and mildew. Expensive as it might be, it might make more sense to seek professional help in cleaning up your basement.
The first thing you need to do after your basement has been flooded is to evaluate the extent of damage. While you can do this yourself, you need to contact your insurance company as a matter of urgency to help you in assessing the extent of the damage and also the extent of the claim you could make with your insurance company. At this point too, it is important to contact a water damage restoration expert who will be able to tell you what can be restored and what cannot. A water damage restoration expert offers the kind of definitive report that your insurer will not be able to argue with.
Apart from damaging your home and the valuables in it, a flooded basement carries the additional risk of exposing the residents of the home to illness since mold easily and quickly develops if the water is not extracted with urgency. Items such as books, newspapers, stuffed animals and cardboard boxes easily absorb the water and these could be destroyed beyond repair. You might have to discard some of those things. Rugs might be salvaged, but you must take caution not to expose your family to the risk of disease by bringing back to the house items that have not been properly cleaned. Where the items have come into contact with sewage water, professional help will be necessary.
Once all the water has been removed, the floors and walls must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. A professional cleaner will be able to advise on the disinfectants or cleansers to use. Should you tackle the task of disinfecting, make sure that the basement is properly ventilated to avoid inhaling harmful chemicals. Things should not be returned to the basement until the air in the basement has been confirmed to be completely dry.