What Is: Water Damage Restoration?
Water damage restoration, the process of restoring properties that have suffered water damage back to their pre-loss condition, is performed either by professional restoration services or by individual homeowners, property managers, and building maintenance personnel. Although commercial water damage restorers in the United States are not subject to governmental regulations, the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) and the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) are two restoration certifying organizations that have set forth standards of care for the industry. For restoration purposes, water damage is divided into four classifications: 1) slow evaporation rate - affecting only part of a room or area; 2) fast evaporation rate - affecting an entire room where moisture remains in the structure; 3) fastest evaporation rate - water from overhead saturating ceilings, walls, insulation and sub-flooring; and 4) specialty drying - materials such as hardwood, plaster, concrete, brick and stone have deep pockets of saturation. The restoration must include disposal of non-salvageable content, moving the remaining contents while the area is dried, monitoring of the drying process and, once dry, sanitizing the entire area.
