And once it has established, it doesn’t need as much moisture to then keep growing. Mould can colonise in as little as 24 – 48 hours. Quick action needs to be taken to extract water and begin the drying process.

These can go on to cause health issues for your whole family, with children, the elderly and those with pre-existing respiratory problems at particular risk. If your basement isn’t dried out adequately, you’ll risk issues with ongoing damp, rot and mould. At Ideal Response, we will do this as part of our process to help keep inconvenience to a minimum and so that you can take measures to prevent such flooding from happening again. If your basement has been tanked, and yet you still experienced flooding from an external cause, the waterproofing should be looked at to find out why. So any area affected by blackwater requires thorough decontamination and sanitation before it is safe to re-enter. Blackwater is grossly unhygienic and contains bacteria and contaminants that could make you seriously ill. So if your basement has been flooded due to groundwater flooding or other external causes, you should avoid entering it. This can happen in as little as 24 – 48 hours.Īll flood water is considered black.

This is on top of already needing water extraction, cleaning, and drying, resulting in a longer and more costly remediation process. Bacteria will begin growing and the affected areas will then require decontamination.

If left, clean water (from pipes and feeds into white goods) can quickly turn grey. Plasterboard and woodwork will need replacing, and electrics may be damaged. Water damaged carpets and rugs are difficult to fully clean and will most likely need discarding. Apart from the obvious damage to possessions, a flooded basement can be costly to remediate, with costs only escalating the longer it is left.

Flooded basement cleanup