When water invades your business space, it doesn't come in saying, 'Excuse me, may I join you?' It crashes in, uninvited, and goes right for your discontent. Imagine, then, a small leak on overhead that suddenly has you exposed to what feels like an indoor waterfall. That's in the office. In your home, who knows what water damage might be lurking behind the walls and under the floors? It's from a storm or from a plumbing problem—you get the picture. And in any case, every scenario demands a speedy response. Because the alternative is far too familiar to a story already told: office floors turned into the kind of slick danger zone Jackie Chan would find himself in—dangerously fun to create but better avoided. Or electronics buried under layers of tape, pants, and towels that seem to far more intimately resemble mops than a fine-armed superhero.
Water damage in commercial buildings comes from many sources. They include:
• Broken pipes and plumbing fixtures
• Roof leaks and drainage problems
• Natural disasters like floods and hurricanes
• Problems with the building's exterior, like wall leaks or window seal failures
• Poorly maintained or improperly located landscaping
And we're not just talking about clean water. Other sources of water damage include:
• Wastewater from building sewage or from plumbing
• Rainwater that gets inside the building
• Mixed flood waters that bring in all kinds of debris and filth
There are also issues that go beyond the immediate visible water and wet building materials. What about all the airborne mold spores and the potential for serious mold damage to start in hidden parts of the building? That's what we've considered to be the unseen part of the water damage problem.
When dealing with water damage in a commercial space, you're not just remedying a physical location; you're protecting the income that flows within its walls. Every business—yours included—deserves a swift return to normalcy, and that's where professional help becomes necessary. Water extraction is one piece of the puzzle; structural drying is another. They say the first hour after a water incident is critical. But what about all those other hours? This piece was inspired by my concern not just for the physical recovery of business locations but also for the emotional recovery of the people inside them.