Natural disasters like floods, heavy storms, and hurricanes can seriously damage your home or business. These damages are often unpreventable, even if you had months to prepare for them.
Whether these catastrophes are significant or mild, they can have a negative effect on a property’s structure, so it’s essential to act quickly once it passes to restore your home or business to a habitable state.
The professionals at SERVPRO of Grapevine / NE Tarrant Co, a leading property damage restoration company in Grapevine, have put together the following steps for post-disaster property restoration.
1. Check for safety
One of the most crucial things to keep in mind after a disaster is that your home can be unsafe to go into. The structure of the property may have been affected by the disaster. So consider having the property professionally inspected before you enter, and only do so when it has been determined that doing so is safe.
Ensure that the electricity is turned off before entering, especially if standing water is on the property.
2. Document everything
Recovery from a disaster is expensive. Hopefully, most or even all of these expenses will be covered by your property insurance coverage. The problem is that insurers have to turn a profit too, so they can refuse to honor a claim if you don’t have actual proof to back it up.
The exact extent of the damage must be known to the insurer, with evidence that an incident covered by the policy brought it on and that the repairs made were required to get the property back in working order. It is crucial to document as much information as possible regarding the disaster-related damage to your property to speed up the insurance claim process.
3. Assessment
The next stage is assessing the damage and determining if it is worth restoring or rebuilding. A remediation project should be considered if fixing the damage will be less expensive than rebuilding.
Cleaning up the damaged property, determining what needs to be fixed, and setting up a temporary roof to stop additional damage are all part of this process. In contrast, you should consider reconstruction projects if the cost of repairs is more than the cost of reconstruction.
4. File an insurance claim
Start the insurance claim procedure as soon as feasible to preserve your possessions and property. Waiting too long after a disaster may result in your insurance company denying your claim or leaving you without coverage for some losses.
After making a list of what needs to be replaced, get in touch with your insurance representative. Having all the required information before beginning the procedure is preferable to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Once you've called them, it can take a few days for your insurance provider to send an inspector out for their initial evaluation.
5. Cleaning up and rebuilding
The next step is to clean up the whole property and restore the affected parts of the house.
Clear out the debris and any damaged property. You may need first to get rid of any standing water to prevent further damage to your structures.
Once you are done cleaning, determine what needs to be fixed if your roof is damaged, and set up a temporary roof to protect your home.
6. Hire a property restoration company
While you can do some property restorations on your own, working with a property restoration company is always advisable. Disaster restoration companies like SERVPRO of Grapevine / NE Tarrant Co are experienced in handling various disasters. They know what to do in multiple situations and can help you clean up your home and act proactively to prevent further property damage.
Are you ready to get started? Call SERVPRO of Grapevine / NE Tarrant Co at (817) 595-2506 to speak to a professional.
