This is not my text but was put together by a community of people, mainly one particular user who has cleaned up houses after floods.
This information provided by the performanceforums.com community
Cleaning up after a flood
With my experience (which extends to managing flood damage mitigation of homes in Newcastle in 2007, just to give you an idea) this is what I would do if my house was inundated with flood water:
The key in these situations is to get the place clean and habitable as soon as possible – it’s always the best outcome.
1. Safety first
Gear:
- face mask
- sturdy gloves
- wash water
- hand wash soap
- safety glasses
You are dealing with Category 3 water loss – this is the same category as raw sewage. You don’t know what is in the water, so you must treat it as contaminated and use some common sense.
Use a paper face mask simply to prevent water from splashing in your mouth. When working in affected areas, wear gloves, and have wash water and soap on hand, taking regular breaks to wash your hands and face. I’d also replace the mask if it gets splashed. Wear safety glasses to minimise splashing in your face and, hey, you’ll probably be working with power tools – it is common sense. This is the minimum protection I would suggest and is what I would do. If you have access to better protection, use it.
Switch house power off
Isolate power to the house if you can, the easiest way is to trip the main circuit-breaker. Use battery-powered tools where possible, instead of 240v tools, until you have the place cleaned up. If you use power tools, use a generator/genset, not mains power – leave the house isolated.
2. Cleaning
Gear:
- large plastic tubs or cardboard boxes lined with heavy duty garbage bags
- large sturdy garbage bags
- friend with operational washing machine
- friend with non-contaminated space to clean your belonging stuff
- digital camera to take pics of your damaged stuff
Before you start, you’ll need a bunch of large plastic storage containers. Buy in bulk from a $2 shop as you will need enough to pack your household contents (at least the ones which copped flood water) into them.
3. Timing
Don’t be in a rush to get back to your house because I have seen first hand flood water recede and then come back with a vengeance. Check reports from several sources to make sure the flood is actually over and it is safe to return. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to clean places twice in two days. And be careful driving through flood affected areas.
4. Where to start?
Don’t be in a massive rush to rip into the clean up. I’ve always found when dealing with floods – whether it’s one house or 1000 – you’ll be more productive if you stop, sit down with the team helping you and discuss the plan and objectives.
I’m going to pretend the water was 1m deep and go from there. If you had more or less water, the response might be slightly different, but the basic idea is the same: use your common sense.
Remove all clothing items and linen, stuff it into bags or put it in plastic tubs/lined boxes. Call a friend and put them on washing duty – this means everything, even shoes. Wash them thoroughly and dry them out, as you can then make an assessment as to whether they are salvageable.
If you leave them dirty, you don’t have a choice – they will be ruined. A good option is to wash everything twice, but the second time ‘round, use an anti-microbial in the rinse cycle. You can then be sure there will be nothing to fear lurking in the fabrics.
While your friend is washing clothing, remove any soft furnishings, furniture, carpet, underlay, beds and the like. Soft furnishings are anything porous or which can soak up water. Unfortunately for the kids, their soft toys and pillows, cushions and the like are all ruined. The only thing to do with that stuff is to dump it – sorry kids. For the time being, dump it on your footpath as the council will do curb-side collection – in some cases with a front-end loader!
At the same time as stuff is being dumped on the footpath have someone pack up the house. And that means everything, the whole house, from CDs to crockery, to china dolls to cutlery. Pack everything (and I stress, everything) into plastic storage tubs/lined boxes and give them to a friend.
Tell this friend to take care of your worldly belongings, but “scrub the bejesus out of them”. I’d scrub everything by hand, with brushes and detergent. Goods should be rinsed with an anti-microbial solution if possible and run everything that will fit through the dishwasher – it’s already been in practically sewerage, so going through a good scrub is not going to make it worse, just sanitary. Be careful with items that are not suitable for high temperate or scrubbing eg. CD’s and DVD’s – these are generally not affected by water and only require a gentle wash and rinse with anti-microbial.
Electronics are beyond the scope of my tips here. At this time, I’d assume everything electronic is ruined and dump it. This applies to appliances as well – everything from the fridge, to oven and cooktop, washing machine dryer and that nice new TV. Sorry, but it’s probably all stuffed.
That’s belongings and contents (electronics and furniture) taken care of. The house should have no carpets or anything like that left, and this includes removing fake timber floors and the like. Now, it is onto the house itself.
5. Once it is stripped of the belongings
Once the place is stripped we look at stuff like hard furniture. A lot of hard furniture, even timber furniture, may be ok to keep if it is cleaned properly (ie: scrub the bejesus out of it). It’s already been submersed, so putting it in water again to clean it won’t make it worse.
Make a judgement on what to keep and what to dump, but remember that water gets everywhere: you will have to disassemble every/anything that was affected and check everything closely and clean thoroughly.
Next up is the walls. Most places have Gyprock, so my advice is based on this fact. Gyprock panels are 1.2m so take your battery angle grinder with a blade, or your small hand saw, and cut out all Gyprock touched by flood water. Yes, all of it.
I’d advise cutting 100mm above where the water reached, and remember to take care around plumbing and wiring. You should have already isolated the power, so there is no risk of being zapped, but you don’t want to pay for electrical repairs when putting the house back together, so go easy. Once you’ve cut it all out, dump all the flood affected Gyprock on the curb.
By the end of this, you should, if you get on your knees, be able to see all the external walls of the house and be left with nothing but a timber frame from (just above) the height of the flood, down to ground. Skirtings need to be removed, as well as internal doors, too.
The concept is the same if your house went under to the roof. You just remove more Gyprock, so you are just left with the frame in the house and roof. However, be careful handling insulation in roofs it is generally extremely disgusting to handle (and smell) and you should use thick gloves when handling fibreglass insulation and the like.
If your house has been inundated up to the roof, be careful removing ceiling panels for 2 reasons:
1. Insulation may be soaked above the ceiling and it may come down with a crash.
2. Where do you think the local wildlife ends up in a flood? Watch for snakes and other creepys in your roof and walls as you pull the place apart.
6. Washing/sanitising the house
Gear:
- detergent
- scrubbing broom
- pressure cleaner
- or mop & bucket
- large squidgy
- or drying towels
- anti-microbial liquid and garden sprayer
Next up is detergent and broom and pressure cleaner time. A fire hose is best, then the next best is a pressure washer (Karcher or Gerney type thing), then mop/bucket.
The detergent doesn’t matter too much, either – Truckwash will do. The most important factor is to “scrub the bejesus” out of everything from the inside of the external walls, to all the frame work and, of course, the floor. You can then towel dry the frame and mop the floor.
After it has been cleaned, you can go around with a decent pump pack and apply an anti-microbial to absolutely everything the flood water was in contact with. Let the anti-microbial dwell and drip dry. I’d apply a helping to the floor too, then after a couple of hours of dwell time, squeegee the floor again.
If you follow the above concept – mould etc will not be an issue so don’t listen to what will inevitably become the next lead story sensationalising massive mould problems. If you get it clean and dry in a reasonable timeframe you’ll have no problems.
7. It’s sanitary – what next?
Gear:
- plastic sheets
- staple gun
- flatbed scanner
What you are left with is a gutted house that will dry quickly if there is adequate airflow. It should be ready for plasterers and paint, and you’re back in business.
Your friend will deliver your clothes and other stuff that could go through the washing machine. Your other friend will deliver all your kitchenware and other bits and pieces that could be salvaged. Leave all that stuff in tubs and live out of plastic tubs until the house is done as it will keep things clean.
Have an electrician come through and give your lights and power the OK. The electrician will probably put a single 10a GPO in and give you one circuit to live on, because the rest are basically exposed and will remain exposed until plasterers put up new Gyprock.
For privacy (only if you absolutely need it) inside, just staple heavy black plastic to the exposed frame. If you do this, it is very important to only put it on one side of the wall, as the frame needs to dry properly.
Council will look after sewage. Leave the toilet a few days, then flush it and clean it.
You’ll have friends helping – that’s what friends are for. Make sure one of them has a camera and they need to document the damage and document everything you dispose of – no matter how small! This is particularly important for electronic items, and they need to photograph serial numbers, too.
You will probably also have a lot of paperwork that is important and worth protecting. This is all stuff you can give to a friend who has a flat-bed scanner (and they need to be a good friend as their scanner is going in the bin when you are finished with it).
Try to scan everything/anything you can, including family photos, title deeds, receipts, tax info and the like. It’s not economical to have a commercial restorer try and salvage this stuff or your computer stuff – just have a savvy friend do their best and accept that if they get a good scan of one document or photo, it’s better than nothing.
8. Rebuilding your house
If you get your house clean, habitable and get some essentials in there, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get restorers/builders in. In fact, you are freeing them up those resources to help those that may not be able to do it themselves (i.e. the elderly/disabled).
Your house may be a bare frame/shell for a while, but it’s safe, sanitary and you can live in it for the time being. Your insurance will rebuild it, but who knows when and how long it will take? There are crews of restoration guys doing this for insurers, but who knows how long the queue is?
Feel free to copy and redistribute this document as required, it is important that information is shared. We only ask that you credit PerformanceForums (PF) for producing this original document.
Don’t forget to take photos and/or make a list of what was wrecked and what is thrown out.
Great guide. Hopefully those who need it, can find it 😀
Good on you mate – you have spent a lot of time writing this for people that will benefit greatly from your consideration and helpfulness. Rest assured someone has already posted this on news.com.au and will be read by thousands. Love your work.
As I said right at the top it’s not written by me. I just chucked it on my blog for people to read.
Props to the awesome people on PF.
Someone posted this on our camper trailers group again who lived through brisbanes 74 floods. Aparently for documents if you keep them wet they can be saved. Put all documents into tubs and change water daily. Slowly piece by piece once clean of the dirty water take documents out and dry them gently. Aparently this goes for paperwork and black and white photos but not colour photo’s.
If theres anything really precious to you then i spose you have nothing left to loose.
What a great post. Hopefully it will be disseminated widely. Great tips too for friends and neighbours who want to help out: offer to do washing, cleaning a load of dishes or storing items.
[…] is an awesome guide that has been produced on clean up after a flood event. It has been produced by the guys at […]
What happens to Gyprock during floods? Just swells-up and when it dries it cracks?
The scope of this document is Category 3 water loss – ie. Black water inundation of Brisbane homes during the recent (and ongoing) flooding.
You must understand that gyprock is highly porous and will absorb the black water and anything in that water (water borne pathogens / microbial organisms).
During inundation, the water also fills the void behind the gyprock. In the scenario we have encountered in Brisbane, the equipment required to deal with this nature of damage will be very scarce if available at all.
The best solution is to remove and dispose of the affected gyprock as per this guide.
Thanks for your comments.
Like Matt mentioned for scanners above, you can rinse electronics with deionised water (to get mud and crap out of it), then leave them to dry out completely. Some electronics may work if the power was off when the water hit and if they weren’t turned on while still wet or full of sediment. There’s a decent chance of this if the power to the area was cut by authorities for safety reasons, or if it naturally went off when the water hit… or if you don’t leave TVs & stuff on standby when you’re not using them.
There are many tips for dealing with electronics. Rest assured the author of the document is well aware of them.
They are outside of the scope of the document and will not help the majority of Brisbane residents dealing with this event.
[…] Tips to clean up after a flood This is not my text but was put together by a community of people, mainly one particular user who has cleaned up houses […] […]
[…] What can I do to clean up before the insurance assessor comes out? See this link from another reader who has had extensive experience cleaning up after floods and provides helpful […]
[…] Read this fantastic guide on how to clean up after a flood. […]
hi
i have a good friend who has done most of what’s suggested in this article at his kenmore home but the downstairs area (it reached just below the top floorboards) still smells! ANY TIPS TO GET RID OF SMELLS??? It would be nice if they could inhabit the whole house rather than just the top floor even though there are just bare tiles and house frame left downstairs. any tips most appreciated
Kate
The short answer to your question is that the house is still wet and as long as the house is wet an odour will persist. The odour will only abate when the property is dry.
Once the affected surfaces have been adequately cleaned, the property must be dried.
Without professional drying equipment, the best solution is to open the area as much as possible and ventilate. Introduce as much dry outside air as possible into the space.
-The more dry outside air the better
-The more changes of air the better
-The higher velocity of that dry air across surfaces the better
I won’t go into anymore detail as that is beyond the scope of this document.
As a home owner without access to the professional equipment required to dry a property “mechanically” (by introducing high volumes of manufactured low grain air to absorb moisture), the above tips are just about the best you can achieve.
[…] The 411 on Flood Clean-Up Leave a comment » Well, the worst is over right? Sort of. The aftermath of a severe flood can be just as bad as the actual flood itself. Walking in to find all your valuables floating is not exactly an ideal homecoming. It’s important to make sure you are cautious while cleaning up and know how to handle water damage. […]
This is so helpful for those who know they have to do something but just don’t know where to start. Its not just what is visible that needs cleaning.
For additional information on flood clean up visit these articles
http://www.si-restoration.com/articles-tips/
After watching flooding we all have to struggled with what to do next. but your tips and suggestions help me very much. Thanks for the Help.
Excellent advice and very helpful in so many ways!
Thank you,
Morningstar
It is nice to find good content for once, I am getting sick of the never ending drivel I come across of late, thanks.
All the information provided here in this article are very vital and will help lot of people.Tips ,methods ,ways given here are excellent.Really liked this article very much.keep posting articles like this.
My home.in long beach ny was flooded. By level 3 ocean water after Sandy. I cut the wall bored 1 foot above the water line I removed all the insulation.
my brand new bathroom was flooded as well my first floor is on a concrete slab do I have to remove the entire for shower pan and everything else in the bathroom or can I just remove the vanity and toilet and di what about the door rock behind the wall on the outside of my house with the flood waters came past
I also have a crawl space that was flooded there is insulation in the Joist under my name floor the insulation was covered by plastic and was never touched by any of the water do I have to remove the insulation ,what is the best way to clean that crawl space I have remove the plastic sheeting and have large fans throw out the house to dry it out do I need to power wash the concrete floor or will bleach in an antibiotic opop anof please help I am at the discretion of unscrupulous contractors trying to rip me off and insurance adjusters not knowing the cost of new york prices
This is very detailed tips on how to clean up after a flood. A very helpful article. Thanks for posting
A family member recommended me to this site. Thnx for the resources.
For a normal house owner it is very tough job to clean the house after flooding. Some people do it by themselves to save money and they couldn’t clean it completely. Because of that moisture left in the house mold occurs and affects the health of the family and strength of the house. To clean your home completely contamination free you should go for Flood Damage Restoration
Great post. I am experiencing a few of these issues as well.
.
All movable furnishings should be taken outside. Upholstered furniture that has come in contact with water should be left outside to dry completely. Direct sunlight can be a strong disinfectant however, additional cleaning maybe necessary. Thoroughly scrub and clean all surfaces and floors with hot water and detergent as soon as possible after the water has gone down. Clean all woodwork with soap and water.
Highly descriptive article, I liked that bit.
Will there be a part 2?
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[…] Broken pipes, storm damage, or overflowing rivers can cause flooding. Many people assume their homeowners insurance in Austin covers floods, but a home policy only covers some types of water damage. So to be adequately covered, you need additional flood insurance. If you ever do find yourself in your home standing in two feet of water, use these tips to salvage your belongings: […]
[…] sewage on our property. They wore related masks and proper gear and a lot of disinfectant was used. Here is some more information on that kind of thing if you are attempting it […]
As a carpet cleaning company on the Mornington Peninsula (Melbourne, Australia) we always say to clients that ‘time is of the essence when it comes to cleaning up after a flood’, especially when it comes to cleaning carpets. It doesn’t take to long before bacteria sets in and then you can have all sorts of health issues to tackle.
As a house flood victim myself, I can truly sympathize. I cant even express how important the sanitation and mold remediation part is. We did it ourselves the first time we had flood damage. Found out a few years later we had to have mold removed… only to have another flood.
Might not be an easy job but kudos to people who suffer and still stand firm to clean the mess. I think this is the way life goes; with every step we prepare our self for something better and methods to survive. Thanks sharing this wonder tips, I am sure they will help the affected one 🙂
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