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When it is our own home that we are trying to salvage, some knowledge in water damage restoration could indeed go a long way.

During my childhood, we used to live in a town about 38 kilometers from the city. The house was made of wood and galvanized iron for the roofing, while a big lawn beside it boasted of some fine trees and flowers. It makes me sad to think that nobody now lives in this beautiful house which, a few years back, was threatened by severe destruction and had to go through some serious water damage restoration.

It was the tenth death anniversary of my dad and all of us siblings with our respective families visited his grave. After spending some time in the cemetery, we decided to visit our old house. Now that I think of it, it was quite unusual that we thought of passing by the house because we normally don’t do so, as we all now lived in the city.

While we were still approaching, I could see from afar that the house looked very old abandoned. However, as we opened the main door of the house, it suddenly seemed that the house was too bright. And then we saw where all the light was coming from: right at the left corner of the house was a big, gaping hole. It was as if a big tree trunk had pierced the roof, down to the ceiling, and then to the floor, all in one hit. We can clearly see the bright blue sky. The area was damp and dirty and debris of broken wood were scattered all over the room. We had to stay away from the hole for fear that the roof and ceiling might cave in and fall on us, or the floor might give way. A quick survey of the house revealed that apparently, constant heavy downpours somehow took a toll on the house, requiring major water damage restoration on the house’s roof, floors, walls, and ceilings. Had we thought to visit our old home earlier than that particular day, we could have saved the ceiling and the floor. The roof on the leak could have been repaired, and the whole accident avoided.

But well, after all is said and done, there was nothing we could do but go ahead with the renovation. A service company was called, and a professional tasked to asses the damage, estimate the cost of the whole water damage restoration work needed to be done, and finally, start the actual work.

Even with more than two people working on the house, it still took them some time to get all of the repairs done. The water damage restoration in this case proved to be quite tedious because many of the repairs involved removal of damaged parts and replacing with new ones. It was a continuous process of removal and replacement, which they applied on parts of the roof, the ceiling, and some wall segments. The floor also had to undergo water damage restoration, which included drying, cleaning, and polishing with wax.

Never again will we allow our home once so beloved, fall into such a state of neglect and disrepair.

Barney Ruch is a house issue disaster writer for water damage restoration and Water Damage Restoration