Should I Treat Commercial Water Cleanup In My Wilmington Bookshop As An Emergency?

4/21/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO professionals are trained to handle all types of water damage. Let our teams help you get your Bookshop back in order.

SERVPRO Crews understand the different ways moisture can cause damages helping you mount an appropriate response

Various incidents can leave pools of water and swatches of wet materials in your Wilmington bookshop. If it is the first time such a case affects your business, you might consider the worst phase of the incident over after stopping the water source, thus responding lightly. However, treating such an incident as an emergency is crucial because most require elaborate cleaning processes afterward. When done correctly, cleanup helps deal with soiling, prevents secondary damages, and restores the business premises to its preloss state in good time. Many businesses close for extended periods leading to loss of customers.

What unexpected issues are likely to crop up?

It is easy to underestimate the process of water cleanup in your Wilmington bookshop, especially when the incident leaves minimal areas visibly soiled. However, the threat of unexpected problems developing is highly likely in many cases, so failure to respond appropriately can leave you grappling with:

• Invasion of insects such as silverfish
• Stubborn odor
• Mold or other microbial growth
• Physical deterioration of books

High humidity levels in a property attract different types of bugs or create a perfect breeding environment for them. Preventing such infestation is one reason you should take cleanup as an emergency since bugs such as silverfish feed on glue and paper in books while others feed on organic materials such as wood, destroying shelves and other furniture.

Books can also absorb moisture from the air when there is a delay in taking corrective steps because of the hygroscopic properties of some papers. Deterioration of bookbindings and warping are just a few of the problems that might affect your stock, thus inflating the cost from the loss unnecessarily. 

The development of mold and other forms of deterioration can also lead to the bad smell felt within the shop. Although the smell itself may not have a significant effect, it may lead to discomfort for your staff, as well as the customers.

How does a restoration company like SERVPRO help?

The main reason you need a professional restorer to help with water cleanup is the resources such a professional team avails. The resources can prove handy in quickening the restoration processes, thus eliminating any secondary problems. We also tackle difficult cleaning tasks that may arise, including washing and drying carpets and upholstery in reading rooms. Some of the resources you can expect our crews to have include:

• Sophisticated moisture detection tools
• Specialized upholstery cleaning equipment
• Professional grade cleaning agents
• Drying equipment

Before embarking on cleaning to soiling and deal with other problems, there is a need to remove any remnants of spilled water. Our SERVPRO teams wet vacuum floor sections with significant wetness. We also focus on contents such as area rugs or upholstery in the back office or reading room if there is one since the porous materials they are made of can be perfect moisture reservoirs. 

We also take other crucial moisture management steps, such as setting up dehumidifiers around the premises to regulate humidity levels. In many cases, the relative humidity level inside a house spikes above 50% when there is a water spill leading to problems such as moldy smell in books or even rusting of internal components in electronics.

What essential cleaning actions does the restoration crew carry out?

Although a water loss situation is inconvenient, it also presents an opportunity to perform a thorough cleanup around your store. You may not realize it, but dust and other light materials tend to accumulate on shelves, book surfaces, and hidden areas within your shop. Our SERVPRO technicians help remove the dust and other soils by wiping surfaces and contents with a magnetic cloth or feather dusters.  

We take steps to restore contents and materials directly exposed to water during the incident.  Moisture readily damages documents, paintings, books, and other paper materials, but with our expertise and experience dealing with water damage cases, we can help save some. We store the affected materials in a freezer facility immediately after discovering the loss to halt further deterioration. We then evaluate the items to determine whether we can save them through different drying methods, including:

• Air-drying
• Freezer drying
• Dehumidification
• Vacuum thermal-drying

Deodorization is also crucial to deal with any unpleasant smells that develop. We mix deodorizing agents with other cleaning agents so that we can deal with odors while cleaning. We can also apply deodorizers after completing the cleaning process. A process such as misting with ULV foggers is highly effective in the application of such agents.  

SERVPRO of Brandywine / Wilmington can help you respond appropriately when your bookshop needs clean up after a water spill. Call us at (302) 762-8080. We're Faster To Any Size Disaster.