Repeating water conservation tips for the continuing drought 2022

7/1/2022 (Permalink)

California drought monitor graph as of June 28th, 2022

Last year I posted a blog to help the drought situation, but it seems that we are still in Drought! We are now facing historic levels of dryness that has gone on for 3 years now. The water reservoir levels are at an all time low.

If you haven’t done anything to help and do your part for this drought that we are facing, now is the time to begin helping. The same tips that were on my other blog are added to this one plus some more. We now have to make conserving water part of our daily lives.

1. Water your yard in the morning or evening– when you water during the day when the sun is hot makes the water evaporate quickly and plants don’t benefit from it like they should. And if you will be doing some remodeling in your garden consider planting desert plants because they don’t need to be watered so much.
2. Check for leaks with the toilet test– one way to check if your toilet is leaking is to put food coloring in the septic tank and if it seeps to the bowl with it being flushed you have a leak and they can leak up to 100 gallons per day. An inexpensive rubber flapper may be all you need to fix it.
3. Check for leaks in all other pluming- Have a licensed plumber repair all leaks including leaking faucets by replacing washers.
4. Shorten your shower– cutting down 2 mins of your shower time can save 1750 gallons per year. Turn off the water while you soap and/or shave.
5. Use the dishwasher -Hand-washing your dishes can use up to 27 gallons of water, compared to just 3 gallons for a new Energy Star-rated dishwasher.
6. Cover the pool – If you do have a pool make sure to cover it to prevent water evaporation.
7. Harvesting Rain water – When we get rain, it is a good idea to invest in water reservoir tanks.
8. Appliances- Choose appliances that are more energy and water efficient.

There are many other tips and more info on the following sites.

• https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/drought.html
• https://www.drought.gov/
• https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
• https://www.drought.gov/news/high-cost-drought

Water damage due to solar panel installation company

5/6/2022 (Permalink)

Screw pierced water line

Water damage is prone to happen to anyone’s property. Most of the time it is no one’s fault because it could be an appliance malfunction, appliance wear and tear, piping deterioration, storm damage or things like that. Though, sometimes it can be someone’s fault or accidental fault, like this case.

A property owner at San Luis Obispo called us because he noticed that there was a leak in the celling of his living room. Our techs were sent to do an inspection that same day. Upon arrival they began their inspection and noticed that in-fact there was water damage on the celling and very little on the floor.

The techs continued the inspection to determine the cause of loss. They asked the property owner if he had just installed the solar panels. He responded that yes, they were just installed. They asked because they noticed that there was a screw that had pierced a water line. The installers had made a mistake and made a hole on water like and cause water damage to the home.

We were able to dry in a few days and they had that pipe repaired.

Can water damage be a DIY?

2/1/2022 (Permalink)

A woman trying to remediate water damage herself, but cannot.

How hard can getting rid of water damage be? Have you ever though that water damage can be easy enough to be able to handle it by yourself? HA! Yes, if the water damage was very, very, but very small, maybe you can handle it on your own without the assistance of professionals. How do you know though if the damage was small? How do you know where the water damage stopped? You really don’t know unless you have the equipment to detect water.

With your bare eyes you may not be able to see what has water damage. You may not be able to see that there is water trapped inside the walls, or in the framing, or maybe even under you flooring or home. That is why I said that you need special equipment that can detect water that material has absorbed but yet it not noticeable.

What if you say “Well it was wet but I think its dry now because I dint see any more water.” You leave it like that and don’t realize it that mold may grow. Sure enough a few weeks later you notice that there are black spots on the wall. You clean it up but they return a few days later. This time you call a professional to take a look and they say that the water damage that you thought was small actually penetrated inside that wall and there is mold growing inside.

When mold is present it becomes a biohazard and it is a more complicated and bigger job. So, if you have water damage call SERVPRO of Bellflower to do an inspection and see in actuality how much and what has water damaged but most importantly how to take care of it.

SERVPRO of Bellflower 562-608-8805

Water Damage at the Belle Porte Residence

1/25/2022 (Permalink)

Taped down plastic on the floor

It is always so hard to have to go thru a water loss at your property, now imagine how much harder it is when it happens in the holidays. That is the worst.

That is what happened to one of our clients. She called in the beginning of November, right before Thanksgiving. One of the pipes that ran under her home in the crawl space ruptures. That caused water damage to the floor, subfloor and the framing. We had to move everything out of her master bed room, the hallway and part of the living room. Then we had to tent the floor. That means that we tape down plastic to cover the floor and the set up a dehumidifier with a plastic tunnel connecting the taped down plastic tape and the dehumidifier. That way the hot air is concentrated on the floor and extracting the moisture only from the floor as well.

It didn’t take it very long to dry the floor but the subfloor and the framing took about two days longer than the floor.

Once done drying out, then we start with the repairs as carpet was removed. Once the carpet was places and small touches were done. Then the move back off all their belongings and furniture was done. “Like it never even happened.”

Charlemagne Property

1/18/2022 (Permalink)

Removed Material in the living room

This work for this property was started on the 15^th of December 2021 and we are already working on the repairs.

Here is how it all started. We received a call from a customer on December 13^th at 12:30 pm saying that he needed our services because he had a leak in the living room ceiling. He advised that he went upstairs trying to find out where the leak was coming from. As he inspected the upstairs rooms, he notices that the toilet tank was overflowing. He immediately turned the toilet.

Our techs arrived on site on December 14^th,2021 at 8am per customer’s request. They stated the inspection in the top floor and found high levels of moisture on the vinyl sheet flooring in the bathroom. Continuing the inspection to the bottom floor high levels of moisture were also detected on part of the wall and ceiling of the living room.

Due to the year when the property was built, it needed lead and asbestos testing. Test results came back negative and we started the mitigation process in which we began the drying material that can be dried in place and removing affected material that is not salvageable.

The repair process is almost done as well. In a matter of weeks, we are almost done with everything.

If you have water damage for what ever reason, can me a toilet overflow, an appliance that malfunctioned, or even due to mother nature, we are here and can handle anything big or small.

SERVPRO of Bellflower   562-608-8805

Rats and Plumbing in your home/crawlspace

11/22/2021 (Permalink)

Pipes were damaged due to rats

I would have never thought that rats could be a problem when it came to plumbing. Boy was I wrong! We just came across a home where they called us out to do a water inspection. Thinking it could have just been a burst pipe we arrived and started the inspection inside the home where a significant part of her kitchen had water damage. Following the inspection one of our techs went under the home, to the crawl space to inspect and see if he could find the source of the water leak. What he found was surprising to me.

He came out of the crawl space and showed us what he found and pictures he took. He explained that there were rats under the home and that they were the cause of the water leak. The homeowner had a water filtration system installed for her home and the some of the connections ran under the home. Those connections were chewed by the rats.

If you ever decide to get a water filtration system, be sure that the tech installing the system places copper or galvanized pipes to avoid this type of disasters.

Also make sure that all the crawl space is well secured, meaning that you inspect that there are no entry points for any type of animal.

If you suspect you have water damage already call us SERVPRO of Bellflower.