When Water Strikes: Hurricanes vs. Pipes

When Your Home Floods From A Hurricane, How Does That Differ From A Pipe Leak?

When disaster strikes, knowing the difference between types of water damage could save your family's health and your home. Chad Mallonee, owner of Hazard Clean Restoration, reveals the critical distinctions between hurricane flooding and standard pipe leaks that every homeowner needs to understand.

The source makes all the difference. While a pipe leak releases clean, Category One water into your home, hurricane flooding introduces Category Three water – laden with bacteria, viruses, pesticides, and environmental contaminants. This contaminated water quickly infiltrates building materials, creating potential health hazards throughout your home. Chad explains the shocking speed at which bacteria multiply – a single bacterium can reproduce into 16 million within eight hours and reach trillions within a day.

Visual inspection isn't enough when dealing with flood damage. Water that appears clean may harbor dangerous pathogens, which is why Hazard Clean Restoration employs professional testing to accurately assess contamination levels. The restoration approach for hurricane flooding involves extensive protocols before drying can even begin – including thorough assessment, material removal, specialized cleaning methods, and third-party verification that pathogenic threats have been eliminated. These crucial steps protect occupants from the invisible dangers that lurk in seemingly harmless floodwater.

Understanding these differences is essential for making informed decisions about restoration after water damage affects your home. Your family's health depends on proper remediation techniques specific to the type of water intrusion you've experienced. 

Whether facing hurricane flooding or a burst pipe, having knowledgeable restoration professionals who understand these critical distinctions can make all the difference in your recovery journey. Visit Hazardclean.net or call 772-259-5018 to put your family on the road to recovery with experts who know exactly how to handle your specific water damage scenario.

To learn more about Hazard Clean Restoration visit:
https://hazardclean.net/
Hazard Clean Restoration
772-259-5018

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 1:08 Hurricane Flooding vs Pipe Leaks
• 4:59 Contaminants in Hurricane Floodwater
• 6:04 Specialized Drying and Cleanup Processes
• 9:14 Episode Closing and Contact Info

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the Restoration Revolution podcast, where we help restore hope and put your family on the road to recovery, one episode at a time. Here's your host and owner of Hazard Clean Restoration, chad, melanie.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Not all water damage is created equal. Chad breaks down why hurricane flooding is a whole different beast than a busted pipe. Welcome back everyone. I'm sophia yvette, co-host and producer. Back in the studio with chad maloney, owner of hazardard Clean Restoration. Hi Chad, how are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:46

Doing good, Sophia Doing good. Happy to be here for another episode.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Yeah, Always great to have you back on Now. Today's topic is one every homeowner in storm-prone areas needs to hear. So when your home floods from a hurricane, how does that differ from a pipe leak?

Speaker 3: 1:08

There's a lot that differs with that. I mean, first, the source, right. So if it's a pipe leak, we're talking clean water, you know. And so we're talking, you know, if it's a clean break and everything else, the initial source is going to be clean water that's coming out and then going into the home or the building or the business or whichever, and then from there it's going to basically interact with building materials, any kind of contaminants that are there, and then it can get a little bit more complicated. But if we just look at the source first, we're talking about clean water initially.

Speaker 3: 1:49

Secondly, if you look at where the source is coming from, a hurricane it's usually not clean water. Usually it's going to be coming from outside and ground, and so when you have that, you're going to have things you know, especially if it's a lot of rain in the area. Uh, it may not just be the little flooding around your home that might have now. You may have a body of water that's involved, especially if you're on the coast, if you have have any kind of lakes, canals and everything else, those could be overflowing and that can be what's actually going into your home or business and into the building. And when you have a hurricane with floodwaters, that's what's intruding especially. We're talking about the flood part of going underneath doors and everything. We're talking that the flood part of going, you know, underneath doors and everything you now it's going to be. It's going to have bacteria, viruses, all kinds of pathogens you're going to have. You're going to have different pesticides. You know all in there. So now that's what's in your home? Uh, unfortunately. And so there's a big difference.

Speaker 3: 2:59

When you just consider where the water starts from, you know this, the source of it, and if we just look at bacteria, it it's amazing, when you really look at bacteria, how fast it actually replicates and duplicates. And you know you could have, you know, basically, one bacterium or whichever, and if you take that and then you just fast forward eight hours, you know you're looking at one turns into about over 16 million, you know, and a day later you're in the trillions. If you think about those pathogens that can get into the building materials, now they're in the wall cavities and all throughout the building and that's where it really. You know your family or whoever, the occupants, I should say, of the building, that's when they're really being put at risk and get sick and everything. You know that's what we don't want to happen, and so that you know there's there's different things that we do when we're assessing, creating the scope and everything in our initial assessment to figure out where the source of water was.

Speaker 3: 4:08

If you know, if it was obviously coming from a hurricane, we call that category three water. But if it was flood water from a hurricane, we call that category three water. But if it was flood water from a hurricane that's coming into the building, the scope of that is going to be a lot different than if it was clean category one water from a pipe leak. Now we're going to also double check and we're going to test and we're going to do our due diligence. So it's not like we just look at it, because there's a lot of water out there that looks clean, that actually is not clean and we have the test to prove that. There's been a lot of examples that we thought the water, you look at it, you think it's clean and we get it third party tested and find out it wasn't clean at all and it actually could have got the occupants sick or worse. So yeah, there's some big differences in it and hopefully I answered your question there.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Yes, Thank you, Chad. Now what are the main contaminants found in hurricane flood water that aren't present in a pipe leak?

Speaker 3: 5:09

Assuming we have a good water system and source and everything is sanitary a water source, I mean you're not going to have E water system and source and everything is sanitary water source. I mean you're not going to have E coli and all these different types of pathogens. You know whether it's you know different bacteria's like E coli or different types of viruses. You know you're obviously not going to have like all these pesticides and everything else and toxins, all that would be filtered out, the outs and toxins, all that would be filtered out. And if it was a clean break from a pipe verse, if it's coming from category three, hurricane flood water and you know we already discussed how fast the bacteria replicates and everything, and so I mean it's, it really has to do with the bacteria, the viruses, all those pathogens. Those aren't typically present in a clean water supply.

Speaker 2: 5:56

Now, how does the drying and dehumidification process differ between the two scenarios?

Speaker 3: 6:04

So it's a great, it's a really good question the drying and dehumidification part of it. So the drying part or phase of that project would not really differ too much. What would differ is everything leading up to that point. And so you know if, if, let's just say it's hurricane, right, you know category three, hurricane, flood water. You know, first we're we got to assess everything. We got to make sure that you know the if there's occupants or no occupants or whichever, and assess the scenario. We got to create a scope. We got to make sure that that we're going to, if we're going to stabilize that we take some measures to make sure we protect, you know, the occupants, that if there is occupants in the building or in that building, you know we got to make sure that we, we are, you know, cleaning some of the building materials. You know so that way it's safe and we can verify that with with also some testing that we do. And once we test that you know our cleaning methods and procedures have worked, then we can stabilize that building and we're not cleaning it for drying, we're just stabilizing it and you know we'll send off the send off the samples or have that third party come in. I should say, before we clean whichever, but we'll have that third party come in test, if that's the protocol that we came up with, and when we get those lab testing back, that's what's really going to tell us if we can proceed to drying. Going to tell us if we can proceed to drying, most likely on a category three water loss from flood waters from a hurricane.

Speaker 3: 7:57

All right, I'm back. So with the building materials, we're going to be removing those and making sure that whatever we leave is something that we can clean and also verify we're not going to have any of those pathogens there anymore and we'll clean them, treat them, everything and then, once all that's done, then you'd move into the drying phase of the project where we would actually dry the building and that would be consistent with how you would dry In a lot of aspects. It would be consistent how you would dry if it was just a regular clean water break and we had it lab tested and came back that there was no pathogens, no viruses or bacteria or anything in that from like a clean water source. Then we'd be at the same page back in the project of now. We're just drying the building materials and when we do that we're just trying the building materials and when we do that we're doing it the most effective way possible. So I hope that answered your question.

Speaker 2: 9:01

Yes, chad, it definitely did. Now, thanks for walking us through that, chad, always eye-opening. We'll catch you next time on the Restoration Revolution.

Speaker 3: 9:14

Thanks Sophia, thanks Sophia, bye everyone.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Thanks for listening to the Restoration Revolution podcast, where recovery starts here. Let us help put your family on the road to recovery. Go to hazardcleannet or call 772-259-5018. That's 772-259-5018.