When Your San Antonio Commercial Property Falls Victim to Water Damage

5/13/2022 (Permalink)

Commercial building water loss

Understanding the Need for Tear Out/Demolition Strategies After Commercial Water Damage in San Antonio

After a substantial plumbing leak or equipment malfunction in your San Antonio commercial property, you hope for a fast and successful recovery to get back to business as usual. Our highly qualified Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)-trained managers and technicians might dismay your team when recommending a step that feels like an amplification of the chaos and destruction rather than part of a solution. The following are reasons we must pursue partial demolition after a water damage.

Safety Considerations

Water damage in your San Antonio commercial property must always be assessed initially from a safety standpoint. When we arrive, our crews are ready to begin emergency services, but wait until our project manager scopes for hazards exposing you, your workforce, and our employees to risks that could cause injury or even death. Saturated and deteriorating building materials can fall, topple, and fail to provide structural support underfoot or side to side. To mitigate the chance of continuing damage and clarify the extent of the destruction, we might perform the following actions and more. We adhere to local building regulations after consultation with your insurance company and structural engineers if required.

• Pull down waterlogged ceilings
• Remove crumbling drywall and insulation
• Remove soaked carpet and padding
• Pull up buckled wood or laminate flooring
• Clear away dislodged ceramic or other tiles

Creating Access for Water Removal and Drying

Often water migrates far from the original damage. SERVPRO technicians use a range of tools to map out the dimensions of the water spread, including building cavities or recesses where water lies trapped. Because water continues to destroy structural components and moisture provides the perfect environment for mold growth if not removed within 24 to 48 hours, we must be creative in releasing hidden caches of water and planning for efficient drying even in confined spaces. Ways we accomplish these goals include:

• Flood cuts several inches above the water line on wet drywall to release water and allow warm air flow for drying
• Drilling holes in mortar joints in cinder or concrete block construction
• Strategic removal of baseboards and flooring to allow extraction of water between walls and in layers of subflooring
• Drilling or cutting holes in salvageable structures to allow hoses or other connections to suction water out and/or direct warm, moving air in to normalize the moisture load in building materials.

SERVPRO of North Central San Antonio uses planned demolition techniques for project safety and to remove water and dry out moisture fast, then helping arrange for rebuilding. Call us at (210) 899-1017 to arrange an assessment after your commercial water damage.