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FAQs > Water Sources & Water Damage
What You Need To Know About Water Sources & Water Damage
There are three basic sources of water.
Category 1 originates
from a sanitary source and poses no substantial risk from dermal,
ingestion, or inhalation exposure. However, it may not always remain
clean after it comes into contact with other surfaces or materials.
Category 2 contains
significant contamination and has the potential to cause discomfort or
sickness if contacted or consumed by humans. It may contain
potentially unsafe levels of microorganisms or nutrients for
microorganisms, as well as other organic or inorganic matter (chemical
or biological).
Category 3
is grossly contaminated and may contain pathogenic, toxigenic or other
harmful agents. Such water sources may carry silt, organic matter,
pesticides, heavy metals, regulated materials, or toxic organic
substances.
Time and temperature can also affect the quality of water, thereby changing its category.
There are four primary classifications of water damage.
Class 1 is
the least amount of water, absorption and evaporation. It affects only
part of a room or area, or larger areas containing materials that have
absorbed minimal moisture. Little or no wet carpet and/or cushion is
present.
Class 2
involves a larger amount of water, absorption and evaporation. It
affects at least an entire room of carpet and cushion (pad). Water has
wicked up walls less than 24". There is moisture remaining in
structural materials and substructure soil.
Class 3
involves the greatest amount of water, absorption and evaporation.
Water may have come from overhead. Ceilings, walls, insulation,
carpet, cushion and subfloor in virtually the entire area are saturated.
Class 4
relates to specialty drying situations. Wet materials with very low
permeance/porosity (e.g., hardwood, plaster, brick, concrete, light
weight concrete and stone). Typically, there are deep pockets of
saturation, which require very low specific humidity. These types of
losses may require longer drying times and special methods.
We can have one of our 24-Hour Emergency Response Teams onsite to assess damage & restoration in about an hour.