What Appliances Can Be Saved After a Flood

Being flooded is always risky as water flows can damage almost everything and cause danger to your life. The most vulnerable category of items in your household is appliances as even the smallest water flood can damage them and make non-repairable. But is there a way out? And what can be saved after a flood? You can find the answers in our article.

What Is Flood, First of All?

This incident shouldn't be mistaken with water leaks as leakages are always quite tiny, whereas flood provides a truly frantic impact. Usually, the causes of a flood are the following:

• neighbor's leaking pipes that run to the overflow,
• your own piping or sewerage overflow,
• natural causes, i.e. heavy rains, hurricanes or river flooding,
• your own carelessness in handling plumbing.

If your house or apartment has got flooded, whatever the reason is, it is necessary to act quickly and save the appliances and other belongings from water impact out of hand.

What Should Be Done Emergently After a Flood?

We recommend that you first take the following steps:

• Wire off the house or apartment (including the entrance) to protect all residents from an electric shock or a short circuit.
• In case of apartments, urgently contact the neighbors in order to eliminate the source of water flow from the top.
• If water has got into your house, call an emergency crew, water mitigation service or water flood detecting service, or, if you know how, turn off the water in the apartment or house by shutting off the riser yourself.
• After that, if it's your neighbors' fault that you've got flooded, take a few minutes and record some video or photo evidence of the damage caused by flooding. It will also be helpful for your further insurance claim. So, it is an obligatory thing you need to do.
• Call your insurance company and an insurance adjuster to record all the flood damage for later assessment. Besides, hire a public adjuster in order to ensure that you receive the highest compensation from the insurance company. In addition, check out if you have got a flood reimbursement policy in addition to the standard homeowners insurance policy. This will be an additional step towards successful offsetting your costs.

In any case, try to quickly collect water by hand and remove the furniture, household appliances or carpets to minimize wetting and damage.

What Types of Appliances Can Be Saved After a Flood?

So, everything is clear with the operational measures. But what a sad thing it is to inspect all the household appliances that have got flooded! Is it possible to fix anything, or all your electronics and household appliances will go to the landfill? Let's start with the basic principles of inspection.

• Check thoroughly all household appliances. Perhaps, some small household appliances that have not come into direct contact with water will remain in operational condition and won't need any repair. For example, if you store a food processor inside the furniture, it might remain dry. Or if the basement has got flooded, all the contents of the upper floors may remain intact.
• It is impossible to independently verify the operability of the flooded equipment. Be sure to call a technician to assess the damage and check each device.
• If your kitchen has got flooded, it can be a disaster, of course. But, if the water level on the floor is not more than a couple of inches, it may not be all that bad. In this case, the refrigerator and oven will unlikely be damaged.
• What else can be saved after the flood? First of all, your built-in household appliances installed in the kitchen furniture. In this case, the surface of the furniture itself will become additional protection. In addition, if a stove has been installed at eye level, it will unlikely be affected by the water flow on the floor.

And What Is Definitely Not Worth Saving?

Only a professional technician will be able to determine how much your home appliances have been damaged by water. In some cases, it will be enough just to replace the electrics, dry the device and replace the motor. In other situations, water can damage automation or electronics. Then, alas, repairs will cost much more than buying a new device.

In any case, do not despair! Call specialists to dry the house, as well as an expert to check all your household appliances.

In addition, you can always contact the manufacturer of your household appliances directly and get advice on how to deal with the flooding of their product. Among manufacturers there are those who do not pay attention to water permeability issues and those for whom additional protection of their devices against moisture is important. It is likely that your household appliances belong to the latter category. In addition, it is the manufacturer who conducts various tests at the stage of developing equipment and will be able to give advice on the repair and restoration of damaged household appliances produced by them.