Flooding is a disaster that can have a major impact on your company’s bottom line. On top of dealing with the water damage, you will also need to be concerned with trying to maintain as much of your normal business operations as possible. Although you may face some degree of downtime, you can keep it to a minimum by quickly developing an effective course of action.
Preserve Salvageable Assets and Documents
If you were able to find out about the flooding early, then you might be able to preserve essential items. Once the area is deemed safe, take a look around to see if there are any items that you might be able to take outside to dry out. Keep in mind that water has a way of soaking upwards on drywall and other porous materials. Taking furniture and other items off of the water-logged carpet and moving them away from the walls can help you to avoid having to replace everything.
Most likely, most of your paper documents were protected in filing cabinets or on higher shelves. Gather everything you can find and take it to a dry area. This can help prevent it from being damaged through the restoration process.
Start Removing the Water Right Away
Water damage can continue to occur long after the initial flood event is over. Commercial water damage restoration involves removing all of the standing water and unsalvageable debris. Once the main mess is cleaned up, professional technicians continue on with their work to make sure that every inch of the flooded facility is dried out so that mold and mildew don’t grow. Considering that mold can start growing in less than 24 hours, prompt clean-up is essential.
Identify Essential Business Functions
You’ll want to identify which parts of the normal daily business operations need to continue and which can be put on pause in the short term. For the moment, you might be able to at least have someone come into the non-flooded parts of the facility to handle essential business such as making phone calls or accepting shipments. If you do have people coming into dry parts of the building, then make sure that they know which areas to avoid for safety purposes.
Create Temporary Work Spaces
For now, it might be easier to switch certain tasks to remote positions such as redirecting calls for your receptionist to answer from their home. Or, you might be able to combine two offices for the duration of the flood cleanup. Thinking creatively about how you can continue to do things such as meet with clients or hold planning sessions can help you keep many aspects of your business flowing until you can be back in the building.
After a flood, getting things back to normal as soon as possible is critical for your company’s success. Making sure to completely dry out the area prevents mold growth and further damage to your company’s assets. Once you’ve got your business facility cleaned up, take a moment to document your plan so that you’ll know what to do if it happens again. Acting fast prevents more problems from developing that could hold you back from getting your business back to its daily operations.
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