Dry It

I have been performing water damage remediation in condos for years.Water damage or flooding is recognized by most people as being an emergency that requires immediate attention. Many buildings do not have an emergency response plan. Emergencies that are outside the scope of the facility management’s office to deal with themselves should have the required outside resources identified and the appropriate contact information provided.
It used to be that all emergency phone numbers were made available to security officers, janitors, superintenants and building managers. But over the years this list of phone numbers is not as in-grained into our systems as they used to be. Afterall most emergencies are dealt with by 911.
Quick response by a building’s preferred contractor in water damage remediation is absolutely essential. Response times should be in the range of 15-60 minutes. When the emergency contractor arrives water extraction should commence immediately.
Water moves quickly away from its source. In condominium apartment buildings a slow response by the contractor may result in the water flowing down several more levels and affect several units per floor.
Another major concern of building management should be the identification of all possible water shut offs. It is sad when you have an emergency and the on-call staff of the building does not have the ability to stop the water flow. All on-call staff should be fully informed on the location of all water shut off valves.
Another point that is often not taken into consideration is the source of the water. Water is usually viewed as “clean” or “gray” or “black”. The organization that makes the standards for water damage and mould remediation is the IICRC. In the IICRC S500 Standard for Water Damage Remediation 3rd edition, the Standard refers to clean water as “Category 1″, gray water as “Category 2″ and black water as “Category 3″. The latest edition now makes no reference to the terms clean, gray or black water.
One factor that is often not considered by both building management or the water damage contractor is the source of the “clean” water. Water that has escaped from roof top heating systems usually has an anti freeze in the system. This anti freeze is often glycol ether. This glycol ether cannot be placed in the sanitary sewer system because our water treatment system is unable to purify it from the water.
Should there be a water damage as a result of such a system failure your heating and air conditioning contractor should be contacted immediately and an assessment of the anti freeze additive be made immediately. Should it be glycol ether a generator’s license must be obtained from the Ministry of the Environment and the extracted water collected shall be disposed of by a licensed waste hauler.
The fines associated with flushing or disposing glycol ether down the sanitary sewer system usually start at $25,000.
James (Lee) Senter is the owner of Dryit.ca. Lee is an IICRC Approved Water Damage Remediation Instructor teaching classes across Cnada. Lee is an IICRC Master Water Restorer, Master Fire and Smoke Restorer and the Chair of the IICRC Canadian Health and Safety Technician committee. Dryit.ca is a disaster restoration company that operates in Southern Ontario and gurantees one hour response time in regular traffic flow hours. Dryit.ca offers water damge remediation, smoke and fire remediation and mould remediation. Our website is http://www.dryit.ca.