Water Categories

12/22/2017 (Permalink)

IICRC

When hiring a restoration company, you want to make sure that they can take care of your damage properly. It’s always a good idea to make sure the lead technician is IICRC-certified in the type of restoration you are having done (water damage, fire and smoke damage, etc.) It is especially important for water damages.  Water damage mitigation that is improperly performed can cause health problems for your family in the future.

It is critical that the company working in your home or office is insured for this type of work, and they perform thorough background checks on their employees.  SERVPRO of Casper meets all of these qualifications. With over 30 years of serving the people of Casper, and Natrona and Converse counties, we have developed a strong reputation of honesty and precise, high-quality workmanship.

The industry standard for water damage restoration is ANSI/IICRC Standard S500. There are a lot of technical matters in this standard that must be carefully adhered to. IICRC-certified technicians have been trained on this standard, and can bring your home or office back to a dry, safe, healthy state.

One example of a technical detail in the ANSI/IICRC Standard S500 is determining the category of water in the property. This helps establish the level of contamination in the water, and guides the decisions on what materials can be dried, versus what must be removed and disposed of.

Category 1 – This is a liquid from a clean and sanitary source, like faucets, toilet tanks, drinking fountains and broken pipes. This water has minimal contamination, but must be addressed quickly. If it is not cleaned up in a timely manner, category 1 water can degrade into category 2.

Category 2 – This is often referred to as gray water, and is described as having a level of contaminants that may causes illness or discomfort if ingested. Some sources could be dishwasher, washing machine drainage, sink drains, and toilet overflow that is NOT from beyond the trap, with some urine but no feces. Again, rapid removal and drying is important. Category 2 water that is allowed to dwell for a period of time can degrade into category 3 water.

Category 3 – This category of water is considered to be grossly unsanitary. Often referred to as black water, some sources could include sewer back up, flooding from rivers or streams, toilet overflow from beyond the trap, and stagnant liquid that has started bacterial growth.

SERVPRO of Casper Technicians are IICRC-trained and certified, so they can determine what kind of loss you have and how to properly take care of it so you don’t have any further problems.