Getting the water out
- Extraction
- Pulling liquid water out of flooring and surfaces with suction. The fastest way to cut how much water has to evaporate.
- Truck-mount
- An extraction unit built into a vehicle and connected to the building by hoses.
- Portable extractor
- A wheeled extraction machine that plugs into building power.
- Weighted extraction tool
- A tool a technician stands or rides on to press water out of carpet and pad while the suction runs.
- Submersible pump
- A pump set down in standing water to move large volumes out of a basement or pit.
- Category 1, 2, 3
- How contaminated the water is: clean, significantly contaminated, or grossly contaminated, like sewage or floodwater.
- Flood cut
- A straight cut through drywall a set distance above the floor, to remove wet material and open the wall cavity.
Drying and measuring
- Class 1 to 4
- How much water there is and how hard it will be to dry, from a small area of low-porosity material up to dense materials like hardwood, plaster and concrete.
- LGR dehumidifier
- Low grain refrigerant: a refrigerant dehumidifier built to keep pulling moisture once the air is already fairly dry.
- Desiccant dehumidifier
- A unit that pulls moisture with a drying wheel instead of cold coils. Common in cold spaces and large commercial jobs.
- Air mover
- A high-velocity fan aimed across wet surfaces to speed evaporation.
- Psychrometry
- The science of air, temperature and moisture. Every drying plan rests on it.
- Dry standard
- Readings from unaffected materials, used as the drying goal.
- Containment
- Plastic barriers that seal off a work area, often under negative air pressure, to keep dust or contaminants from spreading.
Paperwork terms
A work authorization is the basic permission for a contractor to start. It should describe the scope and how payment works. An assignment of benefits hands some of your rights under the insurance policy to the contractor. A direction to pay tells the insurer to pay the contractor directly while you keep control of the claim. They're different documents with different consequences, so read the title and the operative paragraph before you sign.
An equipment log lists how many dehumidifiers and air movers ran, and on which days. A line-item estimate breaks the job into individual tasks and quantities, priced from regional cost data in the estimating software your insurer or contractor uses. Mitigation is the emergency work of removing water and drying. Reconstruction, or rebuild, is the repair work that follows, and a different contractor may do it.
General information for Aurora, not a quote or professional advice. In an emergency, call 911.