How Do I Know if Attic Flooding Has Occurred in My Chicago Home?

4/21/2020 (Permalink)

Flood damage can result anywhere in your home. Call the professionals at SERVPRO today for remediation assistance.

Our Professionals Have Sophisticated Inspection Tools and Efficient Drying Equipment to Help Potential Flooding Situations. 

The attic space of your aging Chicago home might have been storage for whatever family lived in it decades ago, but has stayed firmly sealed up since you moved in. While this has added a better layer of protection from possible animals that might find a way into the attic space or a loss of heat through this unfinished area, not having a visual of this space could be problematic after storm damages.

Storms that often threaten the city can leave you vulnerable to flood damage in your Chicago property. When this flooding occurs in the attic space that you have not seen in years, how do you know that a problem exists? Identifying some of the telling signs and acting on them by contacting our SERVPRO professionals can have skilled technicians ready to help whenever disasters strike.

How Vulnerable is My Attic to Storm and Flood Damage? 

While you might think of your home as somewhat impenetrable, there are more vulnerabilities than you might think. While your house’s roof was designed to withstand an onslaught of violent weather and unfavorable conditions, this structural system can weaken and degrade over time to the point of collapsing or malfunctioning during substantial winds, torrential rains, or in icy conditions.

• Storm Damage 

Intense storms can cause substantial structural damages to many buildings in the area. With the ability to uproot trees or produce hail and torrential rainfall, an already vulnerable roof can give out. Direct rainfall and runoff can make its way into the attic space beyond the underlayment of the roofing shingles.

• Ice Damming

Winters can get bitterly cold in the city and its outer lying suburbs, which can lead to some icing on the roofs. When uneven heating occurs, and warm spots exist on the exterior of the roof, snow can melt in cold snap freezing conditions and form a wall of ice that continually worsens until it dislodges shingles and forces its way into the attic with moisture and water. 

• Wind Damage 

There is a reason that we are known for being the ‘Windy City,’ and many of our homes and businesses have felt the effects of that harsh wind on one occasion or another. With an ability to move debris, break branches, or peel off shingles, wind damage can also be a situation that welcomes flooding into this upper portion of your home.

How Do I Know If Flooding Has Occurred? 

Surprisingly you might not always know immediately when flooding has occurred, or even that damage to your roof exists. Migrating water loss conditions often have telling signs that you have to regularly look out for to try and stay ahead of worsening flood conditions above you as much as you can.

There are a few things that you can start to look for that might indicate that water damage has occurred in the space above the ceiling, and these include:  

• Yellowing of the ceiling drywall
• Sagging materials
• Disfiguration of ceiling materials
• Moist conditions in the upstairs
• Mold growth on drywall or other organic materials

What Is the Best Way to Dry Confined Spaces? 

Once you have gotten assured that flood damage does exist in the attic space of your home, you have to move quickly to address this concern before it gets out of control. In many situations, the lack of direct knowledge of this damage can lead to mold already existing in the space. It is the priority of our SERVPRO technicians to dry out this confined space first before working on reconstruction or remediation concerns. We have several drying tools that can help to accomplish this, including:

• Air Movers

High-velocity air movers are the foundation of our drying, as we have hundreds of these units, and they offer a versatile evaporative effort depending on where drying is necessary and what structural elements might also be affected. 

• Positive Pressure Systems 

Because structural cavities between the floor of the attic area and the ceiling of the living space level beneath it have housed damp materials, positive pressure systems can help to infuse these cavities with blasts of heated air to promote evaporation.

• Portable Electric Heaters

During the winter months, electric heaters are a vital part of most of our recovery projects. These units also play a role in regulating the temperature to be more favorable to drying the attic space as quickly as possible.

Is Reconstruction Necessary After Storm Damage Flooding? 

With a team of in-house contractors that can help with both controlled demolition, remediation, and build back, reconstruction is something that we can offer whenever it is necessary. We can offer an honest evaluation of the property to determine the need for this phase.

You might not always immediately know when your attic space floods, but you should have an idea of whom you can trust to make it “Like it never even happened.” Give our SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville team a call today at (312) 509-5000.