Water Damage: What to Do in the First 24 Hours.

We'll say this up front, because it changes how you should read everything below.

RF Home Remodeling does not do emergency water mitigation. We don't do the extraction and the drying. That's a separate trade with its own certification, equipment, and around-the-clock crews, and you should call one of those companies, not us, when water is actively in your house.

We handle what comes after: the rebuild. Which means we have no financial interest in what you do in the first 24 hours — and that's exactly why we can tell you the truth about it.

Safety comes before saving anything

Do not walk into standing water while power is on to that area. This is the instruction that gets reversed most often, and it's the one that kills people.

If your electrical panel is in a flooded basement — which is common — do not go down to it. Shut power off from a dry location if you can do so safely, or call your utility or a licensed electrician. Nothing in your basement is worth this. Not the furniture, not the boxes, not the photographs.

Same rule for gas: if you smell gas or the water reached a gas appliance, leave the house and call the gas company from outside.

Then identify the water. It determines everything that follows:

• Clean water — a supply line, a water heater, rainwater. Generally safe to handle yourself with normal precautions.

• Gray water — dishwasher, washing machine, a toilet overflow without solids. Some contamination. Limit contact.

• Black water — sewage backup, or flood water that came in from outside. Do not touch it and do not try to clean it up. This requires protective equipment and trained personnel. Materials it contacted usually have to be removed, not dried.

Stop the source

Find your main water shutoff and close it. If you don't know where it is, find out today rather than during an emergency — it's usually where the service line enters the house, often near the water meter.

If the water is coming from the roof or from outside, cover what you can safely cover. Your policy places a duty on you to prevent further damage, so reasonable steps to stop the spread matter — including for the claim.

Where common advice goes wrong

Two pieces of standard internet advice can make things worse.

"Put fans on it." Fine for clean water. Dangerous with contaminated water — a fan blowing across sewage aerosolizes it and distributes it through the rest of the house. If the water isn't clean, don't move air across it. Wait for someone with the right equipment.

"Open the windows." Only if the outside air is drier than the inside air. On a humid summer day in this region, opening windows brings more moisture in than it takes out. Professional drying is done with the building closed and dehumidifiers running, not with the windows open.

Document before you clean

Photograph and film everything before anything is moved, removed, or dried. Wide shots of each room, then close-ups. Capture the source if it's visible. Include contents and personal property, not just the structure.

Keep every receipt from the emergency phase — equipment, a plumber, a hotel room. These are frequently reimbursable and they're the first things people forget.

Call mitigation, then call your insurer

Call a water mitigation company first. Look for IICRC certification and ask whether they respond 24 hours. Mold growth can begin quickly in wet materials — commonly cited as within a day or two under the right conditions — so the drying clock is real.

Then call your insurer and open the claim. Ask two questions in that first call: whether the cause is covered, and what your deductible is. Sudden and accidental discharge is commonly covered; gradual leaks and outside flood water frequently are not, with flood usually requiring a separate policy.

One caution: be careful what you sign while you're stressed. Emergency companies sometimes present a document that assigns your insurance benefits to them. That may be fine, or it may not — but read it, or photograph it and read it in an hour. Nothing legitimate has to be signed in the first thirty seconds.

Then comes the part we do

Once the structure is dry and the moisture readings confirm it, the actual repair begins — drywall, flooring, cabinets, trim, paint, and whatever framing, plumbing, or electrical was affected underneath.

That's our work. And it's worth knowing that the rebuild is usually the larger part of the claim, so it's worth getting a written, itemized scope for it rather than accepting a general allowance.

To be clear about our limits: we document the damage, prepare a detailed estimate, and meet your adjuster on site to explain what the repair actually requires. We do not negotiate your claim or interpret your coverage — that's public adjusting, a licensed profession in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and we're contractors, not licensed public adjusters.

The one-page version

1. Power off before you enter water. From a dry location.

2. Identify the water. If it's sewage or flood water, don't touch it.

3. Stop the source.

4. Photograph everything before cleanup.

5. Call an IICRC-certified mitigation company.

6. Call your insurer and ask about coverage and deductible.

7. Read before you sign anything.

8. Get a written scope for the rebuild.

Already dried out and facing the rebuild?

That's where we come in. We'll walk the damage with you and give you a written, itemized scope of what the repair actually requires.

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RF Home Remodeling — Philadelphia, South Jersey, Cherry Hill & Pennington