How the Cleanliness of Water Can Affect Your Water Damage.

6/9/2021 (Permalink)

The three categories of water; clean water, gray water, and black water.

When you have a water intrusion in your home or business there are many elements which affect the steps needed to protect and restore your property. One of the first determinations we make on the site of a residential or commercial water damage is the contamination level of the water. We call this water category and the category of water that affected your building or home will have a huge impact on the job that we have to do. The cleaner the water, the more we can save instead of throwing away and replacing building materials, which means a cheaper, less invasive, and shorter job altogether.

Here at SERVPRO of Southwest Wichita the IICRC’s standards are what we follow to ensure every water mitigation and remediation job we tackle is done correctly. The Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) is the organization that sets the restoration industries standards and practices. When it comes to the sanitary level of water there are three levels: 

• Category 1: Clean and Sanitary. Typically comes from a sanitary source such as faucet, toilet tanks, drinking fountains, or water heaters.
• Category 2: Grey Water which can cause illness or discomfort if ingested. Typical sources are dish washers, washing machine overflows, flush from sink drains, or toilet overflows with urine (no feces)
• Category 3: Black Water is grossly unsanitary which could cause severe illness or death if ingested. This includes sewer backups, flooding from rivers or streams, toilet overflow with feces, and stagnant liquid which has supported microbial growth.

These categories are also time dependent. Category 1 clean water will become contaminated category 2 water after 48 hours. Another 24 hours after that it becomes a category 3 loss. This change in category means a tremendous difference in the scope of work, cost of remediation, and time of job. 

If you are experiencing a water damage, call us on our 24/7 emergency line: 316-260-9011.