There are a number of opportunities for bathroom flooding. Second only to the basement, it's the room in the house most likely to experience water behaving badly. A clogged toilet overflows when flushed, or a water supply line leaks under a bathroom sink, or someone starts filling a bathtub and forgets—any of these can turn water loose in the bathroom.
You can't undo what's already happened. However, taking the right steps after bathroom flooding can minimize immediate consequences as well as help reduce the amount of professional water damage restoration required in the aftermath.
- Turn off the water supply. If it's just a single fixture like a toilet overflowing, there's an individual shut-off valve on the wall behind the fixture to cut off water and stop the flooding. If (as sometimes happens), the individual shut-off valve to a fixture is frozen because it hasn't been turned off in years, it's a good idea to know in advance the location of the main water shutoff valve for the whole house and how to operate it to shut the water off there.
- Turn off electricity to the bathroom at the circuit breaker panel. In a flooded indoor room, electrocution is always a hazard. If there's a lot of water loose in the bathroom, you don't want to enter that soaked environment with outlets and light fixtures still “hot” with electrical power. If you're uncertain about which circuit breakers control bathroom power, have an electrician clear the room before entering.
- Remove standing water. Use mops, old towels and floor squeegees to get standing water up off the floor and into buckets or down a drain. If you have a wet/dry shop vac in the house, you can utilize that, as well. Get any soaked bathroom rugs out of the house, too.
- Circulate air continuously. Open windows and/or bring in fans (be careful of using extension cords in wet areas) to keep air moving and dry the area as well as to reduce residual humidity in the air.
For professional water damage restoration after a bathroom flooding event, contact Rytech Restoration.
