What Is Water Damage?

8/19/2020 (Permalink)

Understanding water damage is something that is more scientific than you may think. When we think about objects and buildings, we don’t think of them containing water…but they do. Most materials we interact with every single day have a moisture content within them already.

Even human beings are 60% water (H2O). You may think that the water in the human body is limited to the soft tissue, but it isn’t. Our bones even contain water, they are made up of 31% water. Water Damage can occur in the human body as well, over-hydration (water intoxication) can be detrimental to our health.

Now, when we think about our homes, what are they made out of? Wood.

The wood we use to build homes is made up of roughly 5%-25% of water. This number is affected by the density of wood, the age of the wood, the humidity in the air, and how long the wood has acclimated before being used/installed. Water damage occurs in wood, just like in the human body, if the wood absorbs more water than it’s natural resting water content.

What happens when wood absorbs too much water? The wood swells, it buckles, it rots, it begins to grow mold, it begins to lose it’s structural integrity. But, much like the human body, if water damage to the wood is addressed quickly and correctly, the wood can return to it’s natural state without long term effects.

Drying is one of the most important aspects of our job here at SERVPRO of Salem West. Our technicians are trained to monitor the moisture levels in affected materials and see that they are drying properly to their preloss condition. So if your home suffers a water damage, call SERVPRO of Salem West, we can get your house returned to its happy level of moisture content!