Restoring your home after a flood is often a lot of work. But it’s important to follow proper clean-up, cleaning, sanitizing, and drying guidelines to prevent mould from growing, damage to structures, or other problems.

Talk to a professional about structural safety and restoring your home before you begin any work.

Floors

Flooring and floor coverings will be very dirty after a flood. Clean all floors in your house, even those above the water line. It’s important to clean all floors as the house will have extra moisture in the air (humidity) which could cause mould to grow.

Before you clean and sanitize floors:

• Move furniture and all removable floor coverings outside.
• Remove wet carpet and underlay (the pads under carpet).

To clean and sanitize floors:

• Wash floors with warm water and soap.
• Sanitize floors with a mild bleach solution (1/2 teaspoon of household bleach mixed with 1 litre of water).
• Dry floors well.

Carpets

Remove and throw out all carpets and underlay damaged by the flood. Do this as soon as possible so the floor doesn’t start to change shape or come apart.

Drag carpets out on a plastic sheet. Don’t carry them, because wet carpets are very heavy.

Carpet undelay may fall apart when you remove it. But be sure to get all the pieces.

To save expensive carpets and area rugs, have them cleaned by a professional carpet cleaner. Contact a cleaning company quickly to lessen damage.

Vinyl, linoleum, and other sheet floor coverings

Vinyl, linoleum, and other floor coverings can trap dirt and water. Remove these types of flooring if:

• the wooden subfloor (the floor underneath) is wet
• dirt and water are trapped underneath

Removing the flooring lets the wooden subfloor dry quickly. If you don’t do this, the subfloor will stay wet longer and may cause more damage to the flooring.

Inside floor cavities

Once the flood water is gone, check the space between the floor and ceiling below it to see if it’s wet. If anything inside this space is wet, open it up so you can clean it and dry it out.

• Take out any insulation, debris, or dirt.
• Throw away wet insulation.
• Dry all materials.
• Clean and sanitize the surfaces.

If any wood is wet, it may take days or weeks to dry. Keep these spaces open and make sure they’re completely dry before you close them.

Walls

Before you start any work or construction on your home, talk to a contractor about structural safety. Know which walls are the load-bearing walls.

The more quickly you open hidden spaces in your home, the less time water will have to soak through materials and the quicker they will dry.

As soon as possible:

• Open up walls to see if the drywall is wet.
• Remove drywall that is soaked or absorbed water.
• Wash any drywall that you’re not removing with warm water and soap. Then sanitize the drywall with a mild bleach solution (1/2 teaspoon of household bleach mixed with 1 litre of water.
• Clean all walls in your house, including the walls on floors above the water line. This will help prevent mould from growing.

Insulation

If you find anything wet inside your walls, open the walls up.

Insulation can soak quickly. This could be up to half a metre (1 to 2 feet) within a few days, under some conditions.

• Take out any wet fibrous or board insulation.
• Clean and sanitize the surfaces.
• Use dehumidifiers to speed up drying.

If any of the wood is soaked with water, it may take days or weeks to dry completely before you can close the wall.

Once the area is dry, put in new insulation.

Ceilings

Ceilings above the water line may look dry and undamaged. But you still need to check and clean them. When walls absorb moisture, ceilings can get wet.

If ceilings have contact with flood water:

• Replace the ceiling drywall or plaster that was under water.
• Replace any ceiling materials that are wet, even if they are above the water line.

If ceilings aren’t damaged and haven’t had contact with flood water:

• Clean ceilings warm water and soap.
• Sanitize the ceiling using a mild bleach solution (1/2 teaspoon of household bleach mixed with 1 litre of water).
• Dry the ceiling within 24 hours.

Asbestos

If your home was built before 1980, it may have asbestos. Damage to items in your home may release asbestos particles in the air while they dry. Asbestos is dangerous to your health. It’s important to know what to do if you think you have asbestos in your home.

Find out more about asbestos.