Returned To A Damaged Home? Here Are Your Next Steps

This is a collaborative post

It’s never nice to notice your home has been damaged, be that due to building water or perhaps a fallen tree. However, it’s even worse to come back home after a little while (perhaps after a vacation) and see your home in this state, too. Now you’re not entirely sure of the distinct cause of the issue, at least initially, and may only have the vague recollections of your neighbors to piece together what happened.

Moreover, it’s important to be careful about your next steps so that a potential issue doesn’t become worse. If an opening to your home has been made due to the damage, it can be helpful to call the authorities or have your neighbours come to help inspect the interior damage and make sure no squatters are present.

Once that has been attended to, it’s important not to switch on utilities until you’re certain they’re unaffected. Plumbing and your electrical circuit could function in a dangerous manner if the home has been damaged, potentially causing further issues. 

In this post, we’ll discuss where to go from there:

Document All Damage & Contact Your Insurance Provider

To start with, it’s essential to make sure all the damage is properly documented. By using your camera as evidence, you can more easily show the scope of the problem, such as flooding, breakages, structural damage, or vandalism. Keep backups of these files and use them to contact your insurance provider as you make your possible claim. From there, you can commit to the repairs or restructuring of your home.

Contact Restorative Services

It’s helpful to contact restoration services that are capable of specialised, recuperative planning. For example, using a water damage restoration service can help you identify the scope of a leak and pooled water, carefully remove it so as not to cause further damage to your property, as well as inspect and suggest practices to help your home survive. In some cases, this may mean reconstructing walls (and thus gaining a referral), in others it may simply mean landscaping a particular part of the garden again, which can be achieved at your own pace when the water has been removed and structural supports put in place.

Focus On Essential Utilities & Security

As we’ve mentioned above, security and safety are the essential priorities here. Having temporary gates constructed to prevent access to certain parts of the property can be achieved by construction firms that renovate and open houses on a regular basis. Emergency plumbers and electricians can identify the scope of the damage to your essential utilities, in some cases this may mean rewiring parts of your home completely or removing pipework and the associated connections leading back to your water mains and boiler. With essential utilities resolved, you can at least ensure that they won’t cause even more damage to your home or put its repair effort in jeopardy.

With this advice, we hope you can step over the planning and emotional difficulty of returning to a damaged home, and benefit as a result.