Water Damage: What is Black Water?
Water damage is typically broken up into three different categories of severity. Clean water damage is a category 1 level of water damage, which means that it is mostly clean water throughout your home and does not pose a health hazard. Category 2 water damage would be what’s known as grey water. This is when your home or office is filled with slightly contaminated water. Lastly, category 3 is what we are going to focus on today, black water. This type of water damage is the most dangerous of the three categories. This occurs when the water damage in your home or office is highly contaminated with harmful bacteria and toxins which can lead to illness, disease, or infection for the people who encounter it. Let’s learn a little more about what black water is and how to address water damage in your home or business from it.
What causes black water?
Black water damage can occur for a number of reasons. One of the most common causes is groundwater flooding in your home or business. Groundwater can carry harmful bacteria and toxins since it contains everything from the area it came from. This can include overflowing sewage and other harmful substances. Overflowing waste and sewage can also be a cause if a toilet overflows in your home or business. Other causes of category 3 water damage are leaks or overflows from the washing machine or sink.
Why is category 3 water damage dangerous?
Whatever the cause of black water damage in your home may be, it can turn into an extremely dangerous situation if not addressed quickly. This water contains harmful bacteria and viruses that can affect those who encounter it. If a family member in your home or an employee at the office comes into contact with it, they can become extremely ill. Common illnesses that stem from black water damage include hepatitis, gastroenteritis, leptospirosis, and campylobacteriosis.
What should you do if you experience black water damage?
Hiring water damage restoration professionals is the key to addressing black water damage safely and getting your home put back together quickly and efficiently. The team assesses the water damage and creates a restoration plan that covers you and your home from point A to point Z.
Professional Fire Restoration should be the first call you make after experiencing any kind of water damage in your home. We have over 35+ years of experience of turning crisis into calm. We’re here to help you along your path to starting new. Contact us today so we can help clean the water damage in your home and repair it to what it was or make it even better.
