Water Mitigation vs. Water Damage Restoration: What’s the Difference?

When you’re trying to reverse the effects of flooding at your home or business, there will be plenty of information that you’ll have to wrap your head around—and quickly, at that. It’s why so many people tend to get two important terms mixed up: water mitigation and water damage restoration. What makes it even more confusing is that both are crucial to every flood recovery project. Fortunately, both services are simple enough to understand, even if they each play their own parts in projects that are always complex and full of nuances. Let’s take a look at the details of each service:

What is Water Mitigation?

Water mitigation will always come before water damage restoration because it’s all about removal. This process involves the extraction of standing water from a property, as well as the removal of important contents and personal belongings from a building.

Notably, this is the process that doesn’t always have to be left solely to the professionals to complete. Let’s say that a plumbing issue has caused flooding within one or more rooms in your home, but you managed to catch it early enough to stop the flow of water before the flooding could become severe. You’ll be able to remove much of the shallow, uncontaminated water yourself with tools such as:

• A wet/dry vacuum
• A bucket and mop
• Dry towels

Another important step you can take in the water mitigation process is to ventilate the affected area as much as possible. Not only does this assist with the drying process, it can also help to prevent mold growth caused by the moisture from the flooding and humidity within the space.

While you’ll still need to rely on a restoration company to ensure that every last drop of standing water is safely extracted, any actions you can take before they arrive will help tremendously. You will, however, need to leave all of your water mitigation needs to the professionals if your flooding is severe and/or if it was caused by storm damage.

What is Water Damage Restoration?

Once water mitigation is complete, it’s possible for the water damage restoration work to begin. This is where your restoration company will put the pieces back together by repairing structural damage and correcting the many other physical damage issues that flooding can cause. It always comes later in the stage of a project, well after the mitigation process has been completed, and is carefully planned out using the information gathered during damage documentation.

This step also involves cleaning and sanitizing the environment in order to address the other major issue caused by water damage: mold growth. Many restoration companies that specialize in water damage restoration also offer mold remediation services, which can be helpful for you as you wouldn’t have to find a separate contractor to handle that work.

Charlotte’s Trusted Water Restoration Experts

If your home or business in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area or nearby parts of South Carolina has been affected by flooding, leave the water mitigation and water damage restoration work to Trustmark Restoration! Our seasoned experts can tackle all sorts of flooding-related issues, large and small, while restoring your property to its former glory and creating a safe environment for you to re-enter.

Contact us today to set up a free estimate and get your recovery project started as soon as possible.