Floors DRYout time from flood ?

[trevorbayliss]

Our kitchen basement has flooded last weekend and we had about 2 inch of water all over the floor. All carpets and laminate are now up and out. We have a big industrial dehumidifier running 24h/day.

I have booked it for 2 weeks. Do you know how long this area will take to dry out ? The whole basement area is about 60sqm in size. The main room being the kitchen and dining room, then hall off and storage room. The dehumidifier is in the main area.

title = dryout

 

[KenGMac]

trevorbayliss, hi


For that area I would expect to see air mover as well as De-Hum
A De-hum will slowly dry out the air in the void it is placed in, but if you introduce an air blower, a large industrial fan, then the time required to dry out walls flooring Etc.. is greatly reduced, this because air movement over a wet wall or floor will force the moisture trapped in the wall Etc. from the flood will encourage more water molecules to get out of the wall Etc. and be suspended in the air, at which time the De-Hum then grabs the air and wrings the air dry.
You really do need air mover and De-Hum not just a single De-hum, because you are attempting to dry out several differing areas in your property.
The trick with the Air Movers is to re-position them from time to time in any one day so as every wall is sprayed with moving air.
What sort of floor is in the area? is it Concrete or a floating timber on bearers?
You really should be obtaining advice from your Insurer as regards all of this, assuming that you have made an Insurance Claim? the balance of air movers and De-hums is a wee bit touchy feely, but I know the Restoration Companies, such as Chem-Dry, Rainbow, Et-All have charts as regards the balance of the above.


Ken.

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

I think you get more drying out for your bucks if you run big fans, which must blow the air out and have fresh air coming in. De humidifiers are best for when there is no source of fresh air available. So you have to dry the available air and not replace it with free low humidity air from outside. I think a couple of low power fans just to move the air about would be helpful. if you have a ceiling fan, leave it on.
Frank

 

[Burnerman]

When I was busy with the recent Keswick flooding, we opened doors and windows front and back when we were there, allowed a gale to blow through, and had a dehumidifier going when we weren't......the concrete floors dried very quickly indeed after shovelling 2" of crap out of the lounge, and the only issues was water creeping back from under the skirting boards. I removed these as they were MDF and blown anyway.
John

 

[trevorbayliss]

Thanks for that burner man. Hope it does dry quick.

I can't get those fans now, so fingers crossed the dehumidifier works ok.