Replacing Sheet Rock After a Flood Jersey City, NJ

Flooding Can Cause Problems for Your Home

A basement flood in New Jersey is bad enough in an unfinished basement. However, if you have a finished or partially finished basement with any sheetrock as wall board then you will need to replace the sheetrock.

Flooding can lead to wet sheetrock

Sheetrock absorbs water. If it comes into contact with any amount of water (or even moisture for that matter) you have a problem. Sometimes you will only need to replace part of the sheetrock on a wall. You can cut out the wet portion and replace it with new sheetrock. Sheetrock will not dry out on its own before you will have a problem with mold behind the walls. If you leave wet sheetrock, mold will grow behind the wall because mold is using the material in the sheetrock for food. Add the water and the dark, damp spots behind the wall and a serious mold problem could start to grow in no time.

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How to deal with wet sheetrock

If you are trying to save part of the wall, you will need to determine how high the water has traveled up the wall. The longer the sheetrock sits in the standing water, the higher the water problem will be. Typically, water travels up the sheetrock 3-6 inches a day. If it is left for a few days, the water could be halfway up the wall.

One way to check for water damage in sheetrock is to slice the wall with a razor. It will cut easier if the wall is wet. You will notice the blade slide quicker and easier through the wet wall compared to the dry sheetrock. Find where the wall is dry, and cut a straight line there to remove the wet sheetrock.

Like we mentioned above, it is important to remove all wet sheetrock to avoid a potential mold problem. Never leave wet sheetrock after a basement flood in New Jersey or discovered water problem.

Have a professional contractor help fix the problem

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A professional basement waterproofing contractor can help you in this process. He can remove the damaged sheetrock after a basement flood in New Jersey and help you install a basement waterproofing system to help avoid any future problems.

The other option is to replace all the sheetrock in the basement with waterproof wallboard. So, if there is another basement flood in New Jersey, you won’t have to replace the walls again. The EPA says basements should be finished with waterproof and water resistant materials. Think tile instead of carpet; plastic waterproof wallboard instead of sheetrock. The basement is inherently wetter and should not be finished like the upstairs even if you have a basement waterproofing system installed.

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Little Known Foundation Repair Challenges Associated with Leakages Bergen County, NJ

A leaky foundation is a threat to not only the building structure, but also the property inside. When a home is built, its foundation walls are clean and easily accessible. However, with time the structure may experience problems such as cracking, gaps, and holes. Water begins to take its toll on your home, and if nothing is done to stop it, soon you start counting losses. Leakages in a building are a matter of emergency and should be handled as soon as possible. A foundation repair, if conducted at the right time using effective restoration procedures, can save a homeowner from water damage.

Water seepage shouldn’t be confused with moisture infiltration

There is a difference between water entering the interior of a building and moisture infiltrating a foundation. Some repair procedures are meant to restore problems related with moisture infiltration and not water seepage.

For example, a waterproofing technique helps tackle issues of liquid water entering a basement through cracks, gaps, and holes, but moisture can infiltrate porous cement through pores. The right treatment for moisture infiltration, or migration, is through damp proofing and not waterproofing. These two procedures can offer different remedies in protecting a home. Damp proofing is meant to keep moisture away and may not address the problem of liquid water.

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cracks 150x150 Little Known Foundation Repair Challenges Associated with Leakages Bergen County, NJ

Foundation repair techniques

A number of techniques are applied when repairing foundations. Depending on the nature of the problem, a contractor may decide to use one or more repair techniques. Foundations tend to experience cracking. It is normal for foundations to crack because cement shrinks as it cures.

Shrinkage induces stress on concrete, and that way, cracks form to relieve the stress. This is okay because foundations are designed to handle cracks.

However, if there are external forces such as settlement of the ground acting on foundation walls, it makes cracks widen and grow deeper. Common areas where cracks occur are corners of windows or in the middle of an elongated wall.

Most cracks are vertical and can be corrected using urethane foam technique. In the event that cracks run horizontally, or the wall structure has deflected, cracks may be perceived as structural. In this case, the ergo, epoxy technique is deemed appropriate.

Concisely, before any foundation repair is undertaken, the cause of the problem should be identified. Foundation cracks develop because of shifting ground, improper compaction, too much moisture, and too little moisture. Other cracks may be caused by tree roots growing in close proximity to a building.