We are a leading company in our service area for handling water damage. Our highly trained staff offer professional, compassionate and understanding service while working with you during your emergency. Whether the damage you incur is to a structure, household furnishings, valuables or vehicles, we understand that any loss is a significant loss to you and your family. We work with all insurance companies to offer fast, efficient water mitigation services to help get you back to your everyday life.
Vigilant Restoration's water restoration services are among the best on the eastern seaboard, with multiple office locations available to serve you.
Causes of Water Damage
Water damage can be the result of a catastrophic event, such as a flash flood, or a burst pipe. The latter is particularly common in colder climates, and in areas that experience stark seasonal temperature differences; such differences can cause cumulative stress to pipes and other structures over time, resulting in an eventual failure. Such catastrophic events cause significant amounts of immediate damage, requiring substantial repairs to a home or other affected building. They also incur a number of insidious long-term problems if repairs and restorative efforts are not immediately and properly attended to. One of the major consequences of allowing water-damaged areas of your home to go untreated for a prolonged length of time is the high probability of a mold infestation. If the water damage isn't even a known factor, a mold colony can go undiscovered until it is substantial enough to cause respiratory and allergy problems.
Water damage may also be the result of something slow and cumulative, such as a leak, or changes in ground temperature. A slow, steady leak, particularly from a pipe that is enclosed within a wall, can proceed for months or even years without being detected. This gradually serves to weaken structural elements within the wall itself, as well as providing an environment for the growth of mold and other microorganisms that is both physically ideal and thoroughly concealed. That dull, musty odor often associated with basements is in fact the smell of a certain type of mold – common, nontoxic, and only mildly inclined towards the provocation of an allergic reaction. Basements are a particular problem when it comes to this type of mold, as people more or less assume that they are going to have damp spots, a musty odor, and so forth. They don't fully understand that by allowing such conditions to persevere, they are essentially leaving their front doors open to further mold infestation elsewhere in their homes. A slow leak within a wall anywhere in the home will exacerbate this condition significantly, as well as allowing for other, potentially more dangerous types of mold to develop.
Another common basement problem would be frost damage. The aforementioned changes in ground temperature cause the soil around a concrete foundation to expand and contract. Water in the soil – down to a point dictated by temperature – freezes indefinitely over the course of a winter season, then thaws during the spring and summer. When inconsistent temperatures over the course of multiple years cause this expansion and contraction to occur at different rates, they can result in cracks, flaking, and hairline fractures in the concrete of a foundation.
