Crawlspace Cleanup Becomes More than Expected

5/28/2015 (Permalink)

Crawlspaces are often affected by water damage. It’s the home to many major pipes and when one breaks, crawlspaces can flood. Sometimes, when the crawlspace is used for storage, there can be property damage as well.

One homeowner in Cypress found that their crawlspace was flooding and ruining a lot of the boxes that were stored down there. In the boxes were important war memorabilia from both World War I and World War II including guns, rifles, and wine bottles, so it was imperative that it was carefully moved and saved. The homeowners called SERVPRO of Yorba Linda/Brea to come out to help clear out the crawlspace and remove all the water. 

When we got there, we found the problem was much worse than initially expected. As soon as we crawled down into the crawlspace, we found a 10 foot diameter of water that was about a foot and a half deep. When we started removing the boxes, we found even more damage. Beyond this small pool of water was a maggot-infested wall. Once we knew maggots were involved, we knew black water was going to be an issue.

We suited up in our personal protective equipment (PPE) and started to work. We removed all the stored boxes first and then worked on removing the porous wall. Within the wall, we found larvae and mold in addition to the maggots. In order to remove the maggots and larvae, we had to use a shovel because live insects like that cannot be vacuumed as we usually do for mud and water. 

Of course, our next priority was the health of the homeowner. With that much mold and rot, the home smelled terribly and the air needed to be cleaned. We set up air machines to replace the air with clean air, and we set up drying equipment to keep the foundation from retaining moisture and the framing from rotting. We also had to test for E. coli and disinfect the entire basement. 

The homeowner was very happy with our work. She loved that we were able to save all of her husband’s war memorabilia and cared very much about her health as well.