 It's important when you come into a flooded house to not rebuild too soon. It's very important because what can happen is if this wood has not had a proper amount of time to dry out, you're going to be sealing up that water inside of that cavity. You're going to be putting plastic on there to keep that moisture from the inside to going out and they're going to just create a perfect place for mold to grow. And you can actually see around this corner here if we test this wood. This wood here is you want to blow 15% moisture content. It's already down to 11%. This homeowner did a nice job of opening up this house and airing it out and getting that moisture in that wood to dry out. But if we look in this corner over here we can see if we test the moisture it's upwards of that 17% there. There's upwards of 22-23% moisture content. And actually you can see a little bit of mold growth that has come back since this moisture in the corner was holding mold. If I cover that up with insulation and drywall that mold is just going to continue to grow. We're down in the basement. What we want to talk about while we're in here is some of the issues that you look at as far as rebuilding and some of the moisture problems you might have. When we take our moisture meter and look at the moisture level of this concrete wall you can actually see it's up at 40-50% moisture content. So if I come through here and I take my framing and put it right up against the wall like this house has and I come and put insulation in between that and put drywall on the outside of that, I'm trapping that moisture in behind that wall. I'm creating just a perfect living environment for mold and mildew. The one thing to absolutely remember is no matter what if you rebuild you want to let it dry out as much as possible and also not put untreated wood up against that cold foundation wall. That moisture comes through, it could come from through the foundation it could come from inside and that wood up against the wall if it's not treated wood it's going to mold and it's going to mildew and you're going to have problems with that. So what I can do is I can take a rigid insulation put against that solid wall and that doesn't have the same moisture issues with that. The ideal situation is to insulate on the outside. What you do with mechanical equipment is certainly a question that comes in as far as after a flood. You can see obviously this water heater has been submerged in flood water it still has the mud and contaminants over top of it and think that that flood water is going to go in every single one of these cracks and crevices where the exhaust fluid comes out and then down here at the bottom too this is insulated with fiberglass insulation and it's not sealed so that water can soak all up through that entire thing so this water heater is obviously going to have to be replaced. There are some water heaters that you could potentially salvage an electric water heater that is completely sealed and the components are sealed they'll have to have a professional technician look at them to make sure it's salvageable but for the most part you're going to have to most likely replace water heaters. HVAC systems, heating ventilation and air conditioning systems it's the same issue you're going to have to have a professional come through and refurbish that clean it to make sure everything works properly because you've got all kinds of different electronic components inside of it and mechanisms that are going to be burning fuels and make sure that those are all cleaned out and it might just end up being more cost-effective to replace these furnace units. The ductwork can potentially be salvaged in a flooded house this ductwork you can see was actually submerged in overland flooding water and if you look on the inside you can actually see the mud and the biological contaminants in the mildew that's going that's growing inside of that this ductwork so it's going to have to be pulled out it's going to have to be clean disinfected completely on the inside and the outside because if you think about it the air that this homeowner is going to be breathing is going to be passing through this ductwork and you absolutely have to make sure it's ballast it may be more cost-effective and timely effective to just simply replace it. The other thing is if it's flexible ductwork that's insulated that's going to have to be removed and replaced. As far as electrical stuff in a flooded house goes it depends on where the water got to we can look at this here you can actually see the high watermark in this house it was flooded up to right about this level right here so we know anything that was below that flooded mark has to absolutely be replaced you can see all the dirt and garbage that was inside of that these electrical outlets are going to have to be replaced the wiring that was below this is going to have to be pulled out replaced some wiring is going to be able to be salvaged but we don't know how far that water had wicked up through this wiring so what's going to have to happen is you're going to have to have a qualified and certified electrician come in and replace that wiring in a flooded house. As far as this light obviously it was above you know light fixtures that were above the levels of the flood water that's up for the electrician to determine that. The process for getting the electrical service returned back to a house depends on the specific area so you may want to check with your local electrical company to find out exactly what it is but generally what's going to happen is you're going to go into the house and you're going to determine what's been flood damage and that's going to have to be replaced. The power company is going to disconnect the power as we can see here the meter has been pulled and then you're going to have to go in and anything that's been submerged in flood water is going to have to be replaced and or refurbished here we can see the flood is actually the flood water is actually up here so on this house there's going to be a lot of electrical work that needs to be done all receptacles have to be replaced all outlets have to be replaced and most likely the wiring that's been submerged is also going to have to be replaced by a qualified electrician a certified qualified electrician. Some areas will allow self-wiring where the homeowner will do the wire themselves but in order to do that you'll have to have a permit that shows that you know how to do that properly and safely. After that you'll have a certified electrician come in and they will offer a certificate saying the house has been rewired properly they'll contact the electrical inspector come in do an inspection of the house and verify that yes it's been done rewired properly and being refurbished properly they'll contact the power company and let them know that it's okay to energize the house and the power company will come in and turn power back on for the house. Some utility companies and flood situations will actually come in and hook up a supplemental meter and give you just at least a couple of outlets to use in the flood cleanup process before they will actually come in and hook up the full house to power.