 I'm Ken Hellevang, Agricultural Engineer with the NDSU Extension Service, and this is the third segment of our five segment flooded house cleanup presentations. This segment is going to be on really how do I go in and clean up the flood contaminated materials. The sequence of steps that we are going to be looking at is first to clean out or remove the water, to remove the contents, take out the mud, muck and remaining water, remove the wall materials, sealing whatever has been contaminated, wash down the structure, sanitize the areas that need to be sanitized or can be sanitized, and then ventilate and dry the structure. So these are the sequence of things that you need to do as part of your flood cleanup. If we have water in the basement, it's very important that we remove that water very slowly, because not only is there going to be water in the basement, but there will be water in the soil outside the basement. And if we were to rapidly remove the water within the basement, now we would have the pressure of the water outside the basement pushing against the wall, pushing against the floor, and there would be no pressure within the basement to help support that wall, and the wall tends to cave in or the floor pop up. And so what is recommended is to pump out a couple feet of water from the basement, let it sit for at least 24 hours, and see if the water level has increased. If it has, it indicates that water is likely coming from the soil through the draining system and into the house. And so then we would remove another couple feet of water and continue that process until we have drained the soil outside the house as well as the basement. And this will be a process that might take several days to dewater the soil as well as the basement. But it's critical that we go through this step-by-step process so we don't damage the basement wall. When we're doing restoration or cleanup of water damage materials, we really look to a standard and reference guide developed by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration as our guide. It gives us detailed steps on what we need to do to make sure that we clean this structure up so that when we're done we have a healthy home to live in. And when we're looking at flood contaminated water, again remember we're looking at category three water that has contained sewage and other things that we may or may not be in that water. So anything that is absorbent needs to be disposed of. So when we're talking about stuff, furniture for example, ceiling tile, drywall, sheetrock, paper, all the things that can absorb water really need to be physically removed and disposed of. As we're doing that process again, we need to continue to look at the structural materials, see if there's physical damage and what the extent of contamination is because that many reveal things that we didn't see during our initial examination. As we're taking the things out of the home, this is the sequence that is typically recommended. First off make sure that we're airing out the structure so that we don't have contaminated air in the basement or in the flooded home. And then start with the smaller objects, then next take the larger objects, follow that by the appliances and it says your tape door shut. If we're looking at freezers or refrigerators in particular that may have had food and things left in them during the flood, they're going to have a very foul odor. And so we want to make sure that we keep that door shut so that we're not dealing with that odor as we remove the appliance. All the carpet needs to be cut and taken out in pieces. It's going to be saturated and very heavy. And so we're trying to take it out and easy to carry pieces. And then we start going in and removing items from closets and cabinets. And so this sequence will help us to make sure that we're not stumbling over things or tripping on things as we're going through that cleanup process. If we're looking at flooded cleanup, carpet needs to be discarded. As I indicated, flood water is considered category three and the carpet, the cushion, all of that needs to be discarded. We can't clean it. If you happen to be in a home where we just had basement seepage, had very clean water. We didn't have overland water coming in. That we probably can clean with hot water extraction. But I caution you in doing so because we can remove the biological contamination using this process. But if it's been wet and damp and we had mold growth on the carpet that we can't remove with the hot water extraction or any type of cleaning. And so if it's a moldy carpet, it needs to go out even if it was only clean water or slightly contaminated water that was on it. So it's critical that we think of not only the biological contamination, but the mold contamination. The other thing with floors, it's important to think about the structural support underneath whatever floor covering we have. If water got underneath the vinyl got underneath the other materials, we need to clean and disinfect that area and dry it as well. And this slide really shows that a little more clearly that with a floor, we have several layers of material. And many times, you know, even if we are using vinyl or ceramic tile, the tile itself may be non porous. But if water got underneath the tile and we ended up with saturated subfloor or underlayment, we need to remove the tile and remove the vinyl to make sure that we're able to thoroughly clean and dry out that subfloor material. As we're removing all of this material from a home, we don't want to just pile it out on the curb. This is what the street looked like in Grand Forks in 1997 after the flood. It just gives you a feel for the quantity of materials that are going to be coming out of the home. What we really want to be doing is to sort the materials following whatever the local waste management guidelines are. But typically, they'll ask that all of the hazardous materials go into one pile. So we're talking paints, household cleaners, those kinds of things. Electronics will go in a separate pile. Appliances, your dishwasher, stoves, those kinds of things go in a separate category or pile. Furniture, again, in a different pile. And then your actual building materials, your drywall, ceiling materials, etc., go into a separate area. This allows them, then, as they're picking up all of the debris to be able to appropriately dispose of the material that is coming out of the home. As we look at individual items that we're taking out of the home, there's frequently questions that come up about do I save this or do I throw it. Most all of the food needs to be discarded because it's been in a very contaminated environment. The one exception would be if we have cans and, for example, a can of pork and beans. With that, as long as the can is still intact, isn't all bent or you have punctures in it, we could save it. But the paper on the outside will be contaminated. And so that would need to be removed and we need to mark on the can what the contents are so that we know in the future what's in the can. Again, an individual decision as you're doing the cleaning. Dishes in China that are non-porous, we can clean and sanitize. Toys, generally, it's important to think of do we want our children to be handling these contaminated materials? Can we clean it and sanitize it enough for them to continue to play with? And it comes out, we have two kinds of plastic. We have hard plastic and then we have the softer moldable plastic. The soft plastics might be like the food containers in our kitchen. And it turns out that they are a type of material that will absorb contaminants and so we can't clean those. Those need to be discarded. Hard plastic does not absorb materials. We can scrub it and sanitize it. But again, we need to make an individual decision as to we want our children to be using that toy or that item that we have cleaned and sanitized. Wood furniture, if it's an heirloom that we're trying to save, the actual wood can be refinished and dried out. But any of the poultry associated with it has to be removed. Most of our appliances today can have motors and motors need to be reconditioned before we can use them. We need to be reconditioned by a professional because that water will contain mud and other contaminants that might get into that motor and cause an electrical short in the motor and electrical hazard. The same thing with most of our appliances today have electronics and any debris that might be in that circuit board will cause a short circuit. So as we look at our various appliances that we have in the home, many times we're going to need to discard them rather than try to salvage them if they were in the actual flood water. If they're not in the flood water, we can clean them and they're fine. But if they were in the flood water, typically it may not be economical to go through that cleanup process that is required. With the heating and ventilation air conditioning system, we're really looking at two different parts. Again, our furnace air conditioner unit has a lot of, again, motors and electronics. And with that, again, have a service technician evaluated and determine really is it worth trying to clean and salvage or should I just discard it. When we're looking at the duct work, again, theoretically with metal ducts, we could have professionals come in and do a cleaning. But remember that we have all of the joints and connections that would need to be thoroughly cleaned and you really need to weigh whether it's going to be economical to do that or not. It might be cheaper just to replace the duct work. If we're looking at the newer flexible duct, generally that's going to need to be replaced. And we need to make sure that any cleaning agents that are used in our ventilation system are approved to be used in the ventilation system because that's where the air will be traveling all the time that we're breathing. And we need to make sure that we're using products that are approved for that application. We look at some specific items, plaster and stucco in our structure are concrete and are fairly resistant to contamination. And so we can actually salvage those as long as we're able to open the wall cavity, remove any insulation and dry out that wall cavity, address any mold issues that might be within the wall cavity. With the plaster and stucco we can salvage cabinets and countertops. We really need to look at what the material is that was used frequently that they will disintegrate in that wet flooded environment. The non-porous tubs, toilets, sinks we can clean and salvage. The plumbing associated with it typically is going to be sealed, but we may want to do a chlorine flushing through the plumbing system just to make sure that that has been cleaned as well. Wood flooring, the actual wood flooring, we can do the cleanup on that wood flooring and salvage it. Those indoors, again, it'll depend on individual situations, what we're looking at. The OSB or Particle Board or ESB is oriented strand borne and particle board plywood. It'll depend on how long that they've been in the water and we really can't make a general statement. You'll need to look and see if the structural integrity is still there, whether they have delaminated and come apart. Typically the Particle Board will disintegrate when it's wet, but the OSB and plywood probably we can salvage and can be cleaned. This is the sequence that they typically recommend for actually going in and cleaning and removing the structural members that need to be removed from a flooded home. Take out the cabinets and doors first because frequently even if we can save the cabinet, we need to remove the wall board and things that were behind it. Remove the trim that is in the house, pull down any sealing materials that need to be removed and then we start looking at the wall. The drywall sheetrock generally will need to be removed. Again, we're looking at it both from a mold standpoint as well as the flooded water standpoint. If it's strictly flood water, typically the water will wick up about two feet above wherever the water level was, but you really need to examine closely what that wall board looks like. The insulation will need to be removed, paneling typically needs to be removed because it will become misinformed or warped when it's wet. And as part of that clean out process, we need to be removing the fasteners as well because they'll need to be removed before we do any rebuilding. Once we have everything removed, then we will be looking at sweeping down the surfaces before we get into the cleaning process. So that brings us to the end of the first part of looking at the actual flood cleanup process. And then we'll step in the next section and talk about the rest of the flood cleanup process, the washing that needs to be done, the sanitizing. And then in the last section we'll look at building dry out.