How SERVPRO Ranks Your Water Damage

10/26/2020 (Permalink)

IICRC Classes of Water Damage

The ANSI/IICRC S500 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration is the gold-standard for the cleaning and restoration industry.  It presents practical guidelines and procedures based on science and extensive experience. 

Let's cover the degrees of leaks, spills, and water intrusions and their potential for damage.  The IICRC divides them into four “classes.”  It doesn’t giving any specific amounts of water, as many other variables go into determining the proper water restoration measures.

Class 1

This class involves the least amount of water.  It’s defined as affecting only part of a single room, with minimal wet carpet and affecting only low-permeable materials such as plywood and concrete sub-flooring.  Resulting from things such a roof leak and rowdy kids in the bath tub, there’s minimal absorption and little moisture remaining after bulk water removal.  So after mopping and blotting a natural slow rate of evaporation may be acceptable.  Lifting carpet speeds drying and lets you determine if the sub-floor is excessively damp.

Class 2

Here there’s more water, and more gets absorbed by building materials.  It’s defined as affecting an entire room or resulting in large areas of wet carpet, with water wicking upwards in walls at least 1 foot (but less than 2 feet) and moisture reaching structural materials.  Class 2 water intrusions require bulk water removal, surface water extraction, and dehumidification for faster evaporation.

Class 3

With the most water and greatest absorption involved, Class 3 water restoration requires the fastest evaporation to head off deterioration.  It’s defined as having flooring, sub-flooring, walls, and insulation saturated.  With a source above the ceiling, that may be saturated as well.  Advanced drying and dehumification methods via specialized equipment are critical.

Class 4

This last class is a special situation, typically the result of heavy natural flooding.  There’s been enough water and time to saturate materials such as stone, concrete, brick, and hardwood.  Highly aggressive methods to maintain very low specific humidity for longer periods than usual are required.  Or the affected rooms may be considered a total loss if the structure has been severely compromised.

If you have water damage in your Eaton County, Clinton and Gratiot County, Lansing & Holt home or business, call the highly trained professionals of SERVPRO at 517-541-1170