When water overflows in a home, the natural instinct is to grab towels, maybe a household vacuum, and do the best one can to soak it up. While that’s understandable, it’s no different than trying to empty a swimming pool with a garden hose. Professional water extraction equipment utilizes a completely different force and functionality that most homeowners never even consider.
When you understand how this equipment works, it becomes easy to differentiate professional restoration results from DIY efforts – it’s more than just larger machines. It’s about the sheer volume and capacity with which these systems remove water as well as dry out materials, preventing additional damage through excess moisture.
Truck-Mounted Extraction Systems
The most potent water removal equipment doesn’t even come inside the home – it stays mounted in trucks.
They work like extra-strong wet vacuums, but they do not compare. Truck-mounted units access extreme power of vacuum in cubic feet per minute wherein suction averages hundreds of cubic feet per minute. This means it has the power to suction water miles deep from carpet padding and subflooring as well as concrete.
The setup is relatively easy – with hoses running from the truck into the areas of your home that need assistance. The vacuum situated in the truck powers the materials through the hoses at incredible speed into holding tanks – which are thousands of gallons – at a time. This is because power is not limited – portable units rely on motor size, electrical needs and vacuum strength to power everything together.
For extreme infiltration where water literally settles as a pool in various areas, this edge of extraction power opens the door for hours (not days) of removal. With time of the essence, a water damage restoration service with these resources will dictate whether materials can remain and be dried or if complete replacement is needed.
Portable Extraction Units
In situations where an area is easily assessable from outside but does not require truck-mounted power, portable extraction units come into play.
These are larger versions of shop vacuums; however, they’re constructed for water removal with stronger motors and higher capacity tanks. Commercial-grade portable extraction units can handle standing water, as well as moisture embedded in materials like carpeting and upholstery.
Aspects include things that consumers will not have at their disposal – a corrosion-resistant tank or heavy-duty pump system – not to mention specialized wands or tools that apply pressure while simultaneously extracting. Some units can remove gallons per minute in succession – more than household units which require continuous emptying and utilize heat over time.
Air Movers: The Drying Workhorses
Once standing water is gone, many assume the job is complete; however, it’s now transitioned to the other side – the biggest challenge is drying up materials absorbing excess moisture. Air movers are massive fans which facilitate this process.
Air movers boast incredible drying capacity; they circulate massive amounts of air, covering wet surfaces to create evaporation through ongoing airflow. A single commercial air mover creates 2,000 to 3,000 cubic feet per minute – which is ten times a typical household fan’s capacity.
Placement is equally important as air movers are typically strategically positioned at specific angles to create airflow patterns that circulate inside wall cavities and under cabinets as well as across all wet surfaces. They’re not just blowing air – they’re providing circulation that increases potential evaporation rates.
When multiple air movers are plugged in at once, they create a “drying chamber” where air continuously circulates through spaces absorbing moisture. This process typically takes days (not hours) because framing materials, drywall, and subfloors all release moisture slowly.
Dehumidifiers: Controlling the Moisture
The problem with evaporation is that while it makes it seem like excess water goes into thin air, it doesn’t. It just takes a new form. When these pieces of equipment evaporate moisture from saturated materials, it absorbs water into the room. Unless there’s an effort made to remove that moisture from the air, evaporation becomes nonexistent.
Commercial dehumidifiers suck moisture out of the air and condense it back into droplets that either go into drain pans or get pumped outside. There are multiple options here that can remove 100-200 pints of water out of the air daily effectively maintaining humidity levels that allow people to continuously dry effectively.
There are two types – refrigerant dehumidifiers operate like an AC unit cooling air to condense moisture; they’re efficient for normal temperature use. Desiccant dehumidifiers use materials to absorb moisture from the air so they’re better for cold or low humidity spaces for specialized air treatment.
Without proper ratios of air movers to dehumidifiers, effective drying cannot occur. Typically it’s one air mover per 100-150 square feet of damaged space, plus dehumidification assistance for total square footage.
Moisture Detection Equipment
Professional restoration does not rely on guesswork – it relies on metrics. Moisture detection equipment determines exactly where water is located, what percentage of content individual materials are still maintaining, when water is officially evaporated so everything can be restored.
Moisture meters utilize electrical conductivity or electromagnetic waves to gauge moisture content within wood or drywall or certain materials. They provide numbers that track progress over time (i.e., a 15% on day one and an 8% on day three).
Thermal imaging cameras gauge temperature variances based on hidden moisture – wet areas show up cooler than dry areas through thermal imaging (which is somewhat harder to gauge when trying to assess behind walls with holes).
Thermo-hygrometers measure the temperature and relative humidity of the air – which tells how much air can hold more moisture if needed. It guides adjustments relative to retaining materials or separating them completely.
Specialty Equipment for Special Situations
Water damage situations can require specialty situations aside from just extraction and standard systems.
Injectidry systems pump heated dry air into wall cavities (as opposed to through demolition) by making holes into wall cavities or floor assemblies without extensive demolition. This allows specialized drying instead of restoring completely transformed material, yet still salvageable with minor utilization.
Hardwood floor drying mats create a sealed environment on top of wood floors using guided heat and vacuum pressure to suck up moisture without causing the warping typically associated with drying hardwoods without this effort.
Axial air movers are much smaller precision units that fit into small spaces like crawlspaces or closets where conventional sized air movers will not fit.
Why Equipment Quality and Quantity Both Matter
It’s one thing to have access to quality equipment; it’s another thing entirely to have access to enough specialized equipment.
Professional restoration companies boast inventories upon inventories of tons of air movers – multiple dehumidifiers – and dehumidifiers with different containment options – plus backup equipment for jobs overlapping others simultaneously because adequate drying depends on equipment ratios – 150 square feet needs one air mover – with adequate dehumidification access for whole space size.
Again, prolonged running requires durability. Consumer-grade equipment cannot fulfill these efforts; commercialized equipment can without overheating since they frequently operate as necessary for demanding environments.
It’s not that technology behind water extraction/drying has revolutionized itself within recent years; it’s transformed dramatically. What could once take vital demolition can now be dried in place more efficiently than ever; what could take weeks on drying mats now takes only days but only when the right tools are in place, with people who use them correctly and enough tools are available that create drying efforts feasible for thoroughness and efficiency.
