Drying Out Your Wet, Soggy House After El Nino

While “Titanic” was cruising into the movie record books, many El Nino-weary Californians were awash in troubles of their own. Now, even though the wet weather may be retreating, lessons in storm preparation have sunk in for years to come.

Southlanders, unlike those aboard the Titanic, had plenty of warning of the peril, but many still found themselves with soggy carpets, warped and swollen wooden underpinnings, mold and mildew.

How do you deal with the water damage? What steps can you take to prevent a repeat? Here’s what some experts suggest:

With Wet Floors, Time Is Critical

Time is of the essence, especially if the floors are hardwood, said Marsha Cohen, owner of Pride of L.A., a water-damage recovery specialist in the San Fernando Valley.

The water has to be removed within two hours, she said, adding that a wet hardwood floor will begin to buckle within a few hours. Once the floor warps, it eventually needs to be replaced.

Get everything off the floor, including furniture, carpets and padding. If there’s mud damage, the carpeting is usually unsalvageable, she said.

Within the first 12 hours, furniture legs will be damaged by the wetness, Cohen said. Homeowners should try to put some kind of blocking, telephone books or old newspapers, for example, under the legs to get them off the wet carpet.

If the carpeting is just damp, use a shop vacuum to suck up as much water as possible, then pull up the carpet and its padding so that everything dries thoroughly.

Cohen warned, though, that the motors may burn out because some home-grade vacuums aren’t engineered for such heavy-duty use.

“Wet carpet in itself depends on weather. If it sits too long in wet conditions, within a day or two they’re going to get a bad smell because they’re going to have bacteria growing. You don’t want to let it wait any longer under any circumstances.”

Then there are the cases best left to professionals.

“If it’s ‘squish, squish, squish’ when you walk on the carpet ,then a shop vacuum’s not going to cut it,” Cohen said. To get rid of the excess water “you need a high-vacuum extractor and that generally means it’s done with a truck-mounted unit.”

She says that if a typical shop vacuum is rated “1” in performance, a truck-mounted extractor is a “1,000.” Even the portable units used on multistory buildings are 100 times as powerful as the consumer-grade shop vacuum.

The next step is drying the carpet and padding with professional air movers and dehumidifiers.

The blowers are positioned to allow carpet and padding to billow up, causing moisture to come out of the carpet, where it is then captured by the dehumidifier instead of redepositing itself in the home.

Typically, a 20-by-20-foot room needs one dehumidifier running for 48 hours. Although prices vary widely, Cohen said the entire operation--water extraction, drying, cleaning and resetting the carpet--would cost about $700.

How Did the Disaster Happen in First Place?

After the immediate crisis has been addressed, it’s time to identify how the house came to be vulnerable. In all too many cases, the homeowner (or former owners) need only look in the mirror.

Dave Keim, of the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety, explained:

“Older homes rarely suffer drainage problems because they were built on crawl spaces. But today’s dwellings are on concrete slab foundations.

“Residential code requires that the finished floor surface of habitable rooms be at least 6 inches above the adjacent outside grade.

“Landscaping--patios, planting areas that get filled with dirt over the years--often nibbles away at that clearance.”

And it’s not just uncontrolled runoff. Keim said that when the ground reaches its saturation point, the rising water table makes the state-required distance between grade--the ground outside the home--and the inside floor absolutely crucial.

If there’s a problem with clearance and water invasion, the petroleum-based sealers that consumers will encounter are only stopgap measures.

The long-term solution, and, in many cases, the only practical answer, according to Keim, is to cut drainage channels along outside-facing rooms and cover them with grates.

He also urges that the work be done by a state-licensed landscape architect, not just a licensed landscaper.

In any case, El Nin~o has made a “bestseller” out of a city booklet titled “Be Prepared: Homeowners Guide for Flood, Storm Debris and Erosion Control.”

Last year, 10,000 copies were distributed. This year 150,000 have already been delivered. Call (213) 580-1133 to request a copy of the free booklet.

Your Home May Need a New ‘Raincoat’

Once things appear to be dry, it’s wise to look deeper for water-prone weaknesses.

Just because the building may be on a crawl space doesn’t mean the owners are home free, said John Bourget of Bourget Brothers Building Materials.

Many of the Santa Monica company’s customers are in hillside areas such as Brentwood and Bel-Air.

“People might not think they’re getting water but they should check [in their house’s crawl space] for dampness,” Bourget advised. “When the rain stops, they have to go back in and waterproof those areas [of the foundation] that were saturated. The water softens the structure.”

And what if, after a watery incursion, your nose tells you “Home Sweet Home” isn’t?

Owners should make sure the bad odor isn’t coming from mildew inside the drywall. If probing shows extensive damage, the drywall will need to be replaced.

“But if it’s not too bad, you can put a new skin coat, also called joint compound or drywall compound, and it’s as good as new,” Bourget said. Apply a primer coat and then paint.

Bourget has a professional recommendation for repainting: Don’t.

“I don’t believe in painting a house. It’s almost as cheap to stucco. More people are beginning to understand that a stucco job will last you 10 to 15 years.”

“Everyone thought the [water-resistant paint] was waterproof,” Bourget said. “That was never the case.” But a stucco introduced in the last year or so is excellent, if applied correctly, he said.

The key to the stucco, called Repel, is an ingredient its manufacturer, Highland Stucco of Van Nuys, found in Europe. The agent is introduced into the Portland cement base.

“It does not make the building waterproof. But it will repel close to 95% of the water that leans against the building,” said Ken Judd, a salesman with the 61-year-old company.

Because of the 10-year warranty that Highland issues, Repel is only sold to licensed stucco contractors who will prepare the surface and apply the stucco correctly.

“When a contractor comes out here and says, ‘I want to use Repel,’ we go out and see the quality of his work,” Judd said.

When the Baseboards Are Alive With Things

Feels good to have the home’s fittings tight as a drum and ship-shape, right? But what is that white, wispy stuff growing along the baseboard and slab foundation?

Now it’s time for the “little matters,” such as mold spores, cockroaches and dust mites, brought about by damp weather.

“Increased use of heaters in combination with wet weather means insects and molds are more likely to proliferate,” said Jonathan E. Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County.

“Mold is a serious issue. About 5% to 10% of the population is impacted by asthma and a percentage of those are going to have potential problems such as allergic rhinitis, characterized by sneezing and watery eyes.”

In February and March alone, the Department of Health Services received “a couple of hundred” complaints or questions about storm-related mold and allergies, Fielding said.

The county does not do mold counts on a routine basis, but does have a special unit for epidemics and “full-bore investigations,” Fielding said.

Consumers with less pressing situations can call the Los Angeles chapter of the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America at (213) 937-7859.

The chapter conducts spore and pollen counts and offers literature. The chapter also has a toll-free help line: (800) 624-0044. An online resource is the Allergy and Asthma Mall: https://www.allergyasthmamall.com.

To battle mold, consumers do have various chemical and/or mechanical weapons at their disposal. These include chlorine bleach or ammonia, X-14 mildew remover, mold-resistant shower curtains, air conditioner treatments, antibacterial additives for humidifiers and MC2, a paint additive that helps prevent mildew on painted surfaces.

Dr. Bernard Geller, a Santa Monica allergy specialist and clinical professor of pediatrics and allergy at USC, recommends using a good HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtering machine, such as the Honeywell Enviracare. “The filters reduce the amount of interior airborne allergens and will circulate the air six times an hour, Geller said. “All the filter machines that I tend to recommend do a good job, ranging from $75 up to probably $1,000. The only difference is the noise they make.”

As an example, Honeywell’s most popular air cleaners come in four sizes, covering rooms starting at 9 by 12 feet to 20 by 22 feet. Suggested retail prices start at $110 and go up to $230. “What I tell people is to get the small (HEPA filter) for a small room and a large one for the large rooms. It’s not rocket science.”

Jeff Yip is a Los Angeles writer and Web site designer.