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How to Dry Out a Flooded Garage

How to Dry Out a Flooded Garage

You wake up one morning, grab your cup of coffee and your keys, step out your garage door to the car to drive to work, and splash! Suddenly, you’re ankle-deep in cold, dirty water. It happens all the time. Garage flooding is a common nuisance, whether it’s due to a leaky roof, a broken water pipe, or a severe weather storm.

Below you’ll find a step-by-step process to get your garage back in working order and insights into why it may have flooded in the first place. Read on to learn what you can do to repair and prevent garage flooding in the future.

How Do I Get Rid of Water in My Flooded Garage?

Step 1: Contain and Remove the Water

Hopefully, the flooding hasn’t spread all over your garage floor. If that’s the case, contain the water within the flooded area and stop it from spreading. Now’s the time to put your flood dam to the test if you have one.

Once you have contained the water, it’s time to remove the standing water. Use a wet-dry vacuum to suck up the liquid, and be sure to suit up in some rubber boots if you don’t have a dry place to stand.

It’s important to plug your wet-dry vacuum into an outlet outside the garage. Water conducts electricity, and it’s imperative to avoid the risks of electrical shock. Your electricity should be switched off during the clean-up process as flooding could easily have damaged your garage’s outlets.

Step 2: Remove Furniture and Other Valuables

By now, you should be able to walk around the garage and remove anything that’s gotten soaked. Take out your furniture and other valuables and get them to a well-ventilated, sun-facing room so they can air dry.

You’ll need to throw out any furniture with porous material (i.e., fabric, leather, or stuffing). The fabric will likely have absorbed what could be contaminated water. While trying to salvage your valuables might be tempting, you don’t want to risk a mold infestation.

Read more: How to dry a flooded house

Step 3: Get Rid of the Mud

Once you’ve removed the water and furniture, you’ll probably have noticed a large amount of mud that the flooding has deposited into your garage. Grab a shovel and scrape up as much of it as you can.

After removing that first layer of dirt, a hose or a high-power spray gun will help strip the remaining mud away from your concrete floor.

Wet Garage Floor

Step 4: Disinfect Your Floors

Flood water can contain loads of bacteria and other contaminants, so you’ll want to take the time to disinfect the garage.

To start, mop the ground with warm water and a generic soap. Then, to complete the disinfecting process, create a chlorine bleach solution using no more than 1 cup of bleach (the household laundry variety will do just fine) per 1 gallon of water. This solution will eradicate mold on just about any surface, including your garage’s concrete.

If you’re worried about bacteria, it’s worth rubbing down any other items affected by the flood (gardening tools, for instance) with the same chlorine bleach solution.

Disinfecting your floors is crucial for stopping mold from getting a foothold in your home. While concrete is not a food source for mold (unlike wood, for example), it can provide a base to spread onto other hospitable surfaces, such as the adjoining walls of your home.

Step 5: Ventilate the Garage

After cleaning and disinfecting, run a ventilation fan or a dehumidifier in the space to remove the final bits of excess moisture. Air circulation will dissipate that extra liquid from the concrete floor and help it maintain its integrity.

Step 6: Check the Electricity

Keep the electricity in the garage turned off until you’ve had an inspector come by to check any wiring, outlets, or junction boxes. These all must be thoroughly dried out before you can use them if you want to avoid more significant problems in the future.

Read more: How To Prevent Water From Leaking Into Your Garage

Frequently Asked Questions

How Can I Dry My Garage Floor Fast?

A wet-dry vacuum is your best friend if you want to dry the garage floor as quickly as possible. This valuable tool will allow you to remove the majority of water quickly.

For pulling up residual moisture and cleaning and disinfecting, an old-fashioned mop is the second tool you’ll want in your arsenal.

However, even after you’ve run the mop of the disinfected floor, the concrete in your garage will probably have a higher moisture content than before the flood. It’s essential to get your garage concrete as dry as possible to avoid cracking and fissures in the future.

Why Is My Garage Flooding When It Rains?

The biggest misconception about garage flooding is that the water only enters your garage from above. Rainwater can flood your garage from almost any direction: above, below, and at the sides.

That’s why it’s vital to seal any cracks you see in your walls, roof, and floor. These are all potential spots for water to seep in and cause flooding.

Your garage door is also another common point of entry. Check the bottom of the door and be sure the flexible rubber gasket extends fully from end to end of the garage door. If the gasket is worn out, torn up, or doesn’t form a tight seal with the ground when closed, it’s probably time to replace it.

Final Thoughts

Garage flooding can happen anytime, and the problem is more common than you think. The good news is there are plenty of prevention and repair services available. For water damage restoration and repair that you can count on, call All Dry USA.

With over ten years of experience and state-of-the-art equipment, All Dry USA is the reliable company you want to call first. When time is of the essence, having a professional can help maintain the integrity of your home and get you back to living in it.

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