The 4 Classes of Water Intrusion

6/7/2022 (Permalink)

Determining the way to handle the water intrusion is important!

One of the first steps our technicians will do when assessing the commercial water damage is to determine not only the category of water damage but all the classes of water intrusion. What this means to the customer is that we will look at humidity and how it affects the drying process. To do this, we determine the amount of water intrusion.

Class 1

This is generally a small area of your business property in relation to the total square footage of the area and has a low evaporation property based on the type of material that was affected.  It is the least severe and easiest to deal with.

Class 2

This is a larger area of your property, up to 40%, and again has a low evaporation property based on the type of material that was affected.  This can wreak a little more havoc than class 1, usually the entire room or area is affected and there is carpet and pad, possibly water has wicked up the walls and there is structural moisture to contend with.  This leaves opportunity for lasting damage to the structure of the building if not taken care of properly

Class 3

In this category, we are looking at a great amount of water damage, well over 40%, of the area and it also has the fastest absorption rate with ceilings, walls, insulation, carpet and subfloors all saturated and walls wet up to 2 ft.

Class 4

This, unfortunately, would be the worst-case situation for a business owner. We are talking about significant water damage covering an extensive area. An example of this would be a flood where your first floor is underwater by a foot of water and debris. You can expect longer cleanup and drying times with this type of water intrusion.

Understanding the level of water intrusion you have is important for us as professionals to understand how to remediate the best way.  Call us at 386-754-0261 and we can help assess your damage at no charge and move forward with what works best for you and your company.  Located in Lake City we cover eight counties surrounding us in North Florida and have a sister location in Orange Park at 904-861-8870.