The first 48 hours after water damage

Hour one

1. Stop the water. Close the fixture valve, or the main shutoff where the line enters the house. In most Salt Lake houses that is in the basement or a front closet. For a water heater, close the cold inlet on top and turn the unit off.
2. Make it safe. Don't step into a flooded basement with outlets or cords under water. Turn off breakers only from somewhere dry. If you smell gas, get out first. Then call 911 or your gas utility.
3. Photograph and video everything, including the source, before you move anything. Wide shots, then close-ups.
4. Move what you can. Rugs and boxes off wet floors; foil or blocks under furniture legs on wet carpet.

The rest of day one

• Call your insurer and get a claim number, even if you aren't sure you'll file.
• Call a plumber for the source, and a restoration company for the water. Keep the plumber's invoice; it names the cause.
• Keep the heat on in winter and open interior doors. Salt Lake's dry air helps exposed surfaces dry, but don't count on it for carpet pad or the inside of a wall.
• Keep the damaged materials or photos of them until the adjuster has seen them.

Day two

By now the restoration company should have extracted standing water, opened up anything that holds water, and set drying equipment. You should be able to see moisture readings. If carpet pad or the bottom of the drywall is still wet and nobody has opened it, ask why.

Drying usually takes at least three days, Fixr says, and the rebuild comes after that. How long restoration takes.

Mistakes that cost money later

• Throwing out damaged items before they are photographed.
• Letting a wet finished basement "air out" for a week.
• Signing an assignment of benefits without reading it.
• Closing a wall before it reads dry.