Gloves, mask are musts when cleaning
Post-flood cleaning is not your ordinary household job. You’ll want to take special care to preserve what you can and to take care of yourself in the process.
Your own health: While cleaning your own home, wear rubber boots and gloves as well as goggles when cleaning with bleach. Any time you’re working around mold, wear gloves and a mask. Open windows and/or doors to get fresh air. Wash your hands often with soap and clean water. And never, ever mix ammonia and bleach; the fumes can be deadly.
Cleaning supplies: Use non-phosphate detergents because phosphate residue is mold food.
Mold: Even an inch or two of water can cause mold, which takes just 48 hours to germinate. Mold starts to grow when the relative humidity is higher than 60 percent.
Dry everything as quickly as you can using fans and dehumidifiers, then clean all hard surfaces with a detergent solution and hot water. Use a stiff brush or cleaning pad on block walls or uneven surfaces.
Disinfect with a mild bleach solution of one cup bleach per gallon of water. Another option is to use a solution of seven parts alcohol to one part water. (You can use rubbing alcohol or even denatured alcohol.) Caution: Never mix bleach with ammonia — the fumes are toxic.
Drywall: Remove baseboards and drywall in any rooms that have had standing water. Cut as evenly as possible at the 24-inch mark if standing water was less than that. After that, remove at 24-inch increments. Drywall comes in 4-foot sheets, and you want to use it with as few cuts as possible.
Refrigerator: If food has spoiled in a refrigerator or freezer because of a power loss, odors can develop. Throw away all spoiled food and wash the inside of the appliance with one tablespoon of baking soda in a quart of tap water or with one cup of vinegar in a gallon of tap water.
If odors persist, use activated charcoal, which you can buy at drugstores and pet supply stores. First, unplug your appliance and put charcoal in pans or on paper in the bottom of the appliance for several days. If the odor remains, repeat the process. When the odor is gone, rinse and dry the inside of your appliance and it will be ready to use.
Kitchen utensils: Discard any wooden or plastic cutting boards and spoons. Metal, glass or ceramic pans, utensils and dishes should be washed with hot soapy water and sanitized by boiling them in clean water or immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of one teaspoon of chlorine bleach in one quart of water. Sewage contamination: Any area with sewage contamination must be disinfected. Use a solution of one cup of bleach to one gallon of water. Sources: Jim Nowlin, Remodeling Concepts; Texas A&M Agrilife Extension; FEMA