TIME TO CLEAN UP
Document all that you do while drying out the floodwaters from your home
Janus Lazaris tallies the storm destruction in her home like the wellorganized businesswoman that she is.
Most of her upholstered furniture is gone, though she’ll try to save a couple of chairs. Wood furniture will be refinished. Rugs already have been picked up for cleaning.
She did an extensive refresh on her kitchen and two bathrooms less than a year ago, and a fair amount of that work will be repeated. Her pretty new wallpaper is a goner for sure.
As an interior designer and owner of Janus Design Group, she already knows who to call for what. Not everyone does, though. Lazaris, who lives in Meyerland with her husband John, has had first-hand dealings with flooding once before, when Memorial Day storms affected so many others two years ago.
On Saturday she thought the city of Houston might have dodged a bullet with Tropical Storm Harvey. The next morning, though, she knew we had not.
Just 4 inches of rain came into her home two years ago, and the Lazarises used canned goods as risers, swept the water out quickly and started a relatively quick cleanup.
Early Sunday, though, water started coming in and didn’t stop until she had 3 feet of it throughout her home. Even her preparations — elevating furniture, putting chairs on top of the table and island, rolling up the rugs — wasn’t enough.
Dixie Friend Gay, an artist who lives in the Heights, has a similar story. She dealt with 2 feet of floodwaters during Tropical Storm Allison; Harvey brought about 14 inches of unwanted water.
Both women, although caught off guard, reacted quickly.
Gay said that at 5 a.m. on Sunday, water started coming into her home and she and her children went into action: they moved furniture upstairs and took paintings off of walls. The sofa and bulky mattress and box springs went up. Two recliners were sacrificed instead. Drawers were pulled out of dressers and cabinets and carried upstairs.
When the water left, a second wave of work began: cutting out wet sheetrock, pulling out wet insulation and spraying bleach water on the concrete floors to stave off mold.
The city is in its first phase of recovery: drying out. Before any work can be done to make homes livable, they first need to have all the wet stuff removed to keep mold away.
“My dining room table has a sofa on it, and rolled carpets are on top of that. It will stay that way until we are ready to put things back together,” she said.
Drywall When the water drained, Gay and her crew mopped up, removed water out of walls with a wet dry vacuum and then cut sheetrock off at a 2-foot mark. Box fans are placed all over her home to help dry it completely before anything can be repaired.
Gay’s tip on the 24-inch mark on sheetrock was echoed by Jim Nowlin, owner of Remodeling Concepts and a member of the Greater Houston Builder’s Association Remodeler’s Council.
Since drywall comes in 4-foot sheets, cutting one piece in half is an efficient use of the resource. Taking off drywall in 2-foot increments gets rid of everything that’s wet and makes as few cuts as possible in the drywall.
“The biggest thing is to be patient,” Nowlin said. “This is not going to move fast. It’s just so overwhelming and ... we’re all struggling with resources — a lack of them.”
Because of the length of time it will take for your home to dry out, Nowlin urged putting bleach water in a spray bottle and using it every day.
“Bugs are a wait-andsee thing. Each house will be different,” Nowlin said. “That’s a problem with a flood. You will have things in your house you’ve never seen before.”
Electrical concerns
Kevin Vick, owner of Vick Construction, warned of electrical issues, too. If your house flooded, consult an electrician to see if it’s safe to turn power back on, he said.
Gay said that a friend had tipped her off to electrical issues, so she turned off power as soon as flooding began. Afterward she removed electrical outlet covers so water could drain.
Post-flood weather is a factor, too, and she said she’s got box fans all over her home too help dry it out.
“The quicker I get it dried out, the less likely I’ll have mold. That was the idea,” Gay said. “Get rid of the sheetrock on exterior walls first because it has insulation and holds the most moisture.”
Find a good contractor Not only do you want to get your home livable again, but you don’t want to hand your money over to contractors who may not deliver, Vick said.
“I’ve been through this before. I was a contractor in Florida when they had five named storms. It’s very important that people watch out for fly-by-night companies. We’re going to get charlatans in town to try to take advantage of Houston’s misery. Be careful; confirm they’re a valid company and have references you can check.”
Lazaris said that she and her husband are exhausted and still reeling from the strange week.
On Sunday night, when most of her neighbors had evacuated, Lazaris looked out a window to see a helicopter flying nearby.
“I’m looking out the window and this guy in a helicopter says ‘Do you need help?’ and I’m thinking ‘Who is he talking to?’ He’s talking to me asking if I need to be rescued,” she said. “It’s surreal.”