Dealing with Flood & Sewer Waters in Your Home
Salvaging Household Items

Most household items need to be inspected, cleaned, and dried before being reused.

• Furnaces & Appliances: Furnace and chimney pipe should be inspected and cleaned, if necessary, and furnace doors or covers left open to ventilate the system. All parts of the heating system that have been submerged, including the burners, need to be cleaned thoroughly to prevent clogging and dried well to prevent rusting. Stoves and other metal fixtures should first have all the mud and silt removed. They should then be wiped with an oiled rag, then polished and painted.
  

• Furniture: Furniture should be removed to the sunshine and fresh air and all the drawer slides and other working parts stacked separately. All of the mud and silt should then be removed. Care should be exercised to remove the furniture from direct sun before it warps.
  

• Books: Books should be allowed to dry carefully and slowly with alternate exposing to air and pressing. Toward the end of this treatment, the books may be subjected to small amounts of heat.
  

• Clothing & Bedding: Flood-soiled clothing and bedding require considerable care to obtain satisfactory results. All loose dirt should be brushed off, followed by laundering or dry cleaning in the usual manner. Lightweight comforters may be laundered in the same manner as blankets. Heavy comforters should be taken apart to be cleaned. Mattresses and pillows that are badly soiled may not be fit to reclaim; however, those of good quality may be reconditioned by a professional.