When doing a flood cleanup, it is important to know that there is more to what the eyes can see or what the nose can smell. Aside from visible mold growth or smelly and dirty flood water, the air could be contaminated with microorganisms as well. So a major part of a flood cleanup should be geared towards improving or bringing your home's indoor air quality back to its prior state before the flood.
The first thing you should do is to ventilate your home if temperature, humidity and weather conditions permit. Ventilating will replace any stale air or foul smell from your home and possibly any air borne bacteria. And as you clean or disinfect, ventilating will prevent suffocation from harmful fumes of the disinfectants that you use.
To improve your home's air quality, you need to clean and disinfect all surfaces that have been contaminated with flood. Doing so will eliminate the possibility of having these microorganisms go airborne and increase your home's air quality. During this process, you should be thorough to scrub every surface and furniture. Start from the top portion of your home going down and avoid going back to already cleaned rooms so you don't bring back bacteria through foot traffic.
After everything is washed, make sure that your cooling and heating systems are in good running conditions and are clean. Have a professional check air ducts or air filters. And if they have been contaminated with flood water, have them thoroughly cleaned or replaced if needed. Turning these systems on may only spread bacteria or mold throughout the house.
Some homeowners may also tell you to use houseplants to improve air quality. However, there hasn't been any study to prove this. What they can do though is improve visual quality. If you decide to put house plants in your home, be sure not to over water them or keep the soil damp more than necessary. Your home can still be vulnerable to mold growth.
Using a high efficiency particulate air or HEPA vacuums will also be a good choice. These powerful tools specialize in filtering the air for small air particles including any airborne mold or bacteria. This should be used as a final cleanup procedure; after everything have been washed down and dried.
There are a lot more ways you can improve air quality during a flood cleanup. Just keep in mind that doing so is as important as removing any mold growth or disinfecting surfaces that have been contaminated with dirty flood water.
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