One of the most technical aspects of water damage restoration is drying hardwood floors. Modern designs for what is fashionable in homes changes often, but hardwood flooring is here now and it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon!

The science behind restoring hardwood flooring is truly amazing. We may utilize desiccant dehumidifiers and/or advanced vacuum drying panels to pull the water from under and between the individual boards. We may use high static pressure pumps to pressurize areas under the floor. Special situations may require heat to be applied to create the proper drying environment to make the water want to leave the wood and return the wood floor to the proper moisture content levels. 

Just understand, that if we are saving your hardwood floors, we are utilizing a "whole lot of science" to get it done!!

When you want the best results, call in the best! Call SERVPRO!!!

This picture shows just how bad storms can be. The damage to the front door was due to the rush of water that surged through this neighborhood. On the left side of the picture, you can see how high the water got in this house. 

Neighbors were trying to help each other get the wet material out of each others home, but as you can see, this is how it was left.

SERVPRO of Elgin/Northwest Kane County was able to come in and demo, clean, disinfect and dry this home so the homeowner could start rebuilding. Experience counts!

Imagine you walk into your building and see water. You go to a lower level, and you see more water. It is one problem or two? Is everything wet or is it just a small isolated area. HOW DO YOU KNOW?

One of the technologies that SERVPRO of Elgin/Northwest Kane County employs is infrared (IR) cameras. With proper training, a technician can use an IR camera (in addition to calibrated moisture meters) and can quickly determine if only small areas are affected or if everything wet. This can greatly help to make sure nothing is missed and that mold does not develop because we missed something.

By sharing this information with the building staff, we can assure them that our scope of work is accurate and not exaggerated. 

SERVPRO, getting your job done right!!

Unfortunately for one of our customers, the entire basement flooded when two separate pumps failed. Who did they call when things were really bad? Well the good guys at SERVPRO of Elgin/Northwest Kane County of course!! The entire project was complicated due to some collapsed sewer lines outside of the building. By working closely with our plumbers and the building maintenance staff, we were able to pump out all of the water (this shows the water down from a max of about 12" deep), extract all of the floors, disinfect the floors, set up drying equipment and measure and cut and removed drywall in 27 rooms! Sometimes we even surprise ourselves!! When you need to get serious projects done fast, call in the Green! Call SERVPRO!!

SERVPRO of Elgin/Northwest Kane County has been a part of the Elgin community for over 16 years. We have developed many relationships that we strongly support. One of our passions is the Elgin Fire Department museum. We want to help the patrons of the museum by providing cleaning services to help keep operating costs down.  The brave men and women that protect us during fire events should be remembered and memorialized with the Elgin Fire Museum. It is fun to tour the museum and see the vehicles and equipment that was used in fighting fires. I am sure that there have been great advancements in the technology, but it is still very interesting to see the old equipment. Come visit the Elgin Fire Museum and enjoy a walk down memory lane. Who knows, maybe one of the fire fighters who used that equipment just might be there to tell you stories!!

Our favorite public library had a couple of pipe breaks and water went everywhere! Approximately 20,000 sf of the library had standing water. Furniture was wet (and dirty), displays, decorative heavy trim work was all very wet too. Within 20 hours from when this picture was taken, you could kneel on the carpet right next to that pillar and not get your pants wet!! How you ask? We heavily extracted the carpet with the strongest extractors available in order to help minimize the overall drying time. We extracted over 5,000 gallons of water throughout the building. By utilizing the correct amount of equipment and experienced Project Managers monitoring the environment, we were able to get the library back open within 6 days!! Go SERVPRO!!