Protecting Your Business from Commercial Water Damage
If left untreated, commercial water damage is a huge problem for businesses. In this post, we’ll talk about how water damage in commercial buildings often occurs, what having to repair water damage means for your business, the health issues that come with untreated water damage, and how you can ensure you’re covered in the case of commercial water damage.
Let’s jump right in by looking at how water damage often occurs in commercial buildings.
How Does Commercial Water Damage Occur?
The truth is there is no fool-proof way to stop water damage in commercial buildings and “water damage is typically caused by failing plumbing or pipes, but many Americans ignore water infrastructure maintenance.” This leads to two common causes of commercial water damage, let us look at each.
Natural Causes
A big threat to your building in terms of water damage is mother nature. Storms, freezing temperatures, and floods are all problems where businesses experience water damage.
Imagine a storm comes through in the middle of the night while you are away from your building. A tree falls and breaks a window allowing rain to pour in.
The next morning you call in crews to clean up the mess, but water has already seeped into the floorboards, and you are unaware.
In the coming weeks, problems arise, and you now must pay for extensive repairs to your flooring.
Wear and Tear
Another common cause of water damage in buildings is regular wear and tear. Businesses see much more traffic than private buildings, so things like clogged pipes and spills are common.
In commercial buildings, plumbing and air conditioning systems run all the time, so these systems can malfunction, cause water damage, and require repairs.
What is Restoring Commercial Water Damage Like?
Having to restore water damages in a commercial building is expensive, especially if the business must shut down for the duration of repairs.
Damage to roofing or other non-cosmetic structures usually calls for closing the business for the duration of restoration to ensure customer and employee safety. This means with no revenue coming in, you pay out-of-pocket for repairs, if not covered by insurance.
How Loud are Commercial Fans to Dry Water Damage?
In the case that your business doesn’t have to shut down for repairs, commercial fans will be brought in during the restoration process. These fans are loud and can bother customers, so it is important to weigh the pros and cons of staying open during water damage restoration.
What Health Concerns Does Water Damage Pose?
The biggest health concern that arises from water damage in buildings is mold.
Exposure to mold can irritate the eyes, nose, throat, lungs, and even skin. This causes serious problems for businesses since legal issues can arise if an employee or customer has exposure and experiences adverse reactions because of the mold from unrepaired water damage.
How to Protect Your Business from Commercial Water Damage
There is no way to stop water damage from occurring in a commercial building, but with the correct insurance policies in place, you can assure your business has coverage for repairs and any legal issues that arise from water damage.
To make sure you have all the right policies in place, you need to use a certificate of insurance (COI) tracking solution like SmartCompliance, which ensures all policies are in place and current.
To learn how you can protect your business by tracking COIs with SmartCompliance, schedule a free product demo here!
