Food in our refrigerators becoming contaminated with mold is just a simple fact of life. It is fairly inevitable, no matter how clean you try to keep your refrigerator, but which foods do you throw away?
It grows on everything that we eat and a few things that we do not, but when we find it in our refrigerators, we often end up arguing with ourselves over whether or not it will still be safe to eat if we remove the molded portions. The fact is that most foods, when they become contaminated with mold, cannot be saved. It can be a jar of our favorite jam or the sour cream you love to put on top of tacos, but if it gets mold on it, you might as well just toss it. Go buy another container and save yourself the trouble of a doctor visit later.
The reason that you need to throw most items away is that foods that have a high amount of moisture in them such as sour cream, cottage cheese, jellies, and jams, will become contaminated all the way through them because they are soft foods. The mold can easily get to the rest of the container, unlike in more dense items like blocks of cheese or in dense meats like hard salami. If mold gets onto these more dense items, you can generally cut out the moldy parts and just throw them away. As long as you cut one inch around and underneath the molded part of the food and throw it in the garbage, the rest of the item should be fine to eat.
When you bring home fruits and vegetables, make sure that they are clean and have no bad spots on them. If they do, make sure and cut them off before storing them in your refrigerator. Some fruits and vegetables will be fine when stored in plastic, but the use of re-sealable plastic bags is recommended over simple plastic wrap. Throw away any fruit or vegetables that have become contaminated, since this will cause other items nearby to become contaminated, as well.
Anything that has been baked such as cakes or breads should be thrown away if you find mold growing on them. These foods are porous and the mold is likely to have contaminated the majority of it.
Lunch meats should also be thrown away if they are found to be contaminated. These have a high moisture content and cannot be saved.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Household Water Damage Prevention Tips
Water damage is something that no homeowner wants to have to deal with, but many times it is just a fact of life. Whether it is a flood, excessive rain, or even something as devastating as a hurricane, sometimes water damage cannot be helped, but what about the water damage that occurs to our homes that are simply accidents? Or something that we have just overlooked for far too long? There are quite a few things that you can to in order to keep water damage from impacting your pocketbook, but for them to have any affect, you have to remain vigilant.
Cleaning out your rain gutters as soon as the leaves stop falling in autumn is a pretty good idea. What your rain gutters do is keep the rain that falls on your roof from simply falling to the base of your home and settling there. Allowing water to settle around the base of your home will eventually cause it to sink into the ground, doing damage not only to the structure of the house, but also to the home’s value, as well. Another way to prevent this kind of slowly occurring damage is to make sure that the soil around the foundation of your home is piled up against the house at an angle so water drains away from the foundation naturally. Keep downspouts clear of leaves and sticks, as well, and make sure that the bottom of the downspout has gully that drains the water coming out of it away from the home.
Making sure the plumbing that leads to your dishwasher or to your clothes washer is of good condition. You should not have to replace these hoses very often, maybe around every 4 to 5 years, but hoses of poor quality can rupture and leave you with a huge mess, especially if you happen to be out of the home at the time it bursts. Clean up any spills as quickly as possible, but if the floor in your kitchen is hardwood, the best thing to do is just soak up whatever water you can with towels. If you have a vacuum used to draw water up, such as a carpet shampooer, you can use this to get some more of the water out. Do not use artificial heat to dry your floor, because this can cause the floor to buckle or cause what is called “cupping”.
Something else that you can do is install a vent in your bathroom and kitchen. This allows the steam that builds up from cooking or bathing to escape the house and not be absorbed by your walls and ceiling.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut flood water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
South Carolina Sewage Damage Clean-up companies across the united states.
Cleaning out your rain gutters as soon as the leaves stop falling in autumn is a pretty good idea. What your rain gutters do is keep the rain that falls on your roof from simply falling to the base of your home and settling there. Allowing water to settle around the base of your home will eventually cause it to sink into the ground, doing damage not only to the structure of the house, but also to the home’s value, as well. Another way to prevent this kind of slowly occurring damage is to make sure that the soil around the foundation of your home is piled up against the house at an angle so water drains away from the foundation naturally. Keep downspouts clear of leaves and sticks, as well, and make sure that the bottom of the downspout has gully that drains the water coming out of it away from the home.
Making sure the plumbing that leads to your dishwasher or to your clothes washer is of good condition. You should not have to replace these hoses very often, maybe around every 4 to 5 years, but hoses of poor quality can rupture and leave you with a huge mess, especially if you happen to be out of the home at the time it bursts. Clean up any spills as quickly as possible, but if the floor in your kitchen is hardwood, the best thing to do is just soak up whatever water you can with towels. If you have a vacuum used to draw water up, such as a carpet shampooer, you can use this to get some more of the water out. Do not use artificial heat to dry your floor, because this can cause the floor to buckle or cause what is called “cupping”.
Something else that you can do is install a vent in your bathroom and kitchen. This allows the steam that builds up from cooking or bathing to escape the house and not be absorbed by your walls and ceiling.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut flood water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
South Carolina Sewage Damage Clean-up companies across the united states.
Dealing With Landlords and Insurance Companies About Mold
Whether you rent an apartment or own your own home, mold can be a huge problem to have to deal with. Insurance claims adjusters will usually deny your claim simply because the vast majority of homeowner’s insurance policies simply do not cover the cost to remove mold from the home. Landlords presented with a mold problem in one of their units or in the home that they are renting out are sometimes quick to blame the problem on the tenant rather than admit that the problem is structural or was there before the tenant moved in.
There are a few insurance adjusters that will try to trick you into saying that mold has been around for millennia and that it is not the health threat that people are saying that it is or that the mold contamination in the home is somehow your own fault. If the infestation is obviously not your fault, do not say anything that suggests that it might be. If he/she claims that mold is not a problem like people say, point at the Bible. The scriptures in Leviticus 14:39-49 clearly tell how dangerous mold was considered to be in the time of ancient Judaism and tell how the homes were considered to be “diseased” or “plagued” by mold. It also tells just how these contaminated homes and belongings were dealt with. The rabbi inspected these buildings and determined what was to happen to them and the basic procedure was to remove all belongings from the home and take them far away from the village and people, to shut up the house for a week, and to examine the home again. If it was still not free of contamination, it was torn down and a new one built.
Landlords should be told the same thing if they tell you that mold is not a health threat. You need to provide the landlord proof that there is a problem via mold testing. The burden of proof is on you, not them. Test the home yourself and send a copy of the test results to the landlord via certified mail. If he/she does not respond, send another letter saying you are withholding your rent until the problem is fixed. Lastly, if that was ignored, send yet another letter via certified mail stating that you are re-locating and seeking legal action.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
New York Basement Water Removal companies across the united states.
There are a few insurance adjusters that will try to trick you into saying that mold has been around for millennia and that it is not the health threat that people are saying that it is or that the mold contamination in the home is somehow your own fault. If the infestation is obviously not your fault, do not say anything that suggests that it might be. If he/she claims that mold is not a problem like people say, point at the Bible. The scriptures in Leviticus 14:39-49 clearly tell how dangerous mold was considered to be in the time of ancient Judaism and tell how the homes were considered to be “diseased” or “plagued” by mold. It also tells just how these contaminated homes and belongings were dealt with. The rabbi inspected these buildings and determined what was to happen to them and the basic procedure was to remove all belongings from the home and take them far away from the village and people, to shut up the house for a week, and to examine the home again. If it was still not free of contamination, it was torn down and a new one built.
Landlords should be told the same thing if they tell you that mold is not a health threat. You need to provide the landlord proof that there is a problem via mold testing. The burden of proof is on you, not them. Test the home yourself and send a copy of the test results to the landlord via certified mail. If he/she does not respond, send another letter saying you are withholding your rent until the problem is fixed. Lastly, if that was ignored, send yet another letter via certified mail stating that you are re-locating and seeking legal action.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
New York Basement Water Removal companies across the united states.
Your Laptop Hates Water
To anyone who owns a laptop, getting a soft drink or a glass of water anywhere near it is probably taboo, but if you are like me, then you probably keep something to drink near by at all times. You’d rather “risk it” than go thirsty, but this does not always have to be the case. While getting your laptop wet in any way can seriously damage it, there are ways to save it if you do happen to spill your drink or anything else onto the keyboard and subsequently, onto the hard drive, and etcetera. Unlike a desktop computer, the keyboard of a laptop is obviously located on top of the most important components of your computer: hard drive, memory, CD-ROM, and etcetera. Without these, your computer will not function.
The problem when you spill something onto your laptop is not with the actual liquid that you spill on it, although things that become sticky after they dry like soda or tea can be a hassle to clean up. The problem lies with the electricity that is running through your laptop at the time you spill the liquid onto it. It usually takes a few seconds for the liquid to get down into the electrical components of the laptop, so the first thing that you need to do if you spill something on your computer is to unplug it and take out the battery IMMEDIATELY. You must remove the electrical current from the laptop as quickly as possible in order to be able to save it.
After you remove the electrical current, the next thing that you have to do is to turn the machine upside down completely in order to keep the liquid from getting further into the shell of the laptop. This will keep it from coming into contact with your hard drive, memory, motherboard, and etcetera. You should allow the least amount of this liquid that comes into contact with those important components as possible, especially if it is an acidic liquid such as soda.
After you have drained as much of the liquid as possible out of it, collect some paper towels or just a normal towel and clean up any of the liquid from the outside of the machine.
At this point, depending on if you got the electricity removed from the unit in time, you could take it to a professional repairman or continue to repair the laptop yourself. The extent of the “repair” could be just allowing the unit to completely dry out or it could involve removing components and cleaning the sticky soda residue from them. Attempting to repair it yourself could possibly void your warranty for future damages, but a professional could be expensive.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut water damage contractors and other states and cities such as
Chicago mold remediation companies across the united states.
The problem when you spill something onto your laptop is not with the actual liquid that you spill on it, although things that become sticky after they dry like soda or tea can be a hassle to clean up. The problem lies with the electricity that is running through your laptop at the time you spill the liquid onto it. It usually takes a few seconds for the liquid to get down into the electrical components of the laptop, so the first thing that you need to do if you spill something on your computer is to unplug it and take out the battery IMMEDIATELY. You must remove the electrical current from the laptop as quickly as possible in order to be able to save it.
After you remove the electrical current, the next thing that you have to do is to turn the machine upside down completely in order to keep the liquid from getting further into the shell of the laptop. This will keep it from coming into contact with your hard drive, memory, motherboard, and etcetera. You should allow the least amount of this liquid that comes into contact with those important components as possible, especially if it is an acidic liquid such as soda.
After you have drained as much of the liquid as possible out of it, collect some paper towels or just a normal towel and clean up any of the liquid from the outside of the machine.
At this point, depending on if you got the electricity removed from the unit in time, you could take it to a professional repairman or continue to repair the laptop yourself. The extent of the “repair” could be just allowing the unit to completely dry out or it could involve removing components and cleaning the sticky soda residue from them. Attempting to repair it yourself could possibly void your warranty for future damages, but a professional could be expensive.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut water damage contractors and other states and cities such as
Chicago mold remediation companies across the united states.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Draining Water From Your Yard
Standing water in the yard is a very unattractive feature of a person’s property not only due to its aesthetically displeasing characteristic, but also because of the potential water damage that it can cause to the property if there is enough of it in the right area. The owner’s first instinct to fix this problem is to try and plant things in the area where the water tends to build up, but this will not typically work. Any plants that are put in an area that floods from time to time will drown and die. Getting rid of the standing water on your property is not too difficult most of the time, since the problem usually lies simply with the elevation of the part of the yard that is affected the most.
If it is a problem with the elevation of the flooded area, then all you really need to do is add soil to that area and make it level with the rest of your yard. This will keep the flooding at bay as long as the water builds up as a result of heavy rain. Plant some grass over it both to hide the soil and to keep it in place.
Installing a drainage system is also an option, but you need to contact your local building commission and be certain that you will be allowed to build a drainage system. Building permits can be tricky and you need to make sure that your building project is on the up and up before you start working on anything.
Digging a French drain is not very difficult to do. Dig a little ditch in your yard and lay a piece of PVC pipe down inside it. Cover it up with gravel and this will direct the water anywhere you want it to, like a city sewer or ditch. When you dig it, you need to be sure that the highest point of the pipe is in the area that you want to drain and that the lowest point is where you want the water to drain to. You need to make the pipe slant downhill 6 inches for every 100 feet. To keep soil from getting in the pipe, you should install a strainer over the end. A simple sink strainer capped over the end could work for this or a piece of wire mesh. A strainer at the lower end is not needed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Houston Fire Damage Water Restoration Contractor companies and
Los Angeles Water Damage and Restoration Services.
If it is a problem with the elevation of the flooded area, then all you really need to do is add soil to that area and make it level with the rest of your yard. This will keep the flooding at bay as long as the water builds up as a result of heavy rain. Plant some grass over it both to hide the soil and to keep it in place.
Installing a drainage system is also an option, but you need to contact your local building commission and be certain that you will be allowed to build a drainage system. Building permits can be tricky and you need to make sure that your building project is on the up and up before you start working on anything.
Digging a French drain is not very difficult to do. Dig a little ditch in your yard and lay a piece of PVC pipe down inside it. Cover it up with gravel and this will direct the water anywhere you want it to, like a city sewer or ditch. When you dig it, you need to be sure that the highest point of the pipe is in the area that you want to drain and that the lowest point is where you want the water to drain to. You need to make the pipe slant downhill 6 inches for every 100 feet. To keep soil from getting in the pipe, you should install a strainer over the end. A simple sink strainer capped over the end could work for this or a piece of wire mesh. A strainer at the lower end is not needed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Houston Fire Damage Water Restoration Contractor companies and
Los Angeles Water Damage and Restoration Services.
Bathroom Humidity and Mold Problems
A relaxing bath or shower can be just what you need after a long day at work, but when you look up and around you and you see mold starting to grow on the walls, the relaxation usually gets ruined by the worry about that mold problem. It shows itself as a splotchy growth on the drywall and it usually moves slowly from one end of the room to the other. If left untreated, it will eventually cover the rest of your bathroom and then you really will not have much of a good time bathing.
Most of the time drywall that becomes contaminated needs to be taken out and thrown away, unless the growth is very new and superficial. If it is old growth and is found to be embedded into the wall, then the drywall cannot be cleaned, since it is such a porous surface. This is unfortunate, because tearing out drywall and replacing it can cost quite a bit, especially if you have to hire someone else to do it for you.
A lot of people seem to like installing carpet in their bathrooms, but what they may not realize is just what a very bad idea this is. Water and mold go hand in hand and once carpet gets wet and is allowed to stay that way on a continuing basis as it will be in a bathroom, it eventually begins to mold. When carpet gets moldy, the unfortunate fact about this, as with drywall, is that it usually has to be thrown out. Carpet can be cleaned, but the padding underneath it cannot and if mold continues to grow on the padding, any new carpet that you put over it will also be contaminated and so will the old carpet if you attempted to clean it.
Try to keep the humidity in the bathroom down by installing an exhaust vent to let steam and moisture out of the house. Also keep wet items of clothing and towels washed as often as possible and avoid letting them stay on the floor, especially a carpeted one.
Keep an eye on your toilet and make sure that it is flushing properly and that the members of your house are not putting too much toilet paper in it. Feminine napkins can sometimes be put into toilets, but this is usually only recommended for homes that are connected to city sewer systems. Homes with septic tanks tend to have a harder time with feminine napkins being put in the toilet and can stop up the whole system, particularly if the pipes are old and corroded.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
Most of the time drywall that becomes contaminated needs to be taken out and thrown away, unless the growth is very new and superficial. If it is old growth and is found to be embedded into the wall, then the drywall cannot be cleaned, since it is such a porous surface. This is unfortunate, because tearing out drywall and replacing it can cost quite a bit, especially if you have to hire someone else to do it for you.
A lot of people seem to like installing carpet in their bathrooms, but what they may not realize is just what a very bad idea this is. Water and mold go hand in hand and once carpet gets wet and is allowed to stay that way on a continuing basis as it will be in a bathroom, it eventually begins to mold. When carpet gets moldy, the unfortunate fact about this, as with drywall, is that it usually has to be thrown out. Carpet can be cleaned, but the padding underneath it cannot and if mold continues to grow on the padding, any new carpet that you put over it will also be contaminated and so will the old carpet if you attempted to clean it.
Try to keep the humidity in the bathroom down by installing an exhaust vent to let steam and moisture out of the house. Also keep wet items of clothing and towels washed as often as possible and avoid letting them stay on the floor, especially a carpeted one.
Keep an eye on your toilet and make sure that it is flushing properly and that the members of your house are not putting too much toilet paper in it. Feminine napkins can sometimes be put into toilets, but this is usually only recommended for homes that are connected to city sewer systems. Homes with septic tanks tend to have a harder time with feminine napkins being put in the toilet and can stop up the whole system, particularly if the pipes are old and corroded.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
The Mold Removal Equipment You Need
Doing a mold remediation project on your own instead of getting a professional to do the work for you can be a hassle, but if you do not have a lot of money, it might be for the best that you take care of a small scale infestation yourself. You should take the safety of your health into account when attempting such a thing, but if you purchase the correct amount and kind of equipment, you should be fine.
The health risks of mold exposure when you are taking on a project such as this are high if you do not take the proper precautions. Respiratory conditions and skin rashes, among other kinds of infections are likely to occur if you do not properly protect yourself. Allergic reactions and even death can result from some mold related disorders, so take extreme care.
If you are having to do invasive procedures such as taking out drywall or tearing up tile to get to the infection underneath, purchasing the maximum amount of equipment is going to be necessary. This will include not only a respirator of some kind from your hardware store, but also some breathable protective clothing and a roll of duct tape to seal up the areas where there are breaks in it, such as the ankles and wrists. A breathable body suit, foot covers, and gloves are necessary.
Purchasing some contractor grade trash bags is also a good idea, since what you are probably going to be doing is something that a contractor would have to do when remodeling a house. You will put mold contaminated materials in these bags.
You will also probably want to have a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter included in it to remove the mold spores and other particle debris from the home after you are done. Since stirring up the mold spores is pretty much unavoidable, this will help you keep the spore count in the air under control. This is important whether you are wearing a respirator or not.
The respirator that you purchase can be one of about three different kinds. One is just a basic one that you can get from your local hardware store and the other two contain HEPA filters on them and come in half-face and full-face forms. A full face mask can be purchased for around $125.
Chemicals that kill mold are also going to be needed. You can find these at most department stores that sell cleaning supplies.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
The health risks of mold exposure when you are taking on a project such as this are high if you do not take the proper precautions. Respiratory conditions and skin rashes, among other kinds of infections are likely to occur if you do not properly protect yourself. Allergic reactions and even death can result from some mold related disorders, so take extreme care.
If you are having to do invasive procedures such as taking out drywall or tearing up tile to get to the infection underneath, purchasing the maximum amount of equipment is going to be necessary. This will include not only a respirator of some kind from your hardware store, but also some breathable protective clothing and a roll of duct tape to seal up the areas where there are breaks in it, such as the ankles and wrists. A breathable body suit, foot covers, and gloves are necessary.
Purchasing some contractor grade trash bags is also a good idea, since what you are probably going to be doing is something that a contractor would have to do when remodeling a house. You will put mold contaminated materials in these bags.
You will also probably want to have a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter included in it to remove the mold spores and other particle debris from the home after you are done. Since stirring up the mold spores is pretty much unavoidable, this will help you keep the spore count in the air under control. This is important whether you are wearing a respirator or not.
The respirator that you purchase can be one of about three different kinds. One is just a basic one that you can get from your local hardware store and the other two contain HEPA filters on them and come in half-face and full-face forms. A full face mask can be purchased for around $125.
Chemicals that kill mold are also going to be needed. You can find these at most department stores that sell cleaning supplies.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
The Inhumane Use of Mold Dogs
You might think that your property has a problem with mold and when you realize that this might be true, you may go out and hire the first mold removal company that you run across in the yellow pages to come and fix the problem, but the trick is knowing whether they are truly a professional company. One good way to tell this is to note whether or not they use dogs to find mold in the building.
The usage of mold dogs is not that widely used except by companies that are exactly what was implied earlier: unprofessional. The use of these dogs is deplorable, since they are trained to do exactly the thing that human beings are told not to do when coming into contact with mold. They are taught to seek out the mold spores and to actively inhale them in large quantities in order to detect the presence of mold growing in a home. This is not only unscientific, but it is also extremely harmful to the health of the dog. There are much more modern methods to use to detect mold in a person’s home or business and the use of a dog will not tell you if the mold is toxic or in what quantity the mold exists. Mycologists are typically employed by mold remediation companies and they fill the role of telling you whether the mold you have in your home is toxic or not.
The health of the dog will deteriorate over time, since animals are no less at risk of developing health complications related to mold than human beings are. They will eventually develop respiratory and skin infections, particularly around the muzzle.
The animal cannot tell a human being that something is wrong with them and the human often does not realize it until it is too late. Any veterinarian will tell you that the usage of dogs to detect mold is an inhumane practice and it is all but the deliberate infection of the animal and an act of pure negligence. Aspergilloma and aspergilliosis are also two conditions that dogs are susceptible to when they are used to detect mold and these often have no symptoms at first. By the time symptoms do develop, it is often too late and the dog has to be put down.
If you are considering hiring a professional company to detect and remove the mold from your home, please refrain from hiring a company that uses dogs. If you discover that the company that you hire does use dogs, decline to use their services and state this as the reason. Please do not support this practice.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united state
The usage of mold dogs is not that widely used except by companies that are exactly what was implied earlier: unprofessional. The use of these dogs is deplorable, since they are trained to do exactly the thing that human beings are told not to do when coming into contact with mold. They are taught to seek out the mold spores and to actively inhale them in large quantities in order to detect the presence of mold growing in a home. This is not only unscientific, but it is also extremely harmful to the health of the dog. There are much more modern methods to use to detect mold in a person’s home or business and the use of a dog will not tell you if the mold is toxic or in what quantity the mold exists. Mycologists are typically employed by mold remediation companies and they fill the role of telling you whether the mold you have in your home is toxic or not.
The health of the dog will deteriorate over time, since animals are no less at risk of developing health complications related to mold than human beings are. They will eventually develop respiratory and skin infections, particularly around the muzzle.
The animal cannot tell a human being that something is wrong with them and the human often does not realize it until it is too late. Any veterinarian will tell you that the usage of dogs to detect mold is an inhumane practice and it is all but the deliberate infection of the animal and an act of pure negligence. Aspergilloma and aspergilliosis are also two conditions that dogs are susceptible to when they are used to detect mold and these often have no symptoms at first. By the time symptoms do develop, it is often too late and the dog has to be put down.
If you are considering hiring a professional company to detect and remove the mold from your home, please refrain from hiring a company that uses dogs. If you discover that the company that you hire does use dogs, decline to use their services and state this as the reason. Please do not support this practice.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united state
Laptop Water Damage
You might not realize this, but the circuit board in your desktop computer and in almost any other consumer electronic device was rinsed in pure water and thoroughly dried before it was put up for sale. An electronic device that comes into contact with water should be dried as soon as possible, but as long as the water is clean and electricity is not running through the object at the time, it should be fine. An electronic device that has been allowed to soak in unclean water, such as flood waters or even in just pool water that has been treated with chemicals, may be a little more difficult to salvage.
If you spill something onto your laptop, the first thing that you need to do is turn off the electricity. Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery immediately. The battery should be set aside for drying after you are done dealing with the laptop unit itself, since the battery is obviously much cheaper to replace. Turn the unit upside down and wait for the liquid to drip back out of it until the drips cease. Wipe off the laptop wherever the liquid was spilled (this is usually the keyboard) and wipe off anything else that was splattered with the liquid. This other object could be an external hard drive or an external CD-ROM.
The insides of the laptop need to dry out for at least a couple of days before you try using it again. If what you spilled onto it was just plain water, then you can be fairly certain that it will be alright, but if you spilled something acidic such as soda or coffee that becomes sticky when it dries, you may have a bigger problem. You have two options at this point: repair the damage yourself or hire a professional. Since most warranties on electronics do not cover water damage, the concern with this is that you damage the laptop irreparably by trying to fix it yourself. If you take it to a professional, he or she may find out that the laptop is damaged beyond repair, anyway, and you will have wasted money.
If you choose to take care of the problem yourself, disassembling the laptop is your first step. Do not clean the circuit board with water. Use rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab or a small cloth and allow the alcohol to dry out before trying to power up the laptop again. Only service the laptop yourself if you are absolutely certain that you know what you are doing. If you run into a problem that you are not sure about how to solve or if you think you have caused more damage, seek a professional.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Water Damage Restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors
If you spill something onto your laptop, the first thing that you need to do is turn off the electricity. Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery immediately. The battery should be set aside for drying after you are done dealing with the laptop unit itself, since the battery is obviously much cheaper to replace. Turn the unit upside down and wait for the liquid to drip back out of it until the drips cease. Wipe off the laptop wherever the liquid was spilled (this is usually the keyboard) and wipe off anything else that was splattered with the liquid. This other object could be an external hard drive or an external CD-ROM.
The insides of the laptop need to dry out for at least a couple of days before you try using it again. If what you spilled onto it was just plain water, then you can be fairly certain that it will be alright, but if you spilled something acidic such as soda or coffee that becomes sticky when it dries, you may have a bigger problem. You have two options at this point: repair the damage yourself or hire a professional. Since most warranties on electronics do not cover water damage, the concern with this is that you damage the laptop irreparably by trying to fix it yourself. If you take it to a professional, he or she may find out that the laptop is damaged beyond repair, anyway, and you will have wasted money.
If you choose to take care of the problem yourself, disassembling the laptop is your first step. Do not clean the circuit board with water. Use rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab or a small cloth and allow the alcohol to dry out before trying to power up the laptop again. Only service the laptop yourself if you are absolutely certain that you know what you are doing. If you run into a problem that you are not sure about how to solve or if you think you have caused more damage, seek a professional.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Water Damage Restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
