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Water Damage Health Risks: General Guidance

A water loss raises questions about health as well as about the house, and those questions deserve a careful answer. This guide offers general guidance only. It makes no health claims, gives no diagnosis, offers no medical advice, and does not say whether any particular person is affected by a water loss or by mold after one. Anyone with health concerns should seek professional guidance of the medical kind, and this guide does not take the place of that.

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What it does offer is practical guidance about avoiding contact with the water and the conditions that follow a loss: sewage and floodwater, standing water, and flooded buildings. For the service that deals with the loss itself, the water damage restoration page sets out what is offered in general terms.

General guidance, not medical advice

The first thing to be clear about is the limit of this guide. It is general guidance about a property after a water loss, not medical advice about a person. It does not describe health effects, it does not say what any particular growth or water may do to any particular person, and it does not diagnose anyone. A guide about a house cannot answer a question about a body, and it does not try to. If you have a health concern after a water loss, the right step is to seek professional guidance of the medical kind, and to do so promptly rather than waiting.

That limit applies to every part of this guide, including the sections on sewage, floodwater and mold. The guidance in those sections is about avoiding contact and calling a professional, and it stops there. It does not go on to say what contact may have caused, or what to do about it beyond seeking professional guidance. Keeping that boundary clear is important, because mixing property advice with medical advice helps no one.

Avoid contact with sewage and floodwater

Sewage and floodwater are Category 3 black water, treated as a health hazard. The practical guidance is simple: avoid all contact with the water, do not enter contaminated water, keep children and pets away from it, and call a professional. Do not try to clean it up yourself, do not walk through it, and do not handle belongings that have been soaked in it. The water may carry sewage, chemicals and debris, and what it carries is not visible, which is why the response is to avoid contact rather than to judge the water by how it looks.

The same guidance applies to anything the water has touched. Furniture, carpet, clothing and food that have been in sewage or floodwater are contaminated with it, and they need to be dealt with as part of the professional cleanup rather than salvaged by hand. Do not eat food that has been in floodwater, and do not try to wash and reuse soft furnishings that have been soaked in sewage. Homeowners in Dallas and across the state who have had sewage or floodwater in the house should keep everyone out of the water and make the call.

Water Damage Health Risks: General Guidance — Texas water damage guide

Standing water and flooded buildings

Standing water in a house should be treated with the same caution, even when it looks like clean water. Do not enter a flooded building, and do not wade through standing water to reach a room, a shut-off valve, or a belonging. The water may hide sharp objects, open drains or uneven floors, and the building itself may have damage that is not visible from the doorway. If water is near electrics, stay out and call for help, and shut off water or power only if it is safe to do so from a dry place, never by wading in to do it.

After the water is out, the property still needs care. Damp rooms should be ventilated where it is safe to do so, and the drying should be left to professionals where the loss was large or the water was contaminated. A room that smells musty, or a wall that stays damp weeks after a loss, is a sign the drying is not finished, and it is a reason to arrange a visit rather than to carry on using the room as normal.

When to seek professional guidance

Seek professional guidance when the loss involved sewage or floodwater, when the water stood for some time, when growth has appeared after the loss, or when anyone in the household has a health concern connected to the loss. Seek it from the right people: a water damage professional for the property, and a medical professional for any health question. The two are separate, and each should be asked the questions that belong to them.

While you wait for a visit, keep the affected area closed off, keep children and pets away from it, and do not disturb a large area of growth by scrubbing or scraping it dry. Keep a note of where the water reached, how long it stood, and what it was, because those details help a professional judge the job. The sewage cleanup page explains the service for the most serious kind of water loss in general terms, and it is the page to start from where sewage is involved.

Keeping a record of the loss

Keeping a record of a water loss is worth doing from the first hour, because the record is what the restoration and any insurance claim are built on. Photos of the affected rooms, taken before anything is moved, are the most useful part of the record, with wide shots that show the whole room and close shots that show the detail. Notes about when the loss was discovered, where the water came from, how long it stood, and what was done first should go alongside the photos, and the record should be added to as the work goes on: when the water was removed, when the drying started, what was removed, and what was repaired.

The record should also include the conversations that follow the loss: who was called, when, and what was said, whether that was the restoration professional, the insurer, or a medical professional where health concerns were raised. A short note after each call, kept with the rest of the record, is worth more than a memory of the call weeks later. Damaged materials should be kept until the adjuster advises otherwise, in general terms, because the insurer may want to see them, and the moisture readings taken during the drying should be kept too, because they show what was wet and when it dried. A record kept at the time, in one place, is worth more than a record put together afterwards, and it is the record that turns a loss into a claim that can be followed. General guidance is useful, but it has a limit, and this guide has tried to be clear about where that limit sits. It offers practical guidance about avoiding contact with sewage and floodwater, staying out of flooded buildings, and calling a professional, and it stops there. It does not describe health effects, it does not say what any particular growth or water may do to any particular person, and it does not diagnose anyone, because those are questions for a medical professional, not for a guide about a house. A homeowner with a health concern after a water loss should seek professional guidance of the medical kind, and should do so promptly rather than waiting, because the question belongs to the right person, and the right person is the one who can answer it. The property guidance and the medical guidance are separate, and keeping them separate is what makes each of them useful.

Key Takeaways

The first thing to be clear about is the limit of this guide.
Sewage and floodwater are Category 3 black water, treated as a health hazard.
Standing water in a house should be treated with the same caution, even when it looks like clean water.
Seek professional guidance when the loss involved sewage or floodwater, when the water stood for some time, when growth has appeared after the loss, or when anyone in the household has a health concern connected to the loss.
Keeping a record of a water loss is worth doing from the first hour, because the record is what the restoration and any insurance claim are built on.

Your Next Step

If this guide matches what you found at home, the next step is a visit — not a guess. Call and describe what you found, and the visit is arranged from what you describe. The Water Damage Restoration page explains what that service covers, and the flood damage cleanup page explains how flood water is removed and the rooms are dried.

Do not step in standing water near electrical outlets or appliances while you wait, and if water is still coming in, turn off the shut-off valve for that fixture where you can reach it safely.

Keep the guides on this site bookmarked: the first guide, the signs guide, and the preparation guide cover the checks worth repeating — after moving in, and after bringing used appliances home.

Water damage help is available across Texas. See water damage restoration in May, TX for one local example, or find your town on the service areas page.