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Water Damage Restoration Checklist for NJ Homeowners
A checklist is a small thing, but in the middle of a water loss it is worth more than a long guide. When water is on the floor, the mind goes blank, and the steps that seemed obvious an hour ago are hard to remember. A short list, in the right order, is what gets you through the first hour, and the first hour is what shapes everything that follows.
- ✓ Written for New Jersey homeowners
- ✓ Visit first, then a plan
- ✓ Call to arrange a visit
This checklist covers water damage restoration for New Jersey homeowners, in general terms, from safety first through to drying, cleaning, and repair. It is a general checklist, and the scope of any specific job is for the operator to confirm, but the order is steady, and the order is what the checklist is for.
Safety first
The first items on the checklist are about safety, and they come before anything else. Stay out of floodwater, and do not enter a flooded building. Do not touch switches, outlets, or appliances that are in or near standing water, and do not handle electrics in or near water. If water is near the electrics, stay out and call for help from a dry place. If the water may be contaminated, from a toilet overflow, a sewage backup, or a flood, avoid contact and do not try to clean it up yourself. If someone is at risk, or there is a smell of gas, call 911.
Safety is not a step that can be skipped to save time, because the time it saves is not worth the risk it creates. Check that everyone in the house is safe, and that children and pets are out of the wet area, before you do anything else. The flood damage cleanup page covers what professionals do once a flooded house is safe to enter.
Stop the water if it is safe
The next item is to stop the water at its source, if you safely can. Find the main water shut-off and turn it off, but only if you can reach it from a dry place. If the shut-off is under water, or you would have to wade to reach it, do not go. If the water is coming from outside, from rain or rising water, there is no valve to turn, and the job is to get to a dry place and wait for the water to recede. If the water is coming from a single fixture, the valve for that fixture may stop it without shutting off the whole house.
Once the water is stopped, the damage stops getting worse, and the rest of the checklist can begin. Do not turn the water back on until the cause of the leak has been found and dealt with, because turning it back on will start the leak again. The emergency water removal page covers the first stage of the professional response, which is taking the standing water out of the house.
Document the damage
The next item is to document the damage, before anything is moved or cleaned. Take photos and short videos of every wet room from the doorway, so the full extent shows, and photograph the water line on the walls, the wet floors, and any damaged belongings. Write down when you first noticed the water, where you think it came from, and which rooms are affected. Keep the photos backed up somewhere safe, and keep a written list of what was damaged in each room.
Do not throw anything away until you have photographed it. A damaged rug, a soaked box of books, or a ruined piece of furniture may look like rubbish, but until it is documented, the loss is hard to describe. Homeowners in Somerset and across the state who document carefully find the insurance process far less painful than those who start cleaning first and photograph later.
Call a professional
The next item is to call a water damage restoration professional. Describe what happened, where the water is, what kind of water it is, clean, grey, or contaminated, and whether the power is on. Have your notes and photos ready, and say whether the loss involves sewage or floodwater, because that changes how the visit is prepared for. If you rent, tell the landlord or property manager as well, promptly and in writing, alongside the call to the restoration professional.
The visit starts with an inspection, then water removal, then drying, and the order matters. The water damage restoration page describes what a professional visit covers, from inspection through to repair. The call is the start of the recovery, and a clear description makes the start faster.
Drying, cleaning, and repair
The last items on the checklist are the stages that follow the visit: drying, cleaning, and repair, in that order. Drying uses air movement and dehumidification, and it is checked with moisture readings during follow-up visits, until the readings show the structure is dry through. Cleaning covers the surfaces the water touched, and the approach depends on what the water was. Repair covers the floors, walls, and ceilings that were damaged, and it waits until the drying is finished, because a repair done over damp structure is a repair that will need doing again.
Keep every record from the restoration, the photos you took, the notes from each visit, and the moisture readings, in one place. They are useful for insurance, and they are useful if a problem appears later and you need to show what was done. A checklist is a small thing, but it is the difference between a water loss that is handled in order and one that is handled in a panic, and the order is what puts the house right.
Keeping the checklist where you can find it
A checklist is only useful if you can find it when you need it, and a water damage checklist is needed at the worst possible time, when water is on the floor and the mind has gone blank. Keep the checklist where you can find it in a hurry: on the fridge, in a kitchen drawer, or on your phone, in a note that you can open without searching. Tell everyone in the household where it is, and what it says, so anyone can follow it, not just the person who wrote it. A checklist that only one person knows about is a checklist that is useless when that person is away, and a checklist that is hidden in a drawer is a checklist that will not be found when it is needed.
The checklist in this guide is short, and it is in the right order: safety first, stop the water if it is safe, document the damage, call a professional, and then drying, cleaning, and repair. Those five steps are the whole of the recovery, in outline, and they are worth knowing by heart, not just by reading. Read the checklist now, while the house is dry, and keep it where you can find it. The next time water appears where it should not be, you will be glad you did, because the first hour is the hour that shapes everything that follows, and a checklist is what gets you through it.
Key Takeaways
- The first items on the checklist are about safety, and they come before anything else.
- The next item is to stop the water at its source, if you safely can.
- The next item is to document the damage, before anything is moved or cleaned.
- The next item is to call a water damage restoration professional.
- The last items on the checklist are the stages that follow the visit: drying, cleaning, and repair, in that order.
- A checklist is only useful if you can find it when you need it, and a water damage checklist is needed at the worst possible time, when water is on the floor and the mind has gone blank.
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 structural drying page explains how drying works after the water is removed.
Do not enter a flooded room, do not touch electrics in or near standing water, and do not try to clean up sewage yourself — sewage is Category 3 black water and a health hazard.
Keep the guides on this site bookmarked: the first guide, the signs guide, and the preparation guide cover the checks worth repeating — after a leak, a flood, or a burst pipe.
Water Damage Restoration help is available across New Jersey. See water-damage-restoration in Hammonton, NJ for one local example, or find your town on the service areas page.
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