Avoiding Secondary Damage

It is avoidable!

Secondary damage is the damage that occurs after a fire or water damage incident. This damage can be prevented if action is taken promptly. Richfords first task is always to reduce secondary damage. Secondary damage increases the cost of claims.

The cost of any incident can increase significantly if secondary damage continues to occur and preventative action is not taken.

Examples of damage are corrosion and staining caused by acid fire residues and swelling of wood and mould growth from water.

To reduce secondary damage.

Our Quick Response vehicles are ready at all times to respond to your call for assistance.

We are able to quickly remove laying water, reduce the humidity and prevent secondary water damage. If your customer has black water flooding (unsanitary water), we ensure that the property is
thoroughly cleaned and sanitised.

The Science of Drying

Drying needs energy. Water, as it evaporates, absorbs heat, cooling the material it evaporates from.

Two important points to remember are that evaporation inevitably cools the material that loses the water and that the rate of evaporation reduces as the temperature falls. In a laboratory it is possible to evaporate water so quickly from a brick that the water still contained in it freezes and evaporation comes to a virtual halt until the brick warms up again. It is not uncommon on walking into a recently finished new building to find that it is noticeably cooler than the air outside. This is the result of the materials drying out.

The heat energy taken to evaporate five litres of water is at least 3.6kW for one hour.

Richfords are equipped with new super heating dehumidifiers which can rapidly dry out buildings by replacing the heat loss through evaporation.