Securing Your Damaged Building Quickly

12/4/2019 (Permalink)

If your Fairfield County business ever happens to become ablaze, the results can be quite catastrophic. Whenever our SERVPRO technicians work on a commercial fire damage project, the first step is usually boarding up your building. The addition of heat to your shopping center can cause windows to break. Once your shopping center's structure is exposed to the outside more problems can develop.

For example, your commercial fire damage can get much worse when burnt materials get exposed to elements of the outdoors. Moisture coming in from the outside can cause soot residues to soak deeper into your building materials. When the interior of your shopping center is exposed to nature, objects from the outside can ruin your building materials and structural components.  The above reasons are why calling in SERVPRO immediately after something burns is vital.

A board-up is the process in which a structure gets sealed from exposure to the outside to prevent further issues. Whenever we first get to your business, we can seal your structure using durable materials to protect your building from weather or intrusions.  In some, states boarding up your shopping center requires a contractor license; in these situations, we have the option of supervising a subcontractor for the boarding up process.

When boarding up a building, various tools and materials are needed. Covering materials include exterior grade plywood, roofing tarpaulins, and a roll of polyethylene sheeting. Roll insulation may be required, depending on the damage. Miscellaneous nails, screws, bolts, nuts, staples, and furring strips often get used for fastening cover materials. Tools used to erect covering materials usually include hammers, hand saws, power saws, staple guns, power cords, and standard toolbox tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, etc.)

When securing your business, we can utilize a few different options to properly seal openings created by the blaze.  Covering over the opening with plywood by attaching it to the surface around the opening makes installation easy, but provides less security since materials can easily get pulled off. Cutting plywood so that it gets inserted into a hole in your structure offers more protection. Another option includes plywood being bolted to two-by-fours so that the wooden covering is held in place by tension.

SERVPRO of Fairfield County serves businesses in Pickerington, Lancaster, Baltimore, and surrounding cities. Call us at (740) 756-7003 with your property damage needs so we can protect your assets. Our training and experience gives us what we need to make things “Like it never even happened.”