Port Charlotte, Florida Water Damage

 The function of air flow in the Port Charlotte drying process

Whether drying a large scale commercial job or drying the walls between a home garage and the living space; air movement and reduced relative humidity are required.

Base trim should be removed to accomplish fast and complete drying of walls in homes. Newer homes also have drywall hung ¾ inch off the floor to provide an air space so that:
 

- In a small Port Charlotte flood the drywall will not wet unless the water wicks through the base trim. When that trim is plastic the drywall is protected from indirect wicking. When the base trim is wood it takes time to wick up to the drywall.

- When drying wet drywall the ¾ inch air space allows fans to circulate dehumidified air to the back side of the drywall for drying.

When there is no opening to get air movement to the back of the drywall or the Port Charlotte wet materials are overhead; an access hole should be cut in the drywall to allow air movement to the back of Port Charlotte wet materials. In situations where the walls cannot be cut, such as tiled walls of faux painting, small holes can be drilled in the wall where they will be covered by the base trim when it is reinstalled. Specialty equipment called “Inject a Dry” uses a manifold fed by air movers and connects to many flexible tubes to push dry air to the back of the Port Charlotte wet material surface.
 

The movement of air across a Port Charlotte wet surface creates a “static” pressure at the material surface. This process speeds up the evaporation process and literally pulls the Port Charlotte moisture out of wet material. The fan or air mover should be placed at a 15 to 45 degree angle from the wall. The faster the air movement across the surface and the dryer the air the faster the evaporation.

Whether drying a single Port Charlotte room or a larger space, a drying envelope must be set up. This is a separation of the Port Charlotte wet areas from dry non affected or outside areas to stabilize and control the temperature and humidity for improved drying conditions. A drying envelope can be as simple as 6 mil poly sealing a door way but it should be a small as possible. The dehumidifier will need to process all the air in the envelope to reduce the humidity. Once the Port Charlotte moisture is pulled out of the wet materials through evaporation into the air the saturated air in the drying envelope is cycled through an LGR (Low Grain Refrigerant) dehumidifier to keep the relative humidity in the drying envelop as low as possible. This LGR dehumidifier can remove up to 62 pints of Port Charlotte water from the air in 24 hours.

The air movers should be set up so that a circular flow of air is produced in the Port Charlotte drying envelope. This “Vortex” of air will maximize the static pressure across the Port Charlotte wet surfaces and accelerate the lifting force at the surface of the wet materials.

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