Choosing a water damage restoration company is something that you often have to do in a hurry. The faster you make your choice, the sooner the team can get into place and start salvaging your home or office. That doesn’t mean you should randomly pick a water damage restoration team and just go with it. You still need to do your due diligence.

It’s important that you pick a service that specializes in water damage restoration, not some random handyman or carpet cleaning company who may lack the expertise needed to fully treat the flood damage and may leave you with a mold problem well after the fact.

You should contact a local expert or two and see what type of services they offer. Not all restoration companies offer the same services. Also, get a list of references and contact them. This is the only way you can determine if the company can do what they say they can do. Yelp is a good resource to check for other people’s stories about how well the company works and how professional they are. The most important thing is that you get a professionally trained service take care of your flood damage.

In addition to the references, get estimates from your top two or three services. Don’t always go with the cheapest estimate – that company may have to charge less because of their lower quality service. Take this as just one more factor that will help you determine the correct service for you.

Don’t take too long to determine which service to go with. If there is significant water damage it will only get worse the longer it sits. You need to get a company in there to start working right away. Mold can start growing in a little as 2 hours from the onset of the flood. Structural damage gets worse for up to two days as wooden beams absorb water and lose their structural integrity.