How Can You Tell if it’s Wet?

It’s pretty easy to spot wet carpet; we don’t even need to touch something that we can see is wet.  Sometimes in the middle of the night you yourself may have even had the unfortunate experience of stepping in a wet spot on the tile or carpet, and you hope it’s just water and not that Ole Rover couldn’t hold it.  It is not a pleasant experience.
Noticing water in carpet or on tile is not too difficult.  This is the water that we refer to as “Dumb Water”.  No, it’s not that we test its intelligence, but it’s that the water doesn’t know any better than to hide if it doesn’t want to be found.  Water that hides?  Yes, this type of water is referred to as “Smart Water”.
Water naturally wants to seek its equilibrium so while some water will soak into the carpet and pad and be easy to find and dry out, other water will travel to hard-to-reach places.  Such places include behind the baseboard, the sill plate, or the drywall.  Many times we can’t see into these hard to reach places and since you and I are made up of approximately 70% water, if we tried to touch drywall that is even 70% wet, it would feel dry.  Therefore, when dealing with “Smart Water” we need a more effective way to KNOW something is wet than just using our hands. 
Sensitive and sophisticated moisture measuring tools are a must for the professional restorer.  A Thermo-Hygrometer is used to check for ambient air temperature, relative humidity, and can actually measure the molecules or gains of moisture in the air, otherwise known as “actual humidity.”  This tool can also be used to check for humidity inside a wall cavity.  Since “Smart Water” likes to hide, this is a useful tool in the investigation and dry out processes.

A non-penetrating moisture meter is essential to helping return your property back to a pre-loss condition. This meter detects moisture on the surfaces and up to 3/4″ deep in drywall, wood, and concrete.  It uses radio wave technology in its detection of moisture.

The next time you encounter a representative of Lamunyon Dry Out & Foundation Repair, ask them for a demonstration of these two pieces of technology that are a big help to the professional restorer in assisting people to get their lives back to normal and their property back to a pre-loss condition.