Most people focus on their homes when it comes to looking at flooding risks and water damage. Unless you own a business building, you wouldn’t consider the flooding and water damage risk of your commercial property – that’s your landlord’s job, right? Yes, but when you own the commercial property in question, you will soon realize your business is not immune to water damage!
Losses that happen in your business due to water damage can be huge if you’re not aware of how water damage could affect your business. With the right experts working with you in your building, you can be aware of any damage that occurs when you’re not there. You should also think about whether or not your insurance policy covers you for water damage and that it includes nationwide flood protection. If you are looking at your business after a storm or a lot of rain, you may notice that there is flooding in the roof space or the basement. Do you have a plan in place to deal with flood damage? If not, there are stormwater prevention plan companies in houston tx that can help.
You can bring in the experts to check over the Swiftdrain polycast trench drains and make sure that they are working the way that they should, but you also need to know how your business can be affected by the flooding.
Flooding goes so much further than just rainy and stormy days outside. Burst pipes, improper drainage, and clogged sewer systems can also cause floods in your commercial space. Flooding can also be slowly happening in the basement before you even know about it. All of these events can have disastrous consequences for a commercial property owner. With this in mind, if ever you are unlucky enough to be faced with water damage in a commercial property, contacting a team of water damage restoration and cleaning experts such as ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba in Chicago can help you to take immediate action.
Handling a flood in a commercial space is so important – you need to be able to get on top of it and we’ve got some of the ways that your business could be affected by flooding.
- Health and Safety Risks
You are running a business where people are going to be spending time, and water damage risks the health and safety of your staff and your property. You need to consider that water damage can affect the structure of the property, cause electrical dama, it can be a sanitary hazard, drinking water could become contaminated and more. Flood damage can also – in some cases – be the cause of loss of life. Flash floods are a killer and if your commercial business is caught up in one, everyone in your business is going to be at risk.
- Emotional Hardship
It can be very difficult as a business owner to see your hard work literally washed away. If you lose some of your business, you will often experience feelings of depression, sadness and grief as a result. Mental health professionals are often on hand after the devastation of a flood, and this is a direct result of the damage. Business owners need to have the right insurance, as if they don’t, they won’t have a way of coming back with their business and seeing it come back to life again.
- Damage To Property
The most obvious side effect of flooding in your business is the damage to property. 90% of all damage that is related to businesses after a disaster comes from water damage. There are some businesses that will invest in document restoration and carpet restoration, but it’s not always possible. Nothing in your business is immune to the effects of water, especially if the water levels rise both inside and outside the business itself. Even a few inches of water can have a massive impact on your business, so do you have the right insurance to cover you for this? Property damage can be difficult to recover from if you don’t have a contingency plan.
- Financial Losses
What if you do have the insurance policies that you thought you needed, but your particular insurance company doesn’t cover water damage as a result of flooding? You have to ensure that our business has the right insurance for flooding, and you need to ask your landlord about this if you are renting commercial property. It can take years for your community to rebuild after a flood, so not only do you have to handle the financial loss, you have to consider the cost of moving to a new building. If you have lost equipment, you have to check your insurance policy to see if you are covered for equipment and item replacement. You need to have a backup for your finances, otherwise you may find that your business has to close, and that will lose you your livelihood.
Flooding is a serious business-killer. Have you checked your insurance and drainage lately? Check on both and speak to your landlord if you’re renting!
