Commercial buildings, like any property, are subject to costly weather-related damage. Depending on the season and location, losses can be caused by tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, and hurricanes. But maybe one of the more common weather disasters is storms. In addition to hail, heavy winds, and lightning strikes, when the rain starts to fall, often times flooding is of biggest concern.

There are very few areas in the world where flooding is not a potential risk. In the United States alone, floods account annually for nearly $6 billion in damage and 140 deaths, according to National Geographic. In some locations, flooding may occur quickly, leaving a wake of destruction in its path. While some floods happen over hours or days, flash floods can happen quite quickly, becoming dangerous in no time.

Commercial Property Flood Prevention Tips

Flooding affects your commercial property from rising river beds, tropical storms, heavy surface rainfall, or excessive rainfall in a short period of time, to name a few. As a property owner or manager, your disaster preparedness plan should address flood concerns. You can’t stop the rain, but you can take efforts to keep your commercial buildings safe from impending damage.

• Assess your property: Inspect your property for areas where flooding could pose a problem. Make any necessary repairs or amendments as needed.

• Pay special attention to basements: If your commercial property has a basement, caulking cracks, patching foundation walls, and installing a sump pump can go a long way toward keeping your building dry.

• Add flood-proofing: If incoming water has been a problem in the past, consider flood-proofing your property. Just as it sounds, flood-proofing provides protection to your building from water-related damage. This includes applying a waterproof coating or covering to you property’s exterior walls to keep flood water from seeping in.

• Improve landscaping: Elevation is your friend when the rain starts to fall. Properly landscape the exterior of your building to allow water to run down and away from the property foundation. Also be sure to relocate downspouts so that water from the roof flows away from the property.

• Clean up: Before a storm moves in, prevent water from backing up into your building by cleaning out gutters, downspouts, as well as roof and perimeter drains.

• Be proactive: The best kind of water damage is no water damage. Don’t wait for a storm to hit before finding out the vulnerabilities of your commercial property. Not sure what risks to look for? Hire a professional to help review and make recommendations for safeguarding your property.

After the Storm

Regardless of the measures you do or do not take, flood-related water damage happens. Recovery may be harrowing, but it’s not impossible. If you’ve been affected by a flood, we’re here to help. Contact us so that together we can restore your commercial property back to its pre-loss condition. 

Commercial Disaster Planning Services 

Our critical planning for disaster recovery helps you to map out emergency response procedures and requirements in advance of incidents. Having a contingency plan in place allows for even quicker damage recovery to your important business assets and also allows for DRS to try finding ways to allow you to maintain operations while we mitigate the loss.

We also offer commercial businesses a Preventive Maintenance Plan that helps secure and recover your property’s specific requirements. Sit down with us today to get started creating your company’s plan to prevent damage in the first place.