In the s500 water is described relative to its degree of contamination in 3 categories.
Category 1 2 3 water damage.
This category may include discharged water from the washing machine broken aquariums and leaking water beds.
Time and temperature can also affect the quality of water thereby changing its category.
Category 2 water or grey water that is not promptly removed from the structure and or have remained stagnant may be re classified as category 3 water.
If it is not cleaned quickly it can degrade into category 2 leading to health issues for those inhabiting the structure.
Category 2 gray water gray water presents some degree of contamination whether its chemical biological or physical in nature.
Class 1 is the least amount of water absorption and evaporation.
The 4 primary classifications of water damage.
Category 2 grey water damage water damage from a category 2 classification is from sources that have a level of contaminants that may cause illness or.
This category includes water sources from sewage seawater rising water from rivers or streams storm surge ground surface water or standing water.
Water grossly contaminated with bacteria can be perfectly clear category 3 water formerly referred to as black water is rarely black and category 2 water formerly referred to as gray water might not be gray.
Exposure to this type of water may cause discomfort and sickness.
Flood restoration category 2 water loss.
Once microorganisms become wet from the water intrusion depending upon the length of time that they remain wet and the temperature they can begin to grow in numbers and can change the.
Category 2 water damage could be the result of broken dishwashers or washing machines overflowing toilets with urine only sump pump failures fire protection sprinkler water and chilled or condensate water.
Category 1 or 2 water can deteriorate to 2 or 3 respectively.
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The current standard that addresses water damage restoration is the s500 standard and reference guide for professional water damage restoration s500.
Category 3 black water this is the.
There is a high risk of injury or death to people livestock and pets from flying.
Devastating damage will occur in a category 3 hurricane winds range from 111 to 129 mph.
It affects only part of a room or area or larger areas containing materials that have.
S500 then defines the conditions under which an originally category 1 water damage loss might be considered to have changed its category of water to 2 or 3.
1 in 1994 the iicrc made the decision to eliminate the use of gray and black water references in the professional standard because color based descriptions of the water were not accurate.