What is the Class of Water all about? Its purpose is to estimate how much water will evaporate from wet materials to determine how much dehumidification is needed. If there is more evaporation than dehumidification, it could result in secondary damage as that excess humidity moves into drywall, framing, contents, etc.
Think of it like this: Someone’s digging a hole to install a swimming pool. They don’t have a truck to haul the dirt, so they plan to pile it into the driveway and hire a company to come daily to remove the dirt. If the homeowner puts more dirt on the driveway than the company is capable of hauling away, the dirt will build up and overflow into the flowerbeds, causing damage. It’s important that whatever dirt is dug and piled on the driveway, it’s all removed.
If more water is evaporated from the affected materials than is “hauled away” by our dehumidifiers, it can then move to other areas causing damage.
There are 4 Classes of Water intrusion.
Classes 1, 2 & 3 are based on the porous materials affected such as carpet and drywall, and are calculated by the percentage of the surfaces that are affected by the water damage.
Class 4 is focused on drying dense materials or assemblies, such as hardwood floors, concrete, or gym floors
Once we determine the Class of Water Intrusion, we can use that information in the dehumidifier calculation formulas to determine how much dehumidification would be appropriate initially in our drying chamber.
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