ANY water in the basement should make you start thinking about mold FIRST.
We had had a washing machine flood my parents basement a few years back, and we thought (at the time) that the damage wasn't that bad since we were on it right from the start.
We decided to redo that basement as a favor to my mom, and when we pulled down the old crappy paneling that was there, we found mold on the base of the walls.
Well, we pulled out everything but the weight bearing walls (which we bleach-blasted) and rebuilt the basement. We found a crack in the foundation wall which we packed with hydraulic cement and the Dryl-lok'd the entire basement, put up drywall and a new ceiling, and the place looks like a completely new room.
This flood has shown many of us that we aren't as prepared as we would like to believe we are. Hopefully no one lost anything of irreplaceable value.
Now it's time to dry out!
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