During the winter of 2002 a retired couple had been in Florida for five weeks when they received a call from a relative - the heat had gone off, the pipes had frozen and burst, and the house was flooded. It seems the oil company forgot to make its automatic delivery, and the oil had run out.

It took 17 days to dry the house using traditional dehumidifiers and fans - the best that could be done at that time. The carpeting had to be replaced throughout the house, plaster walls had to be torn out and replaced, as well as much of the furnishings and decorations. The total loss was close to $50,000, an amount not unexpected by the insurance adjuster.

Water extraction and drying teams descended on the house like a small army. Within hours the house was thawed and was starting to dry. In less than 3 days the entire house was totally dry. Carpets and pads had been saved and cleaned to look like new, and the plaster walls survived intact. Total cost? Under $35,000.

Same problem, different result.

On Saturday, August 14, 2004, Water Out of Southern New England was called to the site of a two-story, modular home under construction in Wareham, Massachusetts, for a mold inspection. When mold was found on a second floor ceiling, the next step was to find the source of the moisture that was causing the mold growth.

Although the kitchen had already been installed and much of the interior work had been completed, the roofing and siding had not yet been done. The structure appeared to be wet from exposure to humidity from the ocean, and occasional rain.

Testing showed that the moisture content in the walls, ceilings and floors was over 40%. The immediate course of action was to get the structure dried out as soon as possible, to avoid further mold growth.

Two Water-Out® units (one for each floor) were brought in that same afternoon, and the drying process was begun right away.

Outside fresh air was conditioned to less than 2% humidity, heated to just the right temperature and pumped into the building. Inside, axial fans created a vortex effect, to achieve maximum evaporation from walls, ceilings and floors. As the warm, dry air absorbed more and more moisture from the structure, exhaust hoses sucked the heavy, moisture-laden air out of the building directly to the outside. As the process continued - dry air in, wet air out -- a Data Logger measured and recorded the temperature, relative humidity, and dew point within the building, hour by hour, throughout the drying process.

By Wednesday, August 18th, the entire structure was totally dry. The Data Logger provided documentation to prove it, and our Thermal Imaging Camera confirmed that no moisture was left behind. The mold problem was then solved and the builder was assured that the new owner would move into a clean, dry, healthy home.

During the first week of classes at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, the Director of Facilities placed an emergency call to Water-Out. It was 1:45 AM. A student playing Frisbee in the 3rd floor hallway of the dormitory hit a sprinkler head, precipitating the flow of hundreds of gallons of water. The first three floors of the four-story building were drenched.

The Water-Out crew, led by Eric Anderson, was on-scene in less than 30 minutes. They immediately started extracting the standing water from hallways and several study lounges, dorm rooms, lavatories, faculty offices and other affected areas on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Simultaneously, a cleanup crew was removing fallen ceiling tiles and other debris.

By late morning the extraction and cleanup phase was completed, and the drying process was begun. The wet areas were isolated used. Only a handful of students were displaced, and only for one night.

High volume air movers were set up to create a vortex, or mini-cyclone, in each drying chamber. The vortex creates air friction against all of the surfaces in the room, resulting in maximum evaporation from walls, ceilings, floors and furniture, thus promoting faster drying. Several Phoenix 200 Max low grain refrigerant (LGR) dehumidifiers were used in the various drying chambers. The decision to use LGR's rather than a Convectant Drying Trailer was based on the logistics -- multiple, small drying chambers separated by considerable distance, coupled with the need to allow the students to remain in their rooms during the drying process.

The third floor was dried within 2 ½ days. Parts of the 1st and 2nd floors took as long as four days because those areas involved saturated ceiling tiles and wet walls. All of the carpets were saved and restored to a like-new condition, and the disruption to students and staff was minimal.