Glossary of Water Damage Restoration Terms

Contractors and insurance adjusters often use technical jargon that can be confusing. This glossary translates the most critical industry terms into plain English so you can understand exactly what is happening in your home.

Water Categories

• Category 1 (Clean Water): Water from a clean source, such as a broken water supply line or overflowing sink with no contaminants.
• Category 2 (Gray Water): Water containing significant contamination that may cause illness, such as discharge from a dishwasher, washing machine, or toilet bowl with urine (no feces).
• Category 3 (Black Water): Highly contaminated water containing pathogenic, toxigenic, or other harmful agents. Examples include sewage backup, flooding from rivers, and standing water with microbial growth.

Water Damage Classes

• Class 1: Least amount of water, absorption, and evaporation. Affects only part of a room with mostly non-porous materials.
• Class 2: Large amount of water and absorption. Affects an entire room of carpet and cushion, with moisture wicking up walls (less than 24 inches).
• Class 3: Greatest amount of water. Water typically comes from above, saturating entire ceilings, walls, insulation, and subfloors.
• Class 4: Specialty drying situations. Water has saturated deep into very low-porosity materials like hardwood, plaster, or concrete, requiring very low specific humidity to dry.

Technical Restoration Terms

• IICRC: Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification. The primary standard-setting body for the restoration industry.
• Psychrometrics: The science of drying; the study of the thermodynamic properties of moist air. Restoration professionals use this to calculate exactly how much dehumidification is needed.
• Moisture Content (MC): The weight of water contained in wood or other material, expressed as a percentage of the weight of the oven-dry material.
• Relative Humidity (RH): The amount of moisture in the air compared to what the air can "hold" at that temperature.
• Containment: Heavy plastic barriers set up under negative air pressure to prevent mold spores or contaminants from spreading to unaffected areas of the house.
• HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air): A type of filter that traps at least 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns in size, essential for capturing mold spores during remediation.
• LGR Dehumidifier: Low Grain Refrigerant dehumidifier. Commercial-grade equipment that pulls much more moisture from the air than standard consumer units.

If you need certified professionals who follow these rigorous IICRC standards, call 1-800-755-8108 to get a fair quote.