Perhaps you're reading this because you or someone you know has been told by a restoration contractor that the water damage to your home or office is "a Category 3 water damage", requiring extensive demolition and expensive and time-consuming remediation. If you are, you aren't alone. Here, in Florida, we deal with storm related water damage events constantly. And, constantly, I witness contractors misclassify the water damage.

Classification of water damage isn't something contractors made up. It is something in the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification's (IICRC) S500, Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration. To summarize, this standard recognized that not all water is the same and some types of water pose a threat to those who contact it while others do not. So, what the standard did was categorize the water by the presence or absence of contamination and the level of contamination. Category 1 is clean water; Category 2 is water that has some contamination and can cause discomfort or sickness if contacted or consumed by humans; while, Category 3 water is grossly contaminated and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic, or other harmful agents.

Well, their contractor told them that this was a Category 3 water damage. Why? Because, they claim, the S500 says wind-driven rain is an example of Category 3 water. Well, let's take a look at what the S500 says:

Examples of Category 3 water can include, but are not limited to: sewage; waste line backflows that originate from beyond the trap regardless of visible content or color; all other forms of contaminated water resulting from flooding from seawater; rising water from rivers or streams; and other contaminated water entering or affecting the indoor environment, such as wind driven rain from hurricanes, tropical storms, or other weather related events if they carry trace levels of contaminants (e.g., pesticides or toxic organic substances).