What is Applied Structural Drying (ASD)? Applied Structural Drying is using the knowledge and training to find the bound water and create a plan to remove it with minimal or no disruption to the structure. The ASD specialist begins by determining the category and classification of the water loss. On class 1 category two water, the first step is removing the free or easy water from the lost to prevent any further damage. The next step is finding the bound water and creating a plan to eliminate this water by drying the structure back to a pre-loss condition with minimal disruption to the structure. What is free or easy water? It is water that is visible on the floor. What we hear time and time again when we arrive to a water loss is the carpet is the only thing wet; the walls look and feel dry. What the customer doesn’t realize is that there is bound water (trapped) in the structural material.

The ASD specialist has a specially designed instrument to locate and measurer the moisture in the affected materials. When detecting moisture in structural material,

we use a national dry standard. Architectural elements such as Sheetrock are restorable if dried in a reasonable time frame. All architectural materials have different dry standards. When measuring the moisture content in sheetrock, we use a point system. When measuring moisture in wood, we measure in percent. The other part of the equation to drying is controlling the atmosphere during the drying process using specially designed descant dehumidifiers called low grain refrigerants(LGR). LGR lower the atmospheric pressure in the affected area creating dry air so the moisture can be removed from the wet material. This drying process continues, until all materials are at a dry standard, that will not support microbial growth. Next time a water damage loss happens, call the restoration specialist at Executive Water Restoration, dba Executive Carpet Cleaning Inc, at 580-234-4777