Colonization begins within 24 hours of flooding when your drying window closes permanently
Mold begins growing within 24 to 48 hours after a flood, but the real risk emerges when you miss the critical drying window—the narrow timeframe in which moisture can still be extracted before secondary damage becomes irreversible. Delay beyond this threshold transforms a manageable water loss into escalation that costs thousands more and compromises structural integrity for years. What happens when you miss the critical window before secondary damage becomes irreversible