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Cleaning Your Outdoor Kitchen After A Baton Rouge Flood

[] Aug 18, 2016 12:06:34 PM / by Rick Bucy

Rick Bucy

Adobe_Spark_21.jpgAfter a flood hits your home, there is so much work to do that sometimes it's difficult to know where to begin. The clean-up efforts start the moment the waters recede. Your obvious focus is on removing damaged furniture, carpet, sheetrock and anything else inside your home that has been ruined or could grow mold. But once you get outside, you realize there is plenty of work still to be done. We've compiled a few reminders to make cleaning your outdoor kitchen after a Baton Rouge flood a little easier. 

Open everything up – Just like you would inside your home, you want to open every drawer and cabinet in your outdoor kitchen. From where you keep your utensils to where you store your propane, getting rid of trapped moisture as soon as possible is vital. **An Important Note: Often times during a flood, creatures seek shelter. Don’t be surprised to find a snake or some other animal taking up residence in your outdoor kitchen..**

Do an inventory – Make sure you didn’t lose any parts. While most of what your outdoor cooking equipment was likely attached or tucked away in a drawer, it is possible for a burner cover to have floated away. If this is the case, contact us about a replacement.

Make sure nothing is broken – As you open and close everything, check to make sure that it does so smoothly. Also, check your fuel source. You'll want to be sure there’s nothing wrong with getting propane from the tank to your grill. Check to see if anything is structurally broken in your outdoor kitchen as a whole.

Remove any mud or debris – This is something you don’t want to put off. The longer mud stays inside your outdoor kitchen, the harder it is to remove. Sitting in south Louisiana heat every day, any mud trapped inside will harden--almost as if your outdoor kitchen were a kiln.

Disinfect everything – There’s no telling what kind of bacteria, disease, and microbes may have been floating around in that flood water. This is why you need to disinfect everything. While your food prep areas and the grill itself seem obvious, you also want to disinfect anything your hands will touch, any place where utensils of dishes are stored, or anywhere else that has the potential to make matters worse down the road if it isn’t tended to immediately.

Lay out your charcoal – If you have a charcoal grill or smoker, you don’t necessarily need to throw your charcoal away. Lay it out and allow it to dry before deciding it if is salvageable. Most of the time, lump charcoal will crumble when it gets too wet. Briquettes can usually be dried, but they’re inexpensive enough to replace if you don’t want to go to that effort.

On a normal day, your outdoor kitchen is a place to relax. It's there for you to enjoy and entertain. But after a flood, your outdoor kitchen may actually have to serve as your primary kitchen. If there is any help you need to get it back to grilling shape, don’t hesitate to give us a call.

 

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Rick Bucy

Written by Rick Bucy