Frequently asked questions

Usually within minutes on the phone, and a crew can typically be at the property inside the hour. During a widespread event, such as a hard freeze or a major storm, every crew in the area is dispatched at once and response times stretch. That is why calling early matters more than waiting to see how far the water spreads.

An independent licensed and insured restoration contractor from our local network. We handle the dispatch, they do the work, and they carry their own license and insurance. You pay them for the job and nothing at all to us. We verify licensing and current general liability cover before a contractor joins, and remove any who accumulate unresolved complaints, but we are not a guarantor of anyone's work, so get the scope and price in writing before it starts.

Say so and we will send someone else. There is no obligation at any point, and you are free to go elsewhere entirely.

No. The on site assessment is free and comes in writing before any work starts. If the number is not what you expected, you are under no obligation to go ahead.

Immediately. Extraction started within the first few hours is a drying job. Past roughly 48 hours, mold has begun colonizing drywall paper and carpet backing, and the job becomes remediation. That costs several times more, and it is the point at which insurers start arguing the loss was preventable.

For a small spill on a hard floor, yes. For anything that has soaked carpet, reached drywall or run under flooring, no. Household equipment cannot pull water out of a wall cavity or a subfloor, so the surface looks dry while the material underneath stays wet enough to grow mold. Commercial dehumidifiers remove roughly ten times the moisture per day of a household unit.

The plumbing repair itself is usually $400 to $1,500 depending on access. The larger figure is what the water did. Extraction, drying and reconstruction commonly bring the total to $2,000 to $8,000. A slab leak, or a line that ran unnoticed overnight, sits at the high end or above it.

Three causes dominate. Freezing, where water expands as it turns to ice and splits the line, usually in an unheated garage, crawl space or exterior wall. Corrosion, where galvanized steel rusts from the inside and fails past roughly 50 years. And pressure, where a failed regulator pushing over 80 psi finds the weakest joint in the system.

Generally no. Standard homeowners policies exclude flooding from outside the home. That requires separate flood insurance, usually through the NFIP or a private carrier. Water that originated inside the building, such as a burst pipe, is a different claim and usually is covered. If you are unsure which you had, photograph everything and let the adjuster classify it.

Hard, non porous materials usually clean up fine: tile, concrete, solid wood framing, metal. Porous materials that absorbed contaminated water generally cannot be saved, including carpet and pad, fiberglass insulation, particleboard, upholstered furniture and mattresses. Solid wood furniture and hardwood floors are sometimes salvageable if they are dried quickly.

Yes. Raw wastewater carries E. coli, salmonella, hepatitis A and parasites, and drying sewage aerosolizes pathogens that are then inhaled. Keep people and pets out of the area, do not run the HVAC system, and do not attempt to clean it yourself with household products.

You should not. Beyond the health risk, the IICRC S500 standard requires removal rather than cleaning of porous materials that contacted Category 3 water, and household disinfectants do not achieve the required kill on a porous surface. A do it yourself attempt also tends to void the insurance claim, because carriers require documented professional remediation.

A contained job in a single room typically runs $1,500 to $4,000. Whole house or HVAC contamination runs $10,000 to $30,000. The variables are square footage affected, whether it reached wall cavities or ductwork, and what the moisture repair itself costs.

Colonization begins within 24 to 48 hours on wet organic material such as drywall paper, carpet backing and wood framing, at normal indoor temperatures. That window is the entire reason emergency drying is urgent rather than merely advisable.

A dry historic stain from a leak that was fixed is cosmetic. A ceiling that sags, feels soft or is actively damp is not. Saturated drywall can collapse without warning, and a two foot section carries real weight. Keep people out from under it and get it assessed.

Only if the source is genuinely fixed and the cavity above is dry, and only with a stain blocking primer first. Ordinary paint lets the tannins bleed straight back through within weeks. If you have not confirmed the cavity is dry, painting simply conceals ongoing damage and any mold growing with it.