Emergency Water Damage Restoration
This is the call for water that's coming in right now. We get a local specialist on the way to stop the source, pull the water out and start drying the same day.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163Water in the house? Call now, and we'll find you a local specialist.
Maybe a pipe let go, maybe the storm found a way in. Either way, you don't have to sort this out alone. Call us from Cherryvale, Kansas, and we'll put you in touch with a restoration specialist from our network, with truck-mounted extraction and dehumidifiers for the drying that follows.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163Someone picks up, day or night.
Homes around Cherryvale are older than in 86% of the 28,807 places we track. That usually means more joints, more repairs and more places for water to get out.
Around 51% of the 30,291 places we track get more than this. A normal year here brings enough water to find any weak spot in a roof or along a foundation wall.
A look at the roof, gutters and downspouts before May is the cheapest repair you'll ever make.
Severe storms come first here. If one has been through lately, it's worth a look in the attic, even if your ceilings look fine. That leaves out 5 for causes such as fire or the pandemic.
Before anyone arrives
These are the steps that help most before anyone gets there. Do what you safely can.
Look for the main valve near the meter or where the line comes into the house, and turn it slowly, since older valves can stick. If it's one fixture, its own shutoff valve will do.
If you can reach the breaker panel without stepping in water, switch off the wet rooms. If you can't, leave it alone, stay out of the water and tell us when you call.
Before you clean up, photograph the water, where it came from and whatever it damaged. Your insurance company will ask, and you only get one chance at those shots.
Move rugs, papers, photos and electronics to a dry room, and prop furniture up off the wet floor. Everything else can wait.
If the water is clean and the power's safe, open interior doors and run the fans you have. Stay out if it's sewage or floodwater, and keep that air away from the rest of the house.
You've got about 24 to 48 hours to start drying before rot and mold become the bigger problem.
Typical build year
By now, most homes from this era have had some plumbing replaced, and the leftover sections are usually the risk. Look for gray galvanized pipe next to newer copper or plastic, because those joints can corrode. If you've had a few sewer backups, the old line itself may be the cause.
It's also worth replacing rubber washing machine hoses with braided steel. It's a ten-minute job, and those hoses cause a surprising number of flooded laundry rooms.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
This is the call for water that's coming in right now. We get a local specialist on the way to stop the source, pull the water out and start drying the same day.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
The more water that comes out at this stage, the less has to be dried later. Pumps and extraction units clear carpet, pad, hardwood and tile, then everything the water touched gets cleaned.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
Floodwater is never clean. It carries soil and sewage, so mud and silt get cleared, soaked drywall and insulation get cut out, and what stays gets disinfected.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
If your home has a basement, a failed sump pump or a backed-up drain can fill it fast. It gets pumped out, the concrete and block get dried, and someone finds out how the water got in.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
Air movers and dehumidifiers run until the meters say your walls, subfloor and framing are back to normal. Not until they look dry. Until the readings prove it.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163
Once the structure is dry, the drywall, flooring, trim and paint go back. You'll have photos and notes for your claim along the way.
Call Now: (888) 596-0163The southern plains
Spring storms here don't mess around. Hail cracks shingles and skylights, and the rain can come faster than the gutters can take it. You might not see the leak until days later, on a ceiling two rooms away from the actual damage. A hard freeze is rarer, but when one lasts a day or two it splits pipes that were never protected for it.
Houses here were built with the heat in mind more than the water. Carpet over concrete wicks up a leak fast. HVAC units and water heaters often sit in the attic, right over your living room. And if your home's on a slab, a leak underneath may only show as damp carpet along one wall, or as baseboards starting to swell.
The soil doesn't help much. Dense clay and flat lots keep water sitting after a storm, and grading that once sent water away from your house can settle over time. If your gutters empty right against the foundation, that's the first thing to fix.
A leak under a slab needs its own approach. Specialists use acoustic listening equipment and thermal imaging to find the break without jackhammering the whole floor, and then dry the flooring and the bottom of the walls around it.
When you call
We'll ask where you are, what happened and whether the water's still running. That takes a couple of minutes. Then we'll connect you with a specialist from our network who works in Montgomery County, and you can ask them when they can be there before you hang up. Homes and commercial buildings are both fine.
Water travels through walls without leaving a mark, so the first step is measuring, not mopping. A thermal camera and moisture meters map the wet area. Next comes the question of what's in the water. Category 1 is clean supply water. Category 2 has been in contact with something, like a dishwasher overflow. Category 3 is sewage or floodwater, and it calls for containment: plastic sheeting, plus negative air machines with HEPA filters, so nothing spreads through the house.
Getting the water out is the quick part. A truck-mounted or portable extractor handles that. After that, air movers sweep across wet surfaces, and low grain refrigerant (LGR) dehumidifiers take that moisture out of the room. In cold or dense spaces, desiccant dehumidifiers work better. You'll hear the machines day and night for a while, and daily psychrometric readings of the air show that they're working.
The finish line isn't when things look dry. Readings from dry wood and drywall in your own house set the target, called the dry standard, and the equipment stays until the wet areas reach it. That's the IICRC S500 standard for water damage at work, and those daily records are what your insurance company wants to see.
More than you'd think, if it's caught early. Carpet soaked with clean water can often be dried in place once the pad's been pulled. Hardwood is worth trying to save too, with floor drying mats and slow drying, though it may need refinishing. Drywall that's wet only at the base can be cut a little above the waterline instead of being replaced to the ceiling, which is what a flood cut is.
Things change when the water's dirty. Anything soft that sewage or floodwater reached, such as carpet, pad and insulation, gets thrown out. Hard surfaces get cleaned and treated. Have a professional look at any gas appliance that got wet before you turn it back on, and don't walk on a floor that's gone spongy.
We take calls from all over Cherryvale and the rest of Montgomery County, for houses, apartments and commercial buildings. If you're not sure you're close enough, just ask.
In most cases you'll have someone on the way that day. You can ask for a time when you're connected with the specialist. It may take longer after a storm, when much of Cherryvale needs help at once.
If it's small, clean and caught quickly, go ahead. If it has been sitting, has gone under the floor or smells bad, that's the time to call. The trouble with doing it yourself is that everything can look dry on top and still be wet underneath.
A small leak that's caught early may dry in two or three days. A flooded room with wet subfloor and insulation can take a week or more, and repairs start after that.
Usually, with clean water and a fast start. Drying mats sit on hardwood and draw the moisture out slowly so the boards don't split. Sanding and refinishing can fix any cupping that's left. Carpet needs a new pad, and it can't be saved at all after sewage or floodwater.
Many water losses are covered, so it's worth checking. The usual line is sudden versus gradual: a burst supply line is generally covered, and a slow drip often isn't. Flood damage needs a separate flood policy, and a sewer backup may need an extra rider.
Tell us what's happening, and we'll line up a specialist from our network in Montgomery County. That's all you need to do for now.