Water damage · A practical guide

Water damage: what to do before anyone arrives

Water is a clock. Material that gets dried quickly can often be saved; the same material left wet usually cannot. Here is what to do in the first hours, what makes it worse, and how the job runs from the first call.

If you read nothing else

01Stop the water at the valve, if you can reach it safely.
02Photograph everything before you move it.
03Do not cut into walls or pull up flooring until it has been assessed.

The first hours, in order

Water spreads faster than it looks. It runs along joists, wicks up into drywall, and pools under flooring where you cannot see it. So the work in the first hour is not really cleanup — it is stopping the source, protecting what can still be saved, and recording what happened while the evidence is still in place.

Stop the water at the source if you can do it safely: the supply valve under the sink or behind the toilet, the valve behind the washing machine, or the main shut-off for the building.
If water is near outlets, a furnace or the electrical panel, shut the power off at the breaker — but only if you can reach the panel without walking through water. If you cannot, leave it and call.
Photograph the room before you touch anything: wide shots, then close-ups of the water line on the wall, the source, and anything damaged. This is the record a claim runs on.
Lift rugs, boxes, cushions and clothing off the wet floor. Wet cardboard and paper are food for mold and should go straight out of the building.
Put aluminum foil or a plastic sheet under the legs of furniture you cannot move. Wet wood will stain a floor within a day.
If it is clean water from a supply line, get air moving: open windows if the weather allows and run a fan. Never blow air across water that came from a drain, a toilet, or outside flooding.
Call your insurer to open a claim, or call us first if you would rather the damage be documented and stabilized before anything is moved. Either order works.

Water showing on a ceiling? A sagging ceiling can be holding a lot of it. Stay out from underneath and call.

What makes it worse

Most of the expensive mistakes happen in the first day, and nearly all of them come from trying to help.

Do not cut out drywall or pull up flooring to let it breathe. A lot of what looks ruined is dryable in place, and opening a wall in an older building can disturb asbestos or lead paint — turning a drying job into an abatement job.
Do not vacuum water that came from a drain, a toilet, or outdoor flooding. That water carries bacteria, and a wet and dry vacuum throws it into the air.
Do not run the furnace or the air conditioning while mold or sewage is involved. It pushes contamination through every room the ducts reach.
Do not turn the heat up to dry it out. Warm, damp, still air is exactly what mold wants. Moving air and dehumidification dry a building; heat on its own does not.
Do not trust a carpet that feels dry on top. The pad and the subfloor underneath hold water long after the surface is dry to the touch.
Do not throw anything away before it has been photographed and listed. Insurers pay for documented contents, not for a pile at the curb.

Where the water hides

By the time water shows on a ceiling, it has usually been traveling for a while. It follows the easiest path: along the top of a ceiling, down inside a wall cavity, under laminate or tile, behind baseboards, and into the insulation that sits against the sheathing.

That is why a water job is measured rather than eyeballed. Moisture meters and thermal imaging show the wet areas that look and feel dry, and the same readings at the end are what prove the building is actually dry. Both are also what an adjuster asks for.

It is also why the source matters as much as the puddle. A supply line that failed under pressure can soak a room in minutes. A slow leak behind a cabinet can run for months and show up only as a smell or a stain — and by then there is usually growth along with the water.

If you cannot find where the water came from, say so when you call. Finding the source is part of the job, not an upsell.

What insurance usually covers, and what it often does not

Homeowners and commercial property policies differ, and the wording decides the answer. This is the general shape of it in Illinois. Read your own policy, or ask your adjuster to point at the language.

Usually covered

Sudden and accidental discharge from plumbing: a burst or frozen pipe, a failed supply line, an overflowing appliance, a water heater that let go.
Water that entered through an opening the weather made — rain driven through a storm-damaged roof or a broken window.
Opening up and drying what has to be reached to get the water out, when that work is part of the covered loss.
Contents damaged by the covered event, usually on a replacement-cost basis if that is what the policy says.
The cost of stopping the damage from getting worse. Most policies require you to do that, so extraction and drying are part of the claim rather than on top of it.

Often not covered

Gradual seepage and long-running leaks, on the basis that the damage built up over time and could have been found.
Groundwater and surface flooding — a sump that could not keep up, water through a basement door. Flood cover is a separate policy, through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private carrier.
Sewer or drain backup, unless a specific endorsement was bought. It is usually inexpensive and often left off.
Damage the insurer frames as maintenance: worn supply lines, a roof past its life, a failed sump pump, an unheated vacant building in winter.
Mold that grew from a leak nobody fixed. Mold from a covered, sudden loss is often covered, but almost always under a sublimit.

A claim is decided on cause, so document the cause. And drying is not money spent on top of the claim — it is the part of the claim that keeps the rest of the bill down.

Do it yourself, or call us

Some of this you can genuinely handle. The line is usually about how long the water has been there, what it touched, and whether anyone else is going to pay for it.

You can handle this

A small spill from a clean supply line that you can dry within a day with towels, a fan and open air.
A single wet rug, or a load of laundry.
Condensation on pipes and windows, which is a ventilation problem before it is a water problem.

Call instead

Water has been sitting for a day or more, or you cannot tell how long.
It reached drywall, insulation, subfloor, cabinetry or a ceiling.
The water came from a drain, a toilet or outside. That is contaminated water, and the materials it touched usually cannot be saved.
There is a smell, a sagging ceiling, or a stain that keeps coming back.
The building went up before 1980 and anything has to be opened.
You are filing a claim and need readings, photos and a written scope.
More than one room, more than one unit, or a building you do not live in.

(877) 923-8883

What happens from the first call

The job, in order, so there are no surprises in your hallway.

01
You call and describe it
Where the water is, what the source was, how long it has been there, and what it has touched. We tell you what to do before we arrive — including whether to shut something off.
02
We assess and scope it
Moisture readings, thermal imaging, and a look inside anything that has to be opened. You get a written scope: what is wet, what can be dried, what has to come out, and why.
03
We make it safe and extract
Standing water out, material that cannot be saved removed, containment set if the water was contaminated. Photographed as we go.
04
We dry it
Air movers and dehumidifiers placed to a drying plan, with cavity drying where water is inside a wall. Readings recorded each day rather than guessed.
05
We verify, then hand it over
The building is compared against a dry standard taken from a part of it that was never wet. When it meets that, we walk it with you and hand over the readings, photos and report your insurer asked for.