Whom To Contact In The Case Of Water Damage?

Imagine sitting in a comfy chair by a TV watching as your favorite Los Angeles Rams team scores.

Suddenly, it’s a feeling of a drop of water landing on one’s head. You look up & see an ugly water stain on the ceiling, quickly getting bigger and dripping heavier. What to do? Whom to call? Of course, contact water damage restoration services in California! 

What are the first signs of water damage? 

Before the water damage 24/7 emergency service arrives at the spot, it is necessary to perform such initial steps: 

1. Inspect the signs of water damage. Where is it located? Where the water comes from? How bad is it? What causes it? 
2. Define whether it is feasible to stop the reason for the water leak on one’s own. Depending on the kind of water damage, some reasons for the leakage are stoppable with one’s own hands while others are not. Those an unprofessional person can control and stop (if not eliminate completely) fast are leaking household appliances (including HVAC) and forgotten open taps. Most of the other issues are beyond one’s direct control at the moment and would require calling a specialist from a proper service:  

• Leaking roof/walls/attic/crawl space/foundation due to structural damage or oldness
• Plumbing problems, including rusty pipes 
• Natural disasters, causing flood. 

A type of company needed in these cases is a roofer, a siding company, a window company, a plumber, an HVAC repair service, or their combination. 

After the place is inspected and the reason is found, stop the water leak (if possible) and contact the necessary water damage restoration services. Remember to act promptly because the more water leak is happening and the more one waits, the bigger problems there will be. 

How bad is water damage to a house? 

How long the water damage has been acting before being found is a very serious issue for the structural wholeness of the house. For instance, one might have spotted the drywall’s wet spot for the first time but it had been eroding from the inside due to pipe leakage for years.  

We must disappoint our readers here: most water leak occasions are not immediately fully estimated before disassembling a part of the leaking spot by an expert. A small foot-large wet stain on a wall may be a result of severe water damage to the roof, for instance, where the water has been entering for who knows how long during every single rain. Or a neighbor from the top floor might have caused the flood for the first time ever but it might have done very serious damage. Alternatively, an air conditioner might have only cried with a few drops of water and that’s it. The severity of the situation can be only professionally estimated by an invited water damage restoration expert. 

1. In the case of a flood from the above neighbor (in an apartment house), there might be water damage to the ceiling, walls & floor. Anything standing on the water way might get soaked wet, too, including furniture, carpets, apparel, household appliances, electronics, etc. 
2. A natural disaster like a flood may bring inches or feet of water inside a house, breaking the doors, windows, roof, walls & debris flowing in murky water. House destructions that bring water damage may also be caused by a hurricane, tornado, fallen tree, overflowing river, lightning… In each case, house damages are highly individual and must be estimated on the spot.  

Is water damage covered by insurance?

Typically, in the overwhelming part of households and rented units, restoration services are a part of insurance coverage. That’s especially the case in the regions with frequent natural floods. In many-story houses, landlords are typically legally forced to include water damage repair insurance in the lease contract. Also, it is in their financial interests to have such repair costs covered.  

To apply for insurance in the case of water damage, one has to follow such simple steps: 

1. After spotting water in the wall, in the ceiling, or in any other place in an apartment or house, contact a repair contractor immediately. It would be great to have their number in one’s notebook just in case. 
2. In the case of renting the place, the first thing to do is contact the landlord or a person on site who is responsible for repairs. They already collaborate with reliable contractors and will contact them on thine behalf.  
3. After a contractor comes to the place, they must estimate the damage and take pictures, make a description of it on paper & agree on the list of necessary repair work. An official paper is then prepared, which is passed to an insurance company. The urgency of the repairs is usually defined after the assessment by a contractor. In heavy and urgent cases, repairs are to be started ASAP while in other cases, they might begin no earlier as the response from the insurance company is received. 
4. After, depending on the insurance contract and the applicable scheme, a homeowner receives compensation either to their own bank account or to the account of the company that provides repair services, or to the account of the landlord. If the damage includes neighbors (they brought damage to you or you brought it to them), then the scheme complicates to include their insurance company. 

How much does water damage repair cost?

The water damage restoration cost is subject to various factors, including: 

• volume of damages
• urgency of repairs 
• kind of damages (walls, pipes, floor, bearing constructions of a house) and their combinations 
• the need for auxiliary works (mold elimination, artificial drying, associated renovation of the premises, wall painting, changing the household appliances and HVAC system, etc.) 
• what is the coverage by the insurance company? 

Contact us right now to receive the best free quote. Our specialist will come to the place fast to assess the damages and come up with the final cost of the repairs. The repairs and renovation are to be planned based on the urgency of the situation and other factors, such as the need to involve a landlord, insurance company, temporary hotel room provision, etc.