Pumping out and drying a building after storm surge or river water has come in, answered around the clock.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Hurricane surge water extraction is the removal of standing water that storm surge leaves inside a building, followed by drying of every floor and wall it reached. In Jacksonville that water can come up the Intracoastal or the northern St. Johns River, so ground-floor rooms and garages take the first damage. Phones are answered 24/7, and a crew is sent as soon as one is free.
In October 2016 Hurricane Matthew pushed water up the Intracoastal Waterway and the northern St. Johns River. The City of Jacksonville's storm updates relayed National Weather Service forecasts of six to nine feet of surge on those waterways and up to three feet downtown, with standing water possibly lasting for days. Forecasts are not measurements, but they explain why surge work in this city is planned around how long the water stays, not only how deep it gets.
Measured figures from the same storm were lower than the forecasts, and the gap matters inside a house. The National Hurricane Center's 10 p.m. update on October 7, 2016 reported three to 4.3 feet of storm surge inundation at the Racy Point, Red Bay Point and I-295 Bridge gauges. A later federal survey summary, as a regional news report described it, says the river reached its highest level on record at Shands Bridge and ran backwards early on October 8. A regional high-water mark is not the water line on your own wall, so a crew measures the building in front of it.
Surge water is not clean. It carries river silt, road grit, fuel and whatever the flood picked up on the way in, and it soaks into the bottom of a wall long before it shows at the baseboard. Extraction removes the free water first, then the wet materials are opened, measured and either dried in place or taken out. Doing those steps in the right order is what keeps a ground floor from turning into a mold job three weeks later.
As soon as it is safe to get in, because standing water keeps soaking into drywall, subfloor and insulation from below. Pumping the free water first and opening the wet base of the walls second is the usual order, and both steps are measured against readings rather than against how the room looks.
Surge water rises through the floor and into the wall cavity from the bottom, which is why a room can look dry at the top while the lowest eighteen inches stay wet. Each hour the water sits, more of it moves into materials that cannot give it back quickly, and the removal list grows. A timely extraction is the single most useful thing that can be done for a surge-damaged floor.
Timing also depends on the water itself. A ground floor that flooded from the river and then the rain drains slowly, since the outside ground stays saturated and feeds water back toward the foundation. The crew will tell you whether pumping alone is likely to do the job or whether the water is still coming up from the ground.
Surge reaches the lowest openings first, and it leaves its load in the rooms with the most loose material and the least airflow. Garages, storage rooms and crawl-space entries usually hold water longest, so they set the pace of the drying.
A garage floor is often a concrete slab that sits close to the outside grade. Water that comes in under a door or through a gap in the wall can pool against the slab edge and wick into the bottom plate of the framing, where it sits out of sight. Boxes, tools, stored paint and old cardboard on the floor add to the wet load and slow the air.
Wall cavities in older houses hold water in a different way. Plaster, lath and wood framing take up moisture slowly and let it go slowly, so a wall can read dry at the surface and still be wet a few inches deep. That is why the crew checks the cavity rather than the paint.
The crew checks power, gas, stairs and structure first, then the water depth, its source and whether it is still rising. Those checks decide what can be pumped safely and in what order, and they are written in the job log before the first pump runs.
Standing water and electricity do not mix. If an outlet, a panel or a cord is in the water, the crew works from a dry route and asks you to leave the circuit off. A gas water heater or furnace that has been underwater is also checked before anyone relights it, because flood water can foul the burner and the controls.
The crew also looks for water that is still coming in. Surge that has eased off may still be seeping through a foundation crack, a door threshold or a utility penetration. Pumping an area that keeps refilling wastes the first hour, so the source is noted and the pump plan changes to match it.
The size of the building matters less than the depth and time of the water, how many rooms and floors it reached, what the floors and walls are made of, and how hard the access is. The price is explained on site and approved by you before work starts, and any change to it is explained before it is made.
Depth and duration come first. A few inches that drained in a day is a different job from a few inches that sat for a week, because the second one has soaked into the framing and the floor covering. The number of rooms, the number of floors and the amount of wet contents are the next largest factors.
Materials matter too. Plaster over lath, solid wood floors and built-in cabinetry take longer to dry and are more often opened than drywall and vinyl. Access to a crawl space, a tight stairwell or a second-floor unit adds time for the crew to carry equipment in. None of these are fixed numbers on this site, because each building has to be seen before a scope is written.
Some of it can, such as opening windows and moving furniture away from walls, but the drying itself needs equipment set to readings, and household fans and a dehumidifier from a hardware store rarely reach the cavities where the water sits. Keep the building ventilated and call for the readings.
Opening the house to outside air is not always helpful in humid North Florida weather. On a muggy day, the outside air can carry more moisture than the house, and opening windows can slow the drying of the wall cavity. A crew checks the outdoor air as part of setting the equipment.
Please do not pull out drywall or pull up flooring yourself to speed things up. Once the surface is open, the moisture map is harder to read, and the photographs you need for an insurance file are lost. Photograph the damage and the tide line, keep the receipts for anything you move, and let the crew open what the readings call for.
Do not wade into moving or deep flood water, and do not switch on a panel, a gas appliance or a generator indoors while the water is up. Keep children and pets out of the wet rooms, since surge water carries silt, fuel and sewage residue from the streets. Do not pull up wet flooring or tear out drywall before the crew has mapped the moisture, because removing too early loses the evidence the drying plan depends on.
Tell the line which floor the water reached, how high it stood and whether it is still rising. If the electrical panel or outlets sit in water, leave the power off and say so, because the crew will work around a dead circuit rather than a live one.
The first walk-through looks at the panel, gas appliances, stairs, and anything the water has moved. Standing water near live equipment is handled before anything is pumped, and the crew notes any sagging ceiling or failing floor joist it finds.
Submersible pumps and wet vacuums remove the standing water, and the crew works from the lowest room upward so the water does not run back into finished space. Carpet and pad that hold water are pulled and removed, since they cannot be dried to a useful standard once they have soaked.
Meters and a thermal camera show where water has wicked into drywall, block and subfloor. Materials that will not reach a dry reading are opened and removed, and the rest are left in place for drying, which keeps the job to the wet part of the wall and not the whole room.
Air movers and dehumidifiers run until the materials reach the dry readings set for the job. Each check is logged with readings and photographs, so you have a dated record of the building before, during and after the water.
Garages, carports and ground-floor storage rooms are usually the first to take surge in this city, because they sit lowest and hold the most loose material. The water often stays in them longest, and the slab edge and the bottom of the framing need as much drying attention as the living space above.
When the water reaches the first-floor living space, the job is structural. Walls are opened low enough to dry the cavity, and kitchen cabinet toe-kicks, appliance plinths and built-in shelving are checked for hidden wetness. The drying plan covers the whole level rather than the rooms with visible water.
Houses built up on piers or block have a void underneath that can fill with river or street water and then hold it. Access is tighter and the moisture stays in the joists and insulation longer, so the crawl space is pumped and dried as its own area with its own readings.
Offices, shops and small restaurants that took surge water need extraction timed around reopening. Equipment is placed to keep the dining or sales floor usable where that is possible, and the scope is agreed before any tenant or owner decision depends on it.
Call any hour and explain what is going on. You get a clear price before any work starts.
Jacksonville's exposure to surge is set by its waterways rather than by its coastline alone. The Intracoastal and the northern St. Johns River both carried Matthew's water inland, so a house can take surge in parts of the city that are a long way from the beach. The crew asks which waterway is nearest to the building before the first pump is set.
The historic neighborhoods of Riverside and Avondale hold many older houses with plaster over lath and wood floors laid over raised foundations. Water in those houses travels through the cavities and under the flooring before it shows, so the drying plan covers the floor framing and the wall bottoms, not only the living room.
Downtown and the ZIP areas along the river, such as 32202 and 32207, hold a mix of older masonry, offices and ground-floor apartments. A ground-floor unit can take surge while the rooms above stay dry, and the neighbors' readings are checked as well, since a shared wall or floor can carry moisture into the next unit.
Removing river silt, drying soaked walls and floors, and cleaning contaminated materials after St. Johns River water.
Extraction and drying after tropical storm rain drives in under doors, through siding and around windows.
Extraction and drying after water from flooded streets and yards runs into garages and ground-floor rooms.
Air movement and dehumidification that dry floors, walls and framing to measured readings in humid North Florida air.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Water damage restoration cost in Jacksonville is set by the scope of the job, not by a published rate.
After St.
Recovery after storm surge or river flooding follows a set order: make the building safe, remove the standing water, clean and disinfect, measure and dry the structure, then repair.
Phones are answered 24/7, and a crew is sent as soon as one is free. During a storm, crews may need to wait for conditions to be safe for entry, and that is decided on the ground rather than promised on the phone. Tell the line what you can see, and it will say what to do in the meantime.
Yes. River and surge water is handled as contaminated water, because it carries silt, fuel and street residue. That changes the protective gear, the cleaning and which porous materials are removed rather than dried. The crew names the category on arrival and explains what it means for the job.
Only the materials that the readings show will not dry to a usable standard. Many walls are opened a few feet from the floor and then dried in place, which saves most of the finished wall. The crew explains each opening before it is made and photographs it first.
It depends on how deep and how long the water sat, the materials, and the weather. Drying is measured in readings rather than in days, and the crew sets a dry goal for each material and checks against it. Older plaster and solid wood usually take longer than drywall and vinyl.
Photograph the tide line, the water depth against a known object, each affected room, the source if you can see it, and any appliance or panel that was in the water. Keep a list of the damaged contents. The crew will also photograph and log the building, and both records help with an insurance file.
Reconstruction is quoted separately once the materials test dry, because nobody can price new drywall or flooring while a wall is still wet. Electrical, plumbing and roof repairs go to licensed trades, and the crew tells you who to call for each one at the start.