An alarm at 2:30 in the morning, a water heater that's let go, a floor you can hear squelch. The first job is getting the water out. The second, longer job is getting it out of everything it soaked into.
Call (206) 813-0805Stop the water if you can do it safely. For a water heater, the cold supply valve on top of the tank; for anything else, the main shut-off. If the water is near outlets, cords or the panel, stay out of that room.
Lift what you can off the floor — rugs, cushions, boxes, anything on a bottom shelf. Put foil or plastic under furniture legs. Take photos before you move much.
Then call. Water keeps travelling into subfloor, wall cavities and insulation for as long as it's standing.
| Equipment | What it does | Stays |
|---|---|---|
| Submersible pump | Takes out deep standing water — a flooded basement or crawl space | Hours |
| Extractor | Pulls water out of carpet, pad and hard floors. Far more than a wet-vac | Hours |
| Moisture meter and thermal camera | Finds where the water went — under flooring, behind drywall, into the next room | Every visit |
| Air movers | Push air across wet surfaces so they give up their water | Days |
| Dehumidifiers | Take that water out of the air. Without them, fans just move damp air around | Days |
| Cavity drying | Pushes dry air into wall cavities and under cabinets through small holes, sometimes saving walls that would otherwise come out | Days, when used |
A restoration crew brings equipment for the job it finds. Not every item turns up every time.
Extraction is fast. Drying isn't. Wood, drywall and concrete hold water inside them, and they give it up slowly — usually over three to five days, longer for hardwood floors, plaster or a soaked subfloor.
A floor that looks dry can still be wet underneath. That's why the equipment stays until moisture readings are back to normal, not until the surface feels dry. Pull it early and what's left behind is where mold starts — in a wet Puget Sound winter, it doesn't take long.
If the water came from a drain, a toilet or outside, it's a different job: contaminated materials come out before drying starts. That's sewage cleanup, not extraction alone.
Once everything's dry, it's worth knowing where water on your lot is supposed to go. The City of Burien publishes an interactive stormwater map showing public and private drainage, with parcel and topography layers. In Burien, the private part — downspout drains, driveway drains, pipes on your land up to the city's system — is the owner's to maintain.
Yes — the line is answered any hour, including nights, weekends and holidays. How soon a crew can get to you depends on what the local restoration company has on at the time. They'll tell you on the call, before anything is agreed.
The cold water valve on the pipe going into the top of the tank stops the flow. If you can't reach it or it won't turn, shut off the main. Then turn off the heater itself — the breaker for an electric tank, or set a gas tank's control to off. Don't touch anything electrical while standing in water.
Often, yes. A concrete floor dries on its own, but the drywall along the bottom of the walls wicks water upward, and anything stored on the floor sits in it. If the garage shares a wall with the house, check the other side of that wall too.
It gets the surface. It doesn't get what soaked into the pad under the carpet, the subfloor, or the bottom of the drywall — and that's what grows mold. A moisture meter will show whether it's actually dry.
Call (206) 813-0805. The sooner it's out, the less comes out with it.