Flood damage cleanup and water extraction

Treat flood water as contaminated, whatever it looks like. Water that has come in from outside — storm runoff, an overwhelmed street drain, a hillside slide — has crossed roadways and yards on the way, so this is not a mop-and-fan situation; it is extraction, removal of porous material, sanitising, and then drying. Do not walk in it more than you have to, and keep children and pets out entirely.

Show us your project

Record a short video of what's going on. A real person watches it before we call you back within 2 hours, 7am–9pm — so we arrive knowing what we're walking into.

Call (310) 866-8535 Record a video instead

No account, no forms to fill out first. Just your phone camera.

Before we get there

1
Do not enter standing water if the power is still on to that area. Cut the breaker first, and if the panel itself is wet, stay out and call the utility.
2
Wear boots and gloves. Flood water carries sewage, fuel, garden chemicals, and whatever was in the street.
3
Get anything porous up out of the water — rugs, boxes, upholstered furniture, anything paper.
4
Photograph everything, room by room, before removing anything. Include the high-water line on the wall, which is the single most useful image for an adjuster.
5
Do not turn the HVAC on. If the system took water, running it distributes contamination through the whole house.

What we do when we arrive

1
Assess safety first — electrical, structural, and contamination.
2
Extract standing water with truck-mounted equipment.
3
Remove porous material that cannot be decontaminated: carpet and pad, insulation, drywall below the water line, particle board.
4
Clean and sanitise the remaining structure with antimicrobial treatment.
5
Set structural drying equipment and monitor to a documented plan.
6
Verify dryness with meter readings before rebuilding, then reconstruct.

What drives the cost

Nobody can price this honestly without seeing it, and a number quoted sight unseen is a number you pay for later. Here is what actually moves it.

Depth and area: How high the water rose sets how much drywall and insulation comes out; how many rooms it reached sets everything else.
Contamination level: Outside flood water is category three by default, which requires removal and disposal of porous materials that a clean-water job could have dried in place.
How long it stood: Standing time drives both material loss and the likelihood of mold behind the walls.
Whether the HVAC took water: Ductwork and air handlers that flooded need their own cleaning scope, or the house keeps recontaminating itself.
Structural drying complexity: Multi-level, hillside, and crawl-space properties take more equipment and more days than a single flat floorplate.
Rebuild finish: Putting back plain painted drywall is not the same as putting back tile, custom cabinetry, or hardwood.

Insurance

This is the exclusion that catches most people: a standard homeowners policy does not cover flooding from outside the home. Rising water, storm surge, and surface runoff generally require separate flood insurance. What a standard policy usually does cover is water that came from inside — a failed appliance, a burst supply line — and, in many policies, water that entered because a covered peril damaged the building first, such as a storm removing part of the roof. Because the distinction turns on where the water came from, document the source and the entry point carefully, not just the damage.

We document the loss the way adjusters expect it — moisture readings, photographs, scope, and drying logs — and deal with your adjuster directly. General guidance only: your own policy wording decides your claim.

Common questions

Is flood water dangerous even if it looks clean?

Assume yes. Water that has travelled over ground and roadway picks up sewage, fuel, fertiliser, and pesticide, and it does not have to look dirty to carry them. Boots, gloves, no bare skin, and keep children and pets out of the affected rooms.

Can carpet be saved after a flood?

The pad, no — it goes, every time. The carpet itself can occasionally be saved after clean-water damage caught immediately, but after outside flood water the standard is removal and disposal, because you cannot reliably decontaminate the backing.

How long does the whole process take?

Extraction and removal is usually the first day. Structural drying commonly runs several days and is driven by meter readings, not by a calendar — we stop when the material is dry to standard, not when the equipment has been running a set number of days. Reconstruction is a separate timeline after that.

My insurer says flooding is not covered. Is that right?

It may well be, for water that came from outside the house — that generally needs separate flood insurance. It is worth establishing exactly where the water originated before accepting a denial, because water that entered through storm damage to the building is treated differently by many policies than water that simply rose.

What does flood cleanup cost?

Depth, area, contamination category, standing time, and how much has to be rebuilt all move it, so a published number would be meaningless. Send video walking through each affected room and we will give you a real scope.

Where we work

We cover the Greater Los Angeles area within roughly 50 miles — across LA County and into Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside. If you are not sure whether you are in range, call and ask; it is a ten second answer.

Not sure how bad it is?

That is exactly what the video is for. Record what you can see, and we will tell you whether it is an emergency, something that can wait, or something you can handle yourself.