Here is a quick checklist of what YOU need to do if you see unexpected water in your home:

If You See Water: ACT QUICKLY

One of the most expensive and damaging things that can happen to a home are because of WATER.

Here is what you need to know:

  1. Shut off water so there is no further leaking or accumulation (this may be under the sink, behind the toilet, at the hot water heater, the main shut off or calling the utility company to SHUT water OFF).
  2. Pull up ALL the water. This means soaking it up with towels and putting the towels outside, or renting a wet vacuum from the grocery store to pull up all the water. This is CRUCIAL. Water that sits causes damage. You may have to call a carpet cleaning company to pull up the water.
  3. If there has been a lot of water, once you have ALL the water sucked up and disposed of, then you need to lift the carpet and the pad.
  4. If the pad is saturated you have to throw it away…just the part that is wet. You can have new pad put in its place once it dries.
  5. You want to lift the carpet and get fans going to circulate air and get everything good and dry.
  6. If walls are soft or baseboard and do not dry they may need replacing, if they do dry out and are still firm they should be fine.
  7. Once dry it is a good idea to wipe with a bleach solution to avoid any mold. Once this dries then kilz ( a type of sealing paint) the areas so that it protects the area.
  8. Then you can have the carpet enzyme treated and relay the carpet.


Cost to do all this is about $250 If you wait and damage occurs from letting water settle it will cost you up to $1000