Flood cleanup in Burien for single-level houses, crawl spaces and small commercial units along the Puget Sound bluff, from the Seahurst shoreline across to the Miller Creek side. We pump the water out, remove only the material the readings condemn and log the drying every day.
Flood cleanup in Burien means pumping out the water that got into the building, stripping the soaked material that cannot be cleaned, disinfecting the surfaces that stay and drying the structure on daily readings. Houses here are old and low, so most of our work happens at floor level and underneath it.
The bluff lots above Seahurst Park and the Sound
Burien drops to Puget Sound across a bluff, and the water coming down it feeds Miller Creek and Salmon Creek on its way out. On a lot cut into that slope the storm water arrives sideways, against a foundation wall or a garage threshold, which is a different problem from a river coming up through a floor.
Every address, November through January
NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for the nearest station, Seattle-Tacoma International, record November as the wettest month with 6.31 inches of precipitation, then January with 5.78 and December with 5.72. Ground that never gets a chance to dry between those storms pushes the next one straight into whatever sits lowest on the lot.
Side yards, driveways and garage slabs
Burien lots drain through yard inlets and downspout lines that fill with fir needles and leaf litter through the autumn. Once one of them backs up in a long rain, the water stands against the house and works in under the sill plate and the garage door, and it keeps rising while the rain lasts.
Under the floor of the older ramblers
Most of the water we chase in Burien ends up under the floor, where nobody sees it until the smell reaches the house. We pump the standing water off the ground, lift out the soaked insulation and the vapor barrier and dry the joists and subfloor from beneath.
What we do on a Burien call, in order. A written scope with the price on it reaches you before a saw touches the building, and choosing a flood cleanup company explains what else to ask; the Kent, WA flood cleanup page sets out the whole sequence.
A submersible pump handles whatever stands deep under the floor or in a sunken room, then wet vacuums and extraction heads pull what is left out of carpet, pad and the slab. Nothing we set up afterwards works while free water is still sitting there.
Once the crawl space is pumped and the wet insulation is out, we run air movers and commercial dehumidifiers under the floor and read the joists, the subfloor and the room above every day. Those numbers go in a log and the log is yours at the end.
Creek, street and sewer water sits in the worst of the three water grades the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard sets, and the EPA's advice is to call in someone who works on contaminated-water losses. We contain the area, wash down and disinfect every hard surface and take out the porous material the EPA warns may not be salvageable.
Burien has the oldest housing stock in our service area, and that changes the order of work before a wall or a floor comes up.
The Census Bureau's 2019-2023 American Community Survey puts Burien's median year of construction at 1965, against 1985 in Kent and 1989 in Renton. Half the housing stock is older than that date, so materials from the asbestos era, floor tile and sheet-flooring mastic among them, can sit inside the wet zone on an ordinary job.
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency rules require a summary of the asbestos survey result to be posted at the work site, or given in writing to everyone who may come into contact with the material. The same rules require a survey before any demolition, with no owner-occupied exemption, so a structure being taken down is treated more strictly than one being patched.
Land use, building and construction permits for a Burien address are taken in, reviewed, tracked and issued by the City of Burien Permit Center. We document what came out and why, so whoever puts the house back has the record the counter asks for.
Tell us where the water is, whether it has stopped, and whether the power is off in the wet area.
Call (253) 555-0100We cover every Burien ZIP, from 98146 on the Sound side across to 98168, and the cities either side of the city line.
Next door, miles from Burien
Seattle permits run through the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections, a separate counter from Burien's, and flood crews in Seattle work to it.
Renton's water comes partly from Soos Creek Water & Sewer District, which means flood cleanup in Renton, WA starts with a different utility call than a Burien job does.
Federal Way shares Highline Water District with Burien, and Federal Way flood cleanup runs the same bluff-runoff pattern further south.
Tacoma sits in a different county with its own permit department, which is why water removal in Tacoma has its own page.
Four questions Burien callers ask us.
It comes out only where the readings or the water category condemn it. The EPA's position is that porous materials are sometimes discarded once they turn moldy; anything that will dry in place stays. See what has to be thrown away.
The suspect material has to be checked first. Puget Sound Clean Air Agency rules bar a renovation until the owner or their agent has established what sits in the area being opened. An owner-occupied single-family renovation is exempt from using an AHERA inspector.
Highline Water District, which supplies around 80,000 people across parts of Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Normandy Park, SeaTac and Tukwila. We leave the failed pipe or fixture to your plumber; we pump out the water it released and dry what it soaked.
It is usually slower to find and slower to dry. Water under the floor has no airflow and no heat, so the joists hold it for days while the rooms above look fine. See draining a flooded basement.
Close the main valve if water is still running, keep everyone clear of any room the outside water reached, and call. We will tell you what to photograph before we arrive, and nothing is removed until you have approved the written price.
Call 555-0100
Call (253) 555-0100