Flood cleanup in Seattle for houses, basement levels and small commercial buildings across the Duwamish valley and the south end, and south through Burien, Renton and Tukwila. We pump the water out, clean what the water contaminated and dry the structure on daily readings.
Flood cleanup is the work that follows flood water into a Seattle building. We pump out standing water, take out the soaked materials that cannot be cleaned, disinfect the surfaces that stay and run drying equipment until the readings match dry material elsewhere in the same house. Most of our work here starts below grade.
The flat ground along the Duwamish River and Elliott Bay
King County reports that flood risk along the Duwamish rises when heavy rain coincides with a high tide. On that combination the river has nowhere to push the storm water, so it sits on the valley floor and finds the lowest openings in the buildings on it, which is why we arrive to pump before we do anything else.
Sloped streets above the older plats
NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Seattle-Tacoma International, the closest normals station, record 39.34 inches of precipitation a year across an average of 156.2 days with measurable rain. That is a long soak rather than one downpour, and ground already holding water pushes the next storm toward the nearest driveway and stairwell.
Basement levels, daylight rooms and utility rooms
Older Seattle houses sit on half-basements and daylight levels with a floor drain at the low point. When the line serving that drain surcharges in a storm, water comes back up through the drain into the room, and a sump pump that quits in the same hour leaves nothing between that water and the finished floor.
Laundry rooms, water heaters and kitchen cabinets
A split supply line or a failed water heater is clean water at the moment it starts, which changes what we can save. Caught early, flooring and framing often dry in place with nothing removed, and we say so on the call when your house is in that position.
Three things we do on a Seattle call, in this order. If the water is still rising, read what to do when a basement floods while we are on the way; the cost factors and the full sequence sit on our Kent, WA flood cleanup page.
We put a submersible pump into the deepest water and follow it with wet vacuums and truck-mounted extraction across the slab and the carpet. Free water has to leave the building before any dehumidifier can pull the rest out of the materials.
Below the finished floor we lift wet carpet and pad, cut base trim and drill the stud cavities that read wet so air reaches them. Under the floor we pump the ground water out, lift the sodden insulation and the vapor barrier beneath it and dry the framing from below.
Water out of a river, a street or a sewer line is the worst of the three grades the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard sets, and the EPA tells homeowners to bring in a professional used to contaminated-water damage. We set containment, wash and disinfect every hard surface, and discard the porous materials the EPA says may have to go.
Two local rules decide what we may cut on a Seattle job, and both of them sit outside the City of Kent system we work under at home.
Land use, construction and trade permits inside the city come from the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections, which also runs the inspections on that work. Kent jobs go through the Kent Permit Center on W Gowe Street, so the paperwork on your claim depends on which side of the line the building stands.
The Census Bureau's 2019-2023 American Community Survey puts the median year a Seattle structure was built at 1974, against 1985 in Kent. On the average Seattle tear-out we are therefore opening up material old enough to contain asbestos, and that has to be settled before the saw comes out.
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency rules bar a renovation until the owner or the owner's agent has established whether suspect asbestos material sits in the area being opened up and has had it surveyed. Renovation of an owner-occupied single-family home is exempt from the AHERA inspector requirement, so we raise this first on rental and multi-unit addresses.
Tell us where the water is, whether it has stopped, and whether the power is off in the wet area.
Call (253) 368-0431We cover Seattle and the cities south of it along the same corridor, and the address you give on the call sets the route.
Next door, miles from Seattle
Highline Water District supplies Burien, so the shutoff and the billing on a Burien call belong to the district; see our Burien flood cleanup.
Renton drains to the Cedar River and the lake, a separate system from the Green River valley, and flood crews in Renton work both sides of it.
Federal Way sits high above the valley floor, so the calls for water removal in Federal Way are usually runoff and seepage instead of river water.
Tacoma is in Pierce County, so a permit after a tear-out on our flood cleanup in Tacoma, WA jobs goes to the City of Tacoma rather than to any King County counter.
Four questions Seattle callers ask before the crew arrives.
Yes. Seattle sits on our regular route north out of the Green River valley, and the crew arrives at the building with the pumps, extractors and drying equipment already loaded.
The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections. It issues land use, construction and trade permits inside the city and inspects the work, and that is a different counter from the one covering Kent.
Yes. Water from outside is the dirtiest grade under the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard, so it is cleaned and disinfected and the porous materials come out. A burst supply line is clean water, which often dries in place. Read why flood water is Category 3.
Usually no. FEMA states that most homeowners and renters policies exclude flood damage and only flood insurance covers it, which is the same split we explain in flood insurance in Kent, WA. We document the damage for you and your adjuster.
Shut the water off if it is still running, keep everyone out of any room the outside water reached, and call. We will tell you what to move before we get there, and the written scope and price reach you before a saw touches the building.
Call (253) 368-0431