Lack of Regular Home Maintenance - Flooded Rain Gutters Lead to a Flooded Foundation and Water Damage

8/9/2019 (Permalink)

When a foundation flooded with rain water, the water had nowhere else to go but up into the room above. The result? SERVPRO to the rescue!

Regular home maintenance can help home owners avoid water damage.  Or, you can find yourself out of luck and in a situation like this one:

“You’re supposed to clean these?”

This was the question the bemused, Yorba Linda home owner asked our Project Manager, Gilbert Julian during his inspection of the water damage that happened at his home following a heavy rain last winter.

“Um, yes, Sir.”, replied Gilbert.

When rain gutters go unattended for several seasons, they will fill with leaves, dirt, and other debris.  Leave them alone long enough, and when the rains come back it’s a recipe for a residential property damage disaster.  In this case, rain began over the side of the gutter and down around the foundation. The rain fell steadily for a couple of days and eventually, when the space under the house had filled, the water had nowhere else to go but up.  To make a long story short, the home owner found water seeping up and into the carpeting.  His first suspicion was that perhaps a pipe had burst so a plumber was called out to the home. 

A thorough (and expensive) inspection of the home’s plumbing was done and the plumber identified no plumbing issues. 

“Nope; your pipes are just fine.”, said the plumber.  Thinking a bit, he final pointed out that there was water in the foundation. “You should call SERVPRO.”, he told the home owner.  The plumber in question is friends with one of our residential water damage technicians and he provided the phone number with our office number.  A short while later, the call came in and we sent Gilbert out to perform the inspection the same afternoon. 

Gilbert completed a detailed inspection, and called in our Crew Chief and several of our IICRC credentialed technicians to begin the physically demanding water damage restoration work.

Our technicians began by removing the drenched carpeting and padding underneath the carpeting was salvageable but the padding was not.  Using a thermal imaging device and a moisture sensor, the extent of the damage to the surrounding walls was measured and in several places twelve inches of drywall was removed around the perimeter of the affected room.  In addition, it had been several days since the water damage had occurred, which was long enough for mold to begin growing and spreading around the room. 

To protect the home’s furnishings, and the unaffected flooring surrounding the damaged area, plastic sheeting and floor tarps were put in place.  In order to avoid spreading mold spores into the non-affected areas of the home, a containment was also set up around the water damaged room. 

A group of air blowers was installed to hasten the drying process.

Wearing hazmat outfits, masks and breathing through air cannisters, our technicians used special anti-microbial chemicals to meticulously remove all traces of mold.  Once the work was done, they cleaned up and left in a short period of time.

The homeowner was thrilled with the expert care his home received and was relieve to know that his home was now water damage and mold free.

Did I mention that we earned a really nice “Yelp!” post?  It’s a pretty common thing for us, but knowing that we’ve made another family or another business owner happy never gets old! 

Water damage is never pleasant. Sadly, in this case, it could have been avoided with regular maintenance of the rain gutters – a lesson that this home owner is likely not to forget in the future!

SERVPRO of Yorba Linda/ Brea has been in business for fifteen years, and for a number of those years, we have been the #1 SERVPRO franchise in California.  We think it’s because our customers continue to personally find that our promise is true; We make them feel “Like it never even happened!”

You can learn more about our work by viewing any of the videos we have on this site, reading more of our blogs, and reviewing our customer testimonials.

If you’re looking for assistance now, don’t delay!  Call SERVPRO of Yorba Linda/ Brea at 714-701-0207.