Water Damage Restoration / Storm Response
Flood and Storm Damage Cleanup in West Palm Beach
Storm water is contaminated water, and it has to be handled differently from a burst pipe. We extract, remove what can't be salvaged, and dry the structure properly.
Storm Water Is Not Clean Water
This is the distinction people get wrong, and it changes the entire job.
When a supply line fails, the water arriving in your home is drinking water. Handled quickly, most of what it touches can be dried and kept. Storm water is nothing like that. Water that has crossed streets, yards and drainage systems picks up sewage from overwhelmed lines, fuel and oil from roads, fertiliser and pesticide from lawns, and whatever was in the ground it ran across.
Restoration standards call that category 3: grossly contaminated. How dirty it looks has nothing to do with it. Clear floodwater gets the same handling as filthy floodwater.
Which leads somewhere hard to hear: porous materials that were submerged don't come back. Carpet and pad, upholstered furniture, mattresses, particleboard cabinet bases, insulation and the lower section of drywall come out and get disposed of, regardless of how fast we arrived. Speed protects your structure. It doesn't save contaminated soft goods.
Anyone promising to save your carpet after a flood is either not classifying the water properly or telling you what you want to hear.
What Happens First
Stabilise the Building
Board-up for broken windows and openings, tarping where the roof was breached. If the envelope is still open, everything else is temporary. Roof leak restoration →
Extract Standing Water
Pumps for volume, then vacuum extraction. How we extract →
Remove Contaminated Materials
Controlled demolition of what can't be salvaged, cut to a defined line above the water level, not torn out arbitrarily.
Clean, Disinfect & Dry
Air movers and dehumidification, working to daily moisture readings.
Inspect for Growth
Florida humidity plus days of saturation is the fastest mold scenario there is. Mold remediation →
Being Honest About Response Times After a Named Storm
Every restoration company in this county promises rapid response. After a hurricane, none of us can deliver it to everyone — and you deserve to know that before you're counting on it.
When a storm passes over the county, thousands of properties are damaged in the same few hours and every crew in the region is booked within a day. Roads are blocked, power is out, and equipment is committed elsewhere. That's the reality of a regional event rather than an individual emergency.
What we'll do is tell you the truth on the phone — a realistic arrival window, not a reassuring one — and prioritise by severity rather than by call order. Properties with active intrusion and standing water come before properties that are wet but stable.
If you can do one thing before we arrive: get standing water out however you can and get air moving through the building if it's safe to do so. Hours matter more after a storm than at any other time, because everyone is waiting.
Flood Insurance and Homeowners Insurance Are Not the Same Thing
Nothing sinks more post-storm claims than this, and the time to understand it is before the season starts.
A standard Florida homeowners policy excludes flood. Flood means water rising from the ground: storm surge, overwhelmed drains, a river over its banks. Flood coverage is a separate policy, usually through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, and new policies typically carry a waiting period of around thirty days before they take effect. You cannot buy it as a storm approaches.
What a homeowners policy usually does cover is water entering through an opening the storm created — wind-driven rain through a roof breached during the event, or through a window broken by debris.
So two neighbours can have near-identical damage and completely different outcomes. Water that came down through the roof is typically a homeowners claim. Water that came up through the floor is a flood claim, and without flood coverage it's uninsured.
One more thing worth checking now: most Florida policies apply a separate hurricane deductible calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, not a flat amount. It is often substantially larger than your standard deductible. Look it up before the season, not during a claim. Florida claims explained →
Before Anyone Enters the Property
- Assume downed lines are live. Never enter standing water where power lines are down or where you can't confirm the electrical situation.
- Don't wade through floodwater unnecessarily. It's contaminated, it hides debris and open drains, and displaced wildlife ends up in it.
- Keep generators outside and well away from windows and doors. Carbon monoxide poisoning kills people after storms every year, and it happens in garages and screened porches as often as indoors.
- Watch for structural damage before entering — sagging ceilings, shifted walls, compromised stairs.
- Boil water notices are common after major storms. Follow them.
Downed lines and generators are the two mistakes that kill people
Electrocution from downed lines in standing water and carbon monoxide from generators run too close to the house are the most common causes of death after a storm — more so than the storm itself.
Photograph Everything Before You Clean Up
After a widespread storm, adjusters are overwhelmed and inspections can take weeks. Your documentation may be the only record of what the damage looked like when it was fresh.
Before you remove anything: wide shots of every affected room, tight shots of the damage itself, the tide line on the walls if there is one, the exterior and any structural damage, and photographs of the standing water itself. Keep samples of removed flooring and materials where practical, and keep every receipt for emergency work.
You are also required by most policies to prevent further damage instead of waiting — so mitigating promptly is the correct action, provided you've documented first.
This is one of nine services we provide across the county — see all water damage services →.
Storm and Flood Damage Questions
Can any of my flooded furniture be saved?
Solid wood and non-porous items can often be cleaned and kept. Upholstered furniture, mattresses and anything with particleboard or foam that was submerged in floodwater generally cannot, because the contamination is absorbed into material that can't be effectively disinfected.
How is storm flooding different from a burst pipe?
Contamination, mainly. A burst pipe delivers drinking water, and most of what it soaks will dry where it sits. Floodwater is category 3, so porous materials that contacted it are removed rather than dried. The drying process afterwards is similar; the demolition scope is much larger.
My house flooded and I don't have flood insurance. What now?
Check your policy anyway instead of assuming — if water entered through a storm-created opening as well as from the ground, part of the loss may still be covered. FEMA assistance may be available after a federally declared disaster, though it is generally limited compared with insurance. We document the loss fully either way, which matters for both routes.
How long does drying take after a flood?
Longer than a clean-water loss, typically a week or more, because more material is removed first and the structure is usually more saturated. Florida humidity slows every stage, which is why sealed, controlled drying matters.
After the storm, the clock starts immediately
After the Storm, the Clock Starts Immediately
Standing water plus Florida humidity is the fastest route to mold there is. Call for a realistic arrival window and what to do until we reach you.
Available 24 hours
Flood and storm damage cleanup across West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Riviera Beach, Delray Beach, Lake Worth Beach and Palm Beach County.