What happens on the first visit
A crew's first job is to get the water out and keep it from spreading. On a normal emergency call they will:
- Confirm the source is off. If a supply line or water heater is still leaking, they cap it or call in a plumber.
- Pump out standing water, then pull water from carpet and pad with a truck-mounted or portable extractor.
- Use moisture meters on walls, subfloor and cabinets to see how far the water traveled.
- Remove pad that cannot be saved and cut drywall above the wet line.
- Set air movers and dehumidifiers, then come back to check readings until the house is dry.
Speed matters most in the first day. Drywall and subfloor keep pulling water up from wet carpet, so a leak handled in a few hours usually means a few inches of wall come out. Wait a day or two and it can be a few feet.
While you wait
- Turn off the main water valve if the leak is from plumbing or an appliance.
- Keep out of rooms where water reaches outlets, power strips or baseboard heaters. Flip those breakers only if you can reach the panel without standing in water.
- Get rugs, electronics, paperwork and photos up off the floor.
- Photograph and film every wet room before anything moves. Your adjuster will want to see it.
- Skip the household shop vac for sewage or for water that has been sitting for days.
Water removal around Puyallup
Puyallup has two kinds of housing, and they leak differently. In the valley, around downtown, Meeker, North Puyallup and along Valley Avenue, many homes are older, sit low and have crawl spaces or partial basements. Water from a burst line in those houses often ends up under the floor, where nobody sees it until the floors soften or the house starts to smell.
Up on South Hill, most homes went in during the 1980s and later. They tend to have upstairs laundry rooms, plastic supply lines and lots of carpet. When a washer hose splits or a water heater gives out in the garage, the water spreads across carpet and runs down into the ceiling below.
Calls go to crews that cover the valley, South Hill and the 98371, 98372, 98373, 98374 and 98375 ZIP codes, plus Sumner, Bonney Lake and Orting.