The company's website lists water damage restoration, flood cleanup, mold remediation, fire damage restoration, air duct cleaning and leak detection, plus hardwood floor restoration and drywall repair. It says it serves Washington DC and nearby areas such as Arlington, Bethesda, Rockville and Reston, and works with major insurance companies.

Listed since 09/27/2021

Water, mold and fire damage in Washington, DC

Much of the District is old and attached. Historic rowhouse districts are overwhelmingly pre-1950, with aging plumbing common, and the oldest neighborhoods still drain through a combined sewer, where one pipe carries both sewage and stormwater. In heavy rain that pipe can surcharge into basements. Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park flooded repeatedly, including in four storms in the summer of 2012, which led DC Water to build the First Street Tunnel, finished in 2016, and other relief works.

Flash flooding is the other pattern. On July 8, 2019, a slow-moving storm soaked basements across the region within hours. Washington's climate is humid subtropical, with about 42 inches of precipitation a year and damp summers, so a basement that stays wet for a few days is a mold problem as well as a water one.

What a restoration job involves

Basement water after a storm may be sewage-contaminated, and that decides what can be dried and what must be removed and discarded. A crew extracts water, removes wet drywall and flooring where needed, and dries the structure with monitored equipment.

For fire, the work is soot removal, odor control and sorting contents into what can be cleaned and what cannot. Our guide to what can be saved after a house fire is a good starting point, and documenting your loss before the cleanup starts helps with any claim.