Water Damage Restoration · East Cobb, GA
A three-level water loss in East Cobb
A failed upstairs supply line flooded all three floors of this East Cobb home while the owners were away on vacation. By the time they got home, a clean-water leak had turned into a Category 3 loss with mold in the walls.
How the job went
Tracing it back to the source
By the time we arrived the source had been identified already: A failed supply line feeding an upstairs toilet tank. Unfortunately, water had already been moving through the upstairs, main level and basement for days while the house sat empty. On top of that, the HVAC had helped carry moisture into places water alone wouldn't reach. That is what pushed this job from a simple clean-water leak to Category 3, the most contaminated kind. We mapped moisture across all three levels and documented every reading before touching anything.
Power back on, belongings packed out
Before any demolition we restored power to the circuits we needed and brought in a contents crew to pack out the family's belongings into storage, so nothing salvageable got caught up in the work. With the house mapped and the contents clear, the full scope was visible: saturated carpet and pad, hardwood and engineered flooring, tile, baseboards, trim, doors, drywall and cabinetry, across all three floors.
Demolition, and what was behind the walls
As we opened things up, we found the damage ran well past the finishes. There was visible mold in wall cavities, behind trim, behind carpet seams and along wall lines in the kitchen, breakfast room, living room and a bathroom, with the worst of it behind the marble paneling at the fireplace and chimney. Moisture readings showed the subfloor and framing were saturated, so we cut back to where the wood was dry. In one kitchen area the old adhesive under the hardwood was stubborn enough to damage the subfloor coming up, which we documented as we went.
Walking the scope with the adjuster
Partway through, we met the insurance adjuster on site to walk the damage together before going further. Once they saw the moisture readings and the growth behind the framing, they approved expanding the scope, including raising the flood cuts upstairs from two feet to four so we could reach and treat the framing properly. Settling it on site meant no surprises on the claim later and no guessing about what was covered.
Saving what was worth saving
Not everything had to go. We brought in specialty vendors to safely remove the Sub-Zero refrigerator and the built-in kitchen appliances, and a stone contractor to detach the countertops without cracking them, so the expensive pieces could be reinstalled later. Cabinets we judged one at a time: the saturated ones with mold inside came out, the unaffected ones were carefully detached and set aside to go back in.
Cleaning every surface, top to bottom
Some of the worst of it was out of sight. While cleaning the basement we found HVAC ducts with standing water still sitting inside them and pulled them out, and two ceiling fans turned out to be full of water and came down too. Once everything wet was gone, two crews worked through all three levels HEPA vacuuming, pulling out every nail and staple, and wiping down joists, sill plates, framing and subfloor. We spot-treated the worst framing with peroxide, then sprayed antimicrobial across every exposed surface on all three floors.
Drying the house back to standard
With the structure clean, drying began. We placed equipment based on the live moisture readings and only where materials were still wet, logged the numbers every day, and pulled equipment out of each room the moment it reached dry standard. A couple of practical problems came up: the drying load kept tripping breakers, so we added electrical distribution to run everything cleanly, and a powered-off fridge full of spoiled food had the garage smelling, so we ran a carbon-filter scrubber out there until it cleared. The last holdout was a single joist in the basement family room. Once that hit dry, the equipment came out, the final readings and photos went into the file, and the house was ready for the rebuild.
