Flooded basement in North York, from the tank, the washer or the storm
Post-war houses with a finished rec room below grade, a laundry corner and a hot water tank older than anyone remembers. Below grade dries slowly, so the drying starts the day we arrive rather than the day after.
Streets we are on most
North York, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
- Willowdale
- Downsview
- Don Mills
- Bayview Village
- Armour Heights
- Parkway Forest
- Flemingdon Park
Not on the list? We still come. See every area we cover, or call and ask.
Working here
Below grade dries slowly, and that is the whole problem
A rec room has one or two small windows up near the ceiling, no cross draught and a concrete slab under the carpet. Air does not move through it on its own, so a wet floor down there stays wet for days rather than hours. That is why drying is a set of machines and a schedule rather than an open window. Dehumidifiers pull moisture out of the air, air movers keep it lifting off the surfaces, and both stay in place until the readings say otherwise.
The tank, the washer and the floor drain
Three things account for most of what we see in North York houses. A hot water tank at the end of its life, which lets go at the base and empties quietly onto the floor. A laundry connection, where the hose behind the machine splits. And the floor drain, which backs up when the storm is heavy enough. The first two are clean water and the third is not, and that difference decides what can be dried and what has to come out.
The first six hours decide the rest
The first thing to know is that time, not equipment, decides how this goes. Water in a finished basement does not sit politely on the tile. It goes under the carpet into the underlay, along the bottom of the drywall, behind the baseboard and into the studs, and it does all of that in the first few hours. Call the 24 hour line on 647-697-7435 before you start mopping, because the mopping is the part that can wait.
Leave the room as it is until it has been photographed. We document the damage for an insurance claim, and the photographs your insurer actually wants are the ones taken before any drying equipment is running. A tide line on the drywall, a soaked box of decorations, water at its height across the slab. That is the evidence. A day of air movers erases it, and the room that gets assessed afterwards looks a great deal less serious than the one you called about.
Why a North York basement is slow to dry
Most of these houses went up after the war with a full basement, and the basement got finished later: broadloom over concrete, studs and drywall against the foundation wall, a laundry corner and a hot water tank. That build is comfortable and it is very slow to dry. There is little airflow down there, few windows and none of them big, and a concrete slab under the carpet that holds moisture and gives it back.
So drying is a set of machines and a schedule, not an open window and hope. Dehumidifiers take the water out of the air, air movers keep it lifting off the surfaces, and the equipment stays until the readings justify moving it. Carpet that can be dried in place gets dried in place. Underlay that has been wet for two days comes out, because it holds water the way a sponge does and nothing dries through it.
What it costs follows what the water reached. A single small area is $1,500 to $3,500. A whole room flood is $4,000 to $7,500. A full basement runs $5,000 to $25,000. We look at the room before quoting, and you have the figure before any work starts.
While the van is here
Rarely the only thing that needs doing.
Asked in North York
The rec room carpet is soaked. Can it be saved?
Sometimes. Clean water caught quickly, on a carpet worth saving, can be extracted and dried in place. Carpet that has sat wet for two days, or that took water from the floor drain, comes out along with the underlay. The underlay is usually the deciding factor, because it behaves like a sponge and it will not dry through a carpet lying on top of it.
Why do you want photographs before you start drying?
Because a dry room does not look like a claim. Your insurer is assessing what happened, and the evidence for that is the water at its height, the tide line on the drywall, the wet contents. Once the air movers have run for a day, most of it is gone. We photograph the room before anything is switched on, and we document the damage for an insurance claim.
What does a basement flood cost to put right?
The published range for a full basement is $5,000 to $25,000. A whole room flood, say the rec room and nothing else, is $4,000 to $7,500, and a single small area such as a laundry corner or a basement bathroom is $1,500 to $3,500. Which one you are in depends on how far the water travelled and what it soaked, so we look before we quote and you get the figure before work starts.