How does water from a Kenner yard get into the house?
Water enters a house at the lowest point where it can get through. A door threshold, a garage edge, a low vent or a gap around a pipe or a cable is the usual route. Once inside, the water moves along the floor and into the wall base, where it wicks upward.
A yard that slopes toward the house sends water toward the foundation. The ground beside the house can be saturated, and the water then finds a gap where a door or a vent meets the wall. The threshold is often the first point to take water, because it sits at the level where moving water tends to reach it first.
A gap that is too small to notice in calm weather can admit a steady flow in a storm. The crew checks the foundation and the threshold from outside, because the source may be closer to the outside than the inside wet area suggests.
Will sandbags or a towel keep the water out?
Sandbags and towels can slow a small flow for a short time, but they rarely hold back moving water. A sandbag placed against a door can divert water if it is set correctly, but it must be watched and replaced. The crew stops the entry properly once it has traced the route.
A towel across a threshold soaks up water quickly and then lets it through. It is useful only for a few minutes while the homeowner moves items and calls for help. Do not rely on it to protect the floor for the whole storm.
Water that is moving across a yard can carry debris that blocks a drain or a sandbag. The crew checks the path the water is taking before it advises on any barrier, and it explains the barrier it uses.
Why is the wall base so often the most damaged part?
Water that reaches the wall base wicks up into the drywall and the framing, so the damage often sits above the level of the visible water. The base also holds the moisture that the floor covering traps, which means it stays wet longest. The crew reads the wall base first and then moves upward.
Drywall takes water up from the bottom, and the paper and gypsum hold it. A stain may show only a few inches above the floor, while the readings show dampness higher up. The crew marks the highest reading, which sets the height the drying must reach.
The baseboard, the paint and the flooring at the base are removed where the readings show they cannot recover. The rest of the wall is dried in place where the readings support it.
What affects the cost of yard runoff entry cleanup?
The main factors are how far the water traveled inside, how high the wicking reached, how many rooms are affected, and what must be removed. The entry point and how hard it is to close also change the work. Each job is priced after the walkthrough, and no price is quoted over the phone.
A small amount of water at a single door is a different job from a flow that has spread across several rooms. The number of walls read and the amount of drywall removed both affect the time and the materials.
Closing the entry is a separate task. The crew stops what it can, and the homeowner decides whether to have the grade, the threshold or the foundation repaired. The crew's readings and the entry point it found are shared for that decision.
What can a homeowner do before the crew comes?
Move items away from the entry and off the floor, keep people and pets away from the water, and turn the power off in any area with water only at a dry panel. Photograph the water at the threshold and the wet line on the wall. Tell the phone team where the water is entering and whether it is still coming in.
A homeowner can sweep loose debris away from the threshold so that the water can drain away from the door. Do not dig a trench or change the yard without advice, because a change can move the water somewhere else.
Write down when the water first appeared at the entry and when it reached the inside of the house. Those times help the crew decide the order of work and help any insurer follow the damage.
