Baltimore Rowhome Flood

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The water wasn't coming from our clients property, so we assumed the extraordinarily cold temperatures we've been experiencing caused a pipe in an adjacent property to burst, filling their basement with water and the subsequent hydrostatic pressure of all that water pushed through the neighboring brick foundation walls into our client's basement, and the basements of the adjacent neighbors.

We learned the tenants of the adjacent property had moved out the week prior and that property was vacant. We then discovered water coming out from under that adjacent, vacant property's first story back door. We assumed the extraordinarily cold temps froze their pipes. No one was home so we emergently called 911 to have the fire department come turn the water off to that property.

Our client had already suspected this was going to be an insurance claim so they already had their insurance company working the situation. 

Another good takeaway from this event: 

When you think something might be an insurance claim, just call your insurance agent or company and start the claim process early. If it ends up not being a claim, they just close it out. But having an insurance company's adjuster notified early an help you get the situation resolved promptly. In this case Nationwide Insurance did an excellent job helping our client coordinate cleanup so repairs could begin as soon as possible.

Amazingly, disaster cleanup companies won't start removing wet materials and drying a place out until the flood water is gone and the HVAC system is operational. They deal with the aftermath, not with the problem.  

Mahon Plumbing was called and their emergency technician immediately came out to replace the sump pump and get the water pumping out of the basement. After getting the sump pump going, he started to help the neighboring property's owner, who at this time told us his entire basement was full of water!

After the flood water had abated, we needed to get the furnace up and running after being under water. We didn't want this house to have it's pipes freeze next, and the tenant was still living here so we wanted to keep them warm with the freezing temperatures!

Love's Heating and Air is a company we've known and trusted for years. We reached out to our contacts there for emergency service, to diagnose if the furnace is dead after being under water, and if not, to get the furnace up and running again. This client got lucky. The flooding water just destroyed the air filter but stopped short of the expensive electronics. Love's got the furnace up and running and the heat back on in no time.

Now, finally, the disaster response company would come out for removal of the wet building materials and start drying this place out.