How Much Does it Cost to Repair & Cleanup Water Damage?

Water damage is among the most destructive disasters that could hit your property. From the roofing, outdoor and indoor plumbing, and the gutter system, you’ll notice that your house is designed to channel water away from the main structure. Moisture doesn’t help your property in any way. As such, when water finds itself in areas of the property that should be dry in the first place, water damage occurs. 

It could be as a result of:

• Poor plumbing, perhaps a broken pipe that lets water seep into the walls
• Flood water breaking into your garage or front door
• Roof leaks
• Damaged gutters that let rainwater wash through the walls and collect at the foundation
• Leaking toilet tanks
• Leaking appliances like the washing machine or dishwasher, et al

It is estimated that nearly 14,000 U.S. homes experience water damage every day with homeowners nationally spending at least $20 billion annually in water damage repair and restoration. 

Why Water Damage Should Be Resolved Immediately

For starters, it worsens with time. When left unattended, stranded water could creep into other sections of the property creating one big mess that is way more expensive to repair than the initial damage. While your walls couldn’t probably crumble from a little rainwater, when the problem persists, you could be staring at a catastrophic structural failure that will set you back thousands of dollars to restore.  A moist wall can also compromise electrical wiring, and you wouldn’t want your wiring soaking in water. Stranded water can also ruin your home’s floor forcing you to replace the entire floor.

Mold growth is another common disaster associated with water damage. Mold can develop in a moist property within the first 24 hours and of course, worsen with time. Molds come with a host of potential health hazards to the home’s inhabitants. Health experts warn that molds produce allergens, irritants, and mycotoxins (potentially toxic substances). Some individuals may experience allergic reactions when they inhale or touch mold spores. On top of it, mold eradication is challenging and expensive. 

Cost of Repair and Cleanup

As you would expect, repairing water damage is expensive. However, the cost of repair varies extensively depending on the location of the property, cause of water damage, and the extent of the damage. The cost of labor and materials varies from place to place which explains why it doesn’t cost the same to restore the same magnitude of water damage in different regions. 

There are at least three categories of water that can cause damage –clean, grey, and black. Clean water is the easiest, and perhaps cheapest to clean up. This water doesn’t have chemical or fecal impurities but this doesn’t reduce their ferocity to walls and floors. Clean water also provides the ideal breeding ground for molds.

Grey water includes water from bathtubs, washing machine, and sinks. It’s a little difficult to get rid of grey water since it contains contaminants, although not deadly chemicals or fecal matter. Now black water is your worst nightmare because of the large number of contaminants including fecal matter and chemicals. The cleanup process is more expensive because of all the efforts required to decontaminate the surfaces affected. 

Now the Numbers

Depending on the cause and extent of damage, the average national water damage restoration cost is anything between $1,200 and $5,000. Most contractors charge about $3.75 to roughly $7.50 per square foot.

Among the areas that could need repair include the roof, ceiling, drywall, plumbing, bathroom, and floor. Mold removal could set you back another $2,000.