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Drying to a Measured Standard

New Orleans, LA Water Damage Restoration

Water out first. Structure dried to a number second. Rebuild last. That order holds for New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, and one call reaches an independent local pro.

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The scope comes from the visit · no obligation either way

  • Calls taken at any hour while water is standing
  • Each city routed to contractors working in it
  • The contractor who turns up is the one who quotes
  • IICRC S500: the published standard for the drying stage

  • 24/7 emergency response

    Water emergencies answered around the clock, every day of the year.

  • No lead form

    One call, quoted by the pro who visits. Your details are not sold on.

A referral network of independent water damage contractors, reached through one number, in every state.

Call (833) 243-4415
A contractor showing a homeowner a tablet at the door, explaining what has to come out and what can dry in place.
Meter readings first, then the scope at the door, then anything comes out.

What happens between the call and the rebuild

Four stages, in one order, described by the IICRC S500 standard. The contractor does each; how well each is done decides how much work the next one carries.

  1. Step 1: Stop and remove

    The source is shut off, then free water is pumped and extracted. Every hour water stands, it climbs further into drywall and subfloor, so this stage sets the size of everything after it.

  2. Step 2: Open and map

    Baseboard, wet drywall and soaked insulation come out, and meters read the material behind them. The wet edge is marked where the moisture stops, not where the stain does.

  3. Step 3: Dry to a number

    Air movers and dehumidifiers run as a sealed system, and the same points are read daily. The equipment leaves when the readings reach the dry standard for that material, not on a set day.

  4. Step 4: Close up

    Rebuild starts only after the structure is confirmed dry. Insulation, drywall and finishes go back over an assembly that will not feed anything later.

What a wet building in New Orleans asks of a contractor

New Orleans homeowners reach an independent local contractor for water damage restoration whether the house is downtown or out in Barrington Park, Little Woods, and New Orleans East. Most of the housing predates 1970 and much of it stands on piers, so drying often happens under the floor as well as in the rooms.

The materials in these houses

Roughly 160,480 of New Orleans's 195,552 homes went up before 1990, putting the median build year at 1960; what dries in place and what comes out follows from that. Raised shotgun and cottage houses on brick piers with heart-pine floors and plaster walls make up much of the stock, and the pier space beneath is where water collects and lingers, so the job is often dried from below with the crawl opened and the old pine left in place to give its moisture up slowly.

Weather that sets the pace

Drying here is a August job at one pace and a January job at another, 84.7 degrees against 54; the 60.12 inches a year peak in August at 6.46, both figures recorded at NEW ORLEANS LAKEFRONT AP, 5.7 miles away. The air stays heavy from late spring through October, and there is no freeze to dry it out, so equipment runs sealed and long in every wet month, while dense old pine and plaster add days on top of the humidity before the readings settle.

How the losses here usually end

  • The bay under a raised house holding water against the joists after the rooms are dry, so the crawl is opened and dried before anyone calls the job finished
  • Heart-pine floors that cup and hold moisture for weeks, so mats and a long run are used rather than pulling wood that would be hard to replace
  • Plaster on lath taking two or three times as long to dry as drywall, so the equipment stays well past the point the walls feel dry

Water Damage Restoration services in New Orleans

My Water Damage and Restoration puts the call to independent contractors in New Orleans: extraction, then drying, then the mold stage if the drying stopped short somewhere.

Water damage restoration

Mold

Areas covered around New Orleans

One of several Water Damage Restoration pages for Louisiana: see the full list.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an old pine floor take to dry compared with the walls?

Usually much longer. Heart pine is dense and holds water deep in the board, so it cups early and releases moisture slowly. Rather than tear out wood that is hard to replace, the contractor runs drying mats on the floor and keeps reading it after the plaster walls have already reached the dry standard, sometimes for weeks.

The rooms are dry but the house still smells damp. Where is the water?

Very often under the floor. A raised house keeps its living floor above a loss, but the bay between the piers fills and stays wet against the joists. The contractor opens the crawl, removes any soaked insulation, runs air and dehumidification underneath, and reads the joists and subfloor from below until they are dry.

Can plaster walls be dried in place, or do they come out?

Plaster over lath usually dries in place, but slowly. It is dense, so surfaces read dry while the lath behind still holds water, and closing it early is how stains and growth come back. The contractor drills at the base to move air behind the plaster and keeps reading until the lath reaches the standard, which can be two or three times the drywall timeline.

New Orleans, LA

Water still standing in New Orleans?

Call once, at no cost, and reach a contractor who can be running equipment today. No obligation either way.

Call (833) 243-4415

The scope comes from the visit · no obligation either way

Say where the water is and what it touched. The call routes to an independent pro covering your area; there is no form to fill and no callback queue.

  • What is wet: carpet, hardwood, drywall, a ceiling, a basement floor
  • Whether the water is still coming, standing, or already gone into the floor
  • How long it has been there, as best you can tell
  • Your city, so the call routes to a contractor who covers it
Call a Local Pro — (833) 243-4415