Damage, and exactly what it takes to undo it.

Category 1 means the water came from a sanitary source. That status is temporary: left sitting against organic materials it degrades to Category 2 within roughly 48 hours, and the scope of the job changes with it.

• Water wicks vertically up drywall and horizontally under cabinet bases
• Carpet pad holds many times its own weight in water
• Nothing is moved or thrown away until it has been photographed

Extraction is the highest-leverage hour of the whole job. Weighted extraction over carpet, wand over hard surface, and a moisture map drawn before anything is disturbed so the wet perimeter is a documented boundary rather than a guess.

• Moisture mapping and thermal imaging define the affected area
• Standing water removed, then trapped water pulled from the pad
• Readings logged against unaffected material as a dry reference

A flood cut at roughly 16 inches removes the wicked drywall and opens the wall cavity so it can actually dry. Toe-kicks come off for the same reason. Equipment is sized to the class of loss, not to what happens to be on the truck.

• Flood cut above the waterline; toe-kicks and base removed
• Air movers across surfaces, LGR dehumidifiers pulling the load
• Moisture content metered daily until it hits the dry standard

Drywall, base, paint and toe-kicks reinstated to match. The final readings and the daily log go to your adjuster with the file. That record is what proves the structure was dried correctly rather than simply closed up.

• Drywall, baseboard and paint matched to the existing finish
• Final moisture readings recorded at handover
• Full photo and reading log issued with the claim

Category 3 water carries bacteria and other harmful agents. The risk is not the moisture, it is what the moisture is carrying, so the response is a decontamination sequence, and occupants stay out of the affected area.

• Keep people and pets out of the affected rooms
• Don't run the HVAC. It will move contamination through the house
• Porous materials that absorbed it are not salvageable

A sealed containment barrier and negative air pressure go up before anything is disturbed, so nothing migrates into clean parts of the property. Crews work in full PPE. Affected porous materials are bagged inside the containment and removed.

• Zip-wall containment with negative air machine
• Full PPE: coveralls, gloves, respiratory protection
• Contaminated flooring, base and drywall bagged and disposed

With the porous material gone, what remains is cleanable structure. It is cleaned first, an antimicrobial applied over soil does nothing, then treated, then dried under HEPA filtration.

• Structure cleaned before any antimicrobial is applied
• HEPA air scrubbing throughout the drying period
• Post-remediation verification before containment comes down

Subfloor where it was compromised, then tile, base, vanity and a reset toilet on a new seal. Everything that was removed is replaced new. Nothing porous that touched Category 3 water goes back in.

• New subfloor where the original was compromised
• New tile, base, vanity; toilet reset on a fresh seal
• Clearance documentation issued with the file

A stain is a map of where water has already been. A sag means the assembly is actively holding water and can fail without warning: which is why nobody stands under it and why the room gets cleared before anything else happens.

• Sagging drywall can release its whole load at once
• The wet area is always larger than the stain
• Wet insulation loses its R-value and does not recover

There is no point drying a ceiling while it is still raining into it. The roof is tarped and dried in, then the failed section is taken down in a controlled cut and the saturated insulation is removed rather than dried.

• Roof tarped and dried in before interior work starts
• Controlled removal of the failed ceiling section
• Saturated insulation removed. It is replaced, not dried

Air is directed into the open ceiling cavity and across the joists, with a dehumidifier carrying the moisture load out of the room. Thermal imaging finds the wet perimeter so the drying setup covers the whole affected area.

• Directed airflow into the open cavity and across framing
• Thermal imaging to confirm the full wet perimeter
• Daily readings on joists, deck and adjacent drywall

New insulation to the correct R-value, new drywall, and the ceiling texture matched so the repair does not read as a patch. Carpet cleaned, and the room put back the way it was.

• Insulation replaced to specification
• Drywall, texture match and paint across the full ceiling plane
• Carpet cleaned and re-laid; room reset