Flood Damage Cleanup in San Antonio

A burst pipe fills a room with tap water. When a creek jumps its banks or a street drain backs up into the yard and under the door, the water that crosses your threshold has already run through streets, lawns, storm drains and sometimes sewer lines.

The industry standard for water damage work, the ANSI/IICRC S500, puts that water in its most serious group. As Restoration & Remediation magazine summarizes it, Category 3 water is grossly contaminated and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic or other harmful agents, and the examples include ground surface water and rising water from rivers or streams.

That category changes the job. With a clean-water leak, a lot of carpet and drywall can be dried in place. Floodwater cleanup leans the other way: what the water soaked usually comes out. If your water came from a pipe, an appliance or a water heater inside the house, our water damage restoration page is the better fit.

Your belongings can wait a few more hours. Get the basics right first:

• Wait for the all-clear. Ready.gov says to return home only when authorities say it is safe, and not to walk, swim or drive through flood waters.
• Treat the power as live. Ready.gov also warns against touching electrical equipment if it is wet or if you are standing in water. If the panel sits in a wet garage, leave it for an electrician or the utility.
• Keep kids and pets out. The CDC notes that floodwater may contain sewage, other germs and contaminants that can lead to illness, and sharp debris like glass or metal. It says not to let children play in floodwater areas.
• Photograph everything before anything gets moved or thrown out. Wide shots of each room, then close-ups of the waterline on the walls.

Then call us. We work 24/7, and the crew arrives ready to work, so the cleanup starts on the first visit.

Porous materials act like sponges, and after a flood they're full of the same water you were told not to wade through. The CDC's mold cleanup tips say to throw out anything that was wet with flood water and can't be cleaned and dried out completely within 24 to 48 hours. In a flooded house, that list usually includes:

• Carpet and carpet pad
• Drywall, cut out to a line above the high-water mark, since drywall wicks water up past where the flood stopped
• Wall insulation behind that drywall
• Baseboards, and often the bottom of cabinets and door casings

Hard surfaces get a different treatment. The slab, the studs, tile and other non-porous materials that stay in the house are cleaned and disinfected, then dried. We photograph the damaged materials before they go to the trailer, which matches the CDC's tip to photograph discarded items for your insurance claim.

Belongings get sorted, too. Hard furniture and keepsakes that can be cleaned may be salvageable, and our contents pack-out crew can wrap, inventory and store them securely while the house is torn out and dried.

Opening the walls is what makes drying possible. With the wet drywall and insulation gone, air movers and dehumidifiers can reach the studs, the bottom plates and the slab. That's structural drying, and moisture readings run through the whole stretch so we know where the framing stands each day.

The EPA draws a firm line here: before refinishing and replacing walls and flooring, everything in the home needs to be completely dry to prevent future mold growth. We hold to the readings for that reason. If mold has already started on framing that sat wet too long, that area moves to mold remediation.

Once the house is dry, we can put it back. We rebuild the projects we restore, so new insulation, drywall, trim, paint and flooring go in through our reconstruction team instead of a second company you have to find.

Heavy rain doesn't have far to go here before it runs off. The San Antonio Report describes much of the city as part of Flash Flood Alley, where shallow soil over limestone bedrock can't absorb much and creeks rise quickly in a heavy storm. Its April 2026 coverage recalled the June 2025 flood that swept vehicles off a Loop 410 access road near Perrin Beitel.

Homes near low-water crossings and creek beds tend to see it first, but street flooding can reach houses nowhere near a mapped floodplain. The Texas Department of Insurance points out that more than half of the homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey were outside designated flood zones. We clean up flooded homes from San Antonio out to the river and Hill Country towns, including New Braunfels, Canyon Lake, Seguin and Boerne.

This surprises a lot of homeowners after their first flood. According to the Texas Department of Insurance, your home insurance policy doesn't cover flood damage, and you need a separate flood policy, which TDI says you can get through the National Flood Insurance Program. Ready.gov says the same thing about homeowner's policies and adds that a flood policy typically takes up to 30 days to go into effect.

If you carry flood coverage, that carrier handles the claim. We help document the damage and work with your insurance carrier throughout the restoration process: photos, moisture readings and a record of what was removed. We don't interpret policies, negotiate claims or act as an adjuster. Your carrier decides what's covered, and the deductible stays yours. Our insurance claims page explains where we fit in.