Emergency
Storm Surge & Tidal Flooding Tarpon Springs, FL
Surge and tidal water rise from the ground up and carry salt and silt with them. Anything porous they soaked is treated as contaminated. Outside water that rose into the building is treated as contaminated, and porous material it reached is removed. Salt left behind in materials keeps pulling water from the air, so it is cleaned out with the rest.
Shut off the water, then pick up the phone
Often needed alongside
- Emergency Water Extraction
Standing water removed before it soaks into slab, block and flooring - the first step after any failure, and the one humid air makes urgent.
- Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion
Wind pushes rain sideways through window frames, stucco and the base of the wall. The roof can hold and the house still take water.
- Sewer & Septic Backflow Cleanup
Heavy rain and a high water table can push sewage back through the lowest drain in the building. Clear or murky, it is handled as sewage.
Frequently asked questions
Why can water inside the wall of an old Tarpon Springs house show up far from where it got in?
The historic district's frame vernacular houses, many built around Spring Bayou from the 1880s on, are balloon framed in pine. Their studs run unbroken from the sill to the roof, leaving an open cavity the full height of the wall. Water that enters near the eaves, or condenses inside the wall, can run down that cavity and appear at the sill, a story or more below.
How is salt water from the bayous different from rain for a Tarpon Springs home?
Rain on the Gulf wind wets a house from the top and the windward side. Water pushed up the bayous rises from below, reaching sills, slabs and the bottom of walls first, and it leaves salt in the wood and block when it drains. That salt holds on to water long after the bayou has fallen, so those lowest courses dry last.
Where does a manufactured home with an added room in Tarpon Springs take on water?
Manufactured homes make up about one in ten in Tarpon Springs. Where a room has been built on against one side of one, the joint where the addition meets the home, at the roof and down the wall, is rarely as tight as either part. Humid air works through it and condenses on the wall the home's cooling keeps cold, so stains and soft spots gather along that seam.
Each answer ties back to the Tarpon Springs overview.