Bringing wet walls, floors and framing back to normal moisture with air movers and dehumidifiers, timed for how slowly humid air lets water leave a building.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Structural drying returns wet walls, floors and framing to their normal moisture level after a water loss. In Tampa, warm, humid outside air holds moisture and slows the process, so the plan leans on controlled air movement, dehumidifiers and daily readings rather than on opening the windows. Calls are answered 24/7 on (833) 490-5225.
Drying is the stage of a water loss that most homeowners do not see. Once the standing water is gone, the building still holds water in its materials, inside the wall, under the floor and in the framing. Structural drying is the work of moving that water out of the structure and into the air, where it can be removed, until the materials read as normal again.
In Tampa the air outside is itself a problem. Warm, humid air carries a great deal of moisture, and opening a window to let a room air out can add more water than it removes on a humid day. Drying here relies on sealed rooms, air movers that keep air moving over wet surfaces and dehumidifiers that strip the moisture out of the air, with the windows kept shut while the work runs.
The plan is set from readings, not from the calendar. Moisture meters, thermo-hygrometers and readings taken through the wall give a number for each material. Those numbers decide how many air movers go in, where they point and when a room is ready to close. Drying is finished when the readings come back to normal, and not before.
Dehumidifiers and air movers are electrical equipment and should be run on circuits the crew has checked, with cords kept off wet floors. Do not run a generator inside a sealed room, because the exhaust is dangerous. Keep children and pets out of rooms where equipment is running, and keep the doors that are sealed closed. Opening a wall or a floor can expose insulation, dust and sharp edges, so wear a dust mask and gloves near any opening. This page describes the drying work and does not cover structural repair.
Before the drying equipment goes in, the crew takes readings from dry materials and from the wet ones, so the baseline is known. The map shows which walls, floors and framing hold water, and it becomes the reference for every reading that follows.
Windows and doors are kept shut so the humid outside air does not feed the process. Air movers are placed to sweep air across wet surfaces, and dehumidifiers are set to pull moisture out of the sealed air. The equipment is placed for the room, not for a standard layout.
Where the moisture sits inside a wall or under a floor, the crew may remove baseboard, lift a strip of flooring or make small inspection holes so air can reach the wet framing. The openings are kept as small as the work allows and are closed once the readings have come back.
Readings are taken each day, and the equipment is moved as the materials dry. A room that dries fast gets its equipment moved to the next room, and a room that stalls gets more air movement or a different placement. Each day's readings go into the record.
The job is complete when the readings return to the baseline and the materials are back to normal. The crew removes the equipment, reinstates the openings and records the final readings. A room that still reads wet is not closed out, however dry it looks.
Drying works by moving water from a material into the air and then removing it from the air. Humid air is already close to full of moisture, so it accepts less water from the wet materials.
The air's capacity to take up moisture falls as its humidity rises. In a warm, humid city such as Tampa, the outside air often holds more water than a dry-climate room, and a window opened to let the room air out can bring moisture in as well as remove it. That is why the drying plan uses sealed rooms, dehumidifiers that take water out of the air and air movers that keep the surface moving. Drying a building in humid air takes longer and needs more equipment than the same job in a dry climate.
The readings measure the moisture content of each material and the humidity of the air in the room. Together they show whether water is still leaving the structure and whether the air is able to take it.
A moisture meter gives a number for a material such as drywall, wood or concrete, and that number is compared with the dry baseline taken before the work started. The air's humidity and temperature are read separately, and the two together show how fast drying can run. The readings are logged each day, and the trend matters more than any single number, because a falling trend shows the drying is working.
Dense and sealed materials release water more slowly than thin and porous ones, and materials in a cavity or under a floor take longer to reach the air.
Drywall dries faster than framing, because it is thin and exposed on one face. A solid wood sill or a subfloor under a heavy floor covering can hold water for a long time, and the water in the framing behind a wall moves slowly toward the room. The crew treats each material on its own, and the close-out waits for the slowest one, which is usually the framing or the subfloor rather than the surface the homeowner can see.
A home dehumidifier or a fan can help a little, but without readings it can stop the drying too early or leave a wet cavity untouched. A plan from readings is the difference between a dry room and a dry structure.
Household fans and dehumidifiers are useful in a small wet area, but they do not reach a wall cavity or a floor cavity, and they can run for days while the framing stays wet. Placing equipment without readings tends to dry the surface and leave the structure wet. If the homeowner runs a dehumidifier while waiting for the crew, keep the room closed, keep the door to the rest of the house shut and note the time it was started on the record.
Drying is finished when the materials read at their dry baseline on the last reading and the air in the room is stable. A room that looks dry but still reads wet has not finished.
The close-out depends on readings, not on the appearance of a floor or a wall. Paint and flooring can look finished while the framing behind them is still damp, and closing the wall too early is how a dry-looking room develops mold months later. The crew records the final readings for each material and gives the homeowner a copy, so the record of the drying is kept with the rest of the claim papers.
A slab floor has no air space below it, so the moisture stays in the room and the materials along the wall. Drying a ground-floor room is about the walls and the baseboard as much as the floor, and it often takes longer than a room with an air space beneath it.
Water that runs down a wall stays in the cavity between the studs. The crew opens the wall at its low point, sets air movement into the cavity and monitors the framing until the readings settle. This is a slower job than drying a floor, and it is judged by the framing, not the paint.
When water spreads through a hallway into two or three rooms, the drying is planned as one job. Each room has its own readings, and the air is balanced across the rooms so one room does not hold moisture that the others have released.
Tampa's warm, humid air makes outdoor airing a poor drying step from late spring to autumn. The drying plan keeps windows shut and relies on dehumidifiers, so the home stays sealed during the work.
In Tampa the wet season runs from June to November, and a drying job that starts in that window can run into a second rain. The readings are kept going through the rain, and a rise in the readings after a storm is treated as a new entry.
Some older Tampa districts were built largely between about 1900 and 1940, and older framing and plaster hold water longer than newer materials. The plan for those rooms allows more time and more opening than a newer room would need.
Call any hour and explain what is going on. You get a clear price before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Pumping standing storm water out of garages, ground floors and lower rooms across Tampa and Hillsborough County, starting with the water that is still moving.
Finding water that has moved behind plaster, under flooring or into framing, and mapping how far it reached before any wall is opened.
Opening walls and lifting floors to the line the moisture readings set, removing what has soaked through and leaving the rest to dry.
Checking for mold after a water loss, cleaning or removing what it has reached, and keeping the assessor and the remediator apart where the rules require it.
A water damage job is priced by its drivers, not by a fixed figure: how much water came in and how far it spread, what kind of water it was, how long it stayed before anyone acted, which materials it reached and how humid air slows the drying.
Drying is finished when the readings return to the dry baseline, not when a set number of days has passed.
In Florida the Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses mold assessors and remediators.
It depends on how deep the water went and what it soaked into. Surface drying can be quick, while framing and subfloor drying take longer. The timeline is set from readings and is not promised in advance, and the readings show when the job is done.
Outside air in this climate often holds more moisture than the room. Opening a window can add water to the air and slow the drying. The crew keeps the room sealed and uses dehumidifiers to take moisture out of the air instead.
It pulls moisture out of the air in the sealed room, which lets the wet materials release water into that air. The water is collected or drained away, and the readings show whether the air and the materials are both coming down.
Air movers and dehumidifiers do not damage sound flooring, but they can cup or lift flooring that is already soaked. The crew checks the flooring as the drying runs and notes any change in the record.
Not until the readings for the framing behind it are back at the dry baseline. A wall that looks dry from the room can still hold moisture in the cavity, and closing it early is a common reason for mold later on.
The drying work itself is between the homeowner and the local company that carries it out. This line does not warrant any work performed. The disclaimer page explains the arrangement in full.