These are the questions people in Camas, Washougal, and the rest of Clark County ask when they call about water in the house. Each answer leads with the answer.
Close the valve at the meter box if the water is from a pipe and the box is safe to reach. Keep power off to any room where water touched an outlet. Move what you can carry off the wet floor, open the cabinet doors, and photograph each room before anything goes outside. Leave the wet materials where they are.
Usually from outside, not from a pipe. A 1920s house near downtown has footing drains that silted up decades ago, and months of rain simply rise through the dirt. Crawl space water extraction pumps it out, pulls the soaked insulation, and meters the joists, then the drainage problem gets fixed so it does not come back in March.
Not a plumbing leak. On Prune Hill and around Green Mountain the slope holds water all winter, and it enters at the footing behind the drywall. Water extraction pulls what is on the floor, and the crew opens the base of that wall to dry the framing. The grading and the downspouts on the uphill side need attention too.
Get the water off at the meter, then call a plumber for the pipe and call here for the rooms it soaked. The east wind that dropped Camas into the teens in January 2024 split lines all over town, and most of them showed up when the thaw started. Burst pipe water damage work dries the garage, the wall it shares with the house, and the floor below if there is one.
Not yet. Fir subfloor, studs, and drywall hold water long after the surface feels dry, and a house shut tight against a Camas winter does not dry itself. The structural drying crew sets air movers and dehumidifiers by the meter and keeps reading until the fir and the drywall hit their targets.
Not always. A floor that cupped from water underneath can flatten if the drying starts before the boards swell past the point of return. Hardwood floor drying meters the boards and the subfloor, dries from both sides where it can, and tells you plainly if the floor is past saving.
A roofer stops the water. The inside is a separate job. Roof leak water damage work dries the attic insulation, the ceiling drywall, and any wall the water ran down. Do not stand under a ceiling that is sagging, and do not poke it.
Turn off every fixture and watch the meter dial. If it keeps turning, water is leaving the system somewhere between the meter and the house. Leak detection narrows down the line before anyone opens a wall or cuts a slab.
Yes, and it is handled differently. Creek and river water carries silt, fuel, and whatever was on the ground upstream, so porous materials it touched usually come out instead of drying in place. Flood cleanup removes the mud and the contaminated material first, then the drying starts.
Ask your agent, because this site cannot read your policy. Most standard homeowner policies treat groundwater, seepage, and surface runoff as excluded, while a burst pipe is often covered as a sudden loss. The provider documents the readings, the photos, and the scope either way, and the adjuster decides.
Drying and cleanup need no permit. Replacing drywall, plumbing, or wiring usually does. Inside the city that is the Camas Building Division. In Fern Prairie, Hockinson, and the other unincorporated areas it is Clark County Community Development, and in Skamania County it is the county building desk in Stevenson. When the rebuild needs a permit, the provider is the one who pulls it.
Only the shutoff. Flip the breaker for the pump instead of hunting for a street valve, and tell the crew the house is on a well and septic. A backed-up drain field after weeks of rain is a different job from a supply leak, so say which one you have.
Providers represent their own licensing and insurance. You can look up any Washington contractor on the Department of Labor and Industries site before you hire, and the About page has the direct link. Request the certificate of insurance while you are at it.
Call (360) 226-7395. Tell the person who answers where the water started, whether it is still coming in, and whether the house is on a crawl space, a daylight basement, or a slab.