Water Damage Restoration in Falls Church, VA

We restore water-damaged homes across Falls Church, in the City of Falls Church and in the Fairfax County neighborhoods with a Falls Church address. We answer 24/7, then extract the water, dry the house, document the damage for your insurer and rebuild.

Water damage in Falls Church homes, and where it starts

A Falls Church address can mean two different governments. The City of Falls Church, the "Little City," is an independent city with its own permits and its own stormwater program, covered by ZIP code 22046. The rest of Falls Church is Fairfax County: Baileys Crossroads and Lake Barcroft in 22041, the 22042 area, Pimmit Hills and Idylwood in 22043, and Seven Corners in 22044. The houses in these areas were built decades apart, so a leak in one acts nothing like a leak in another.

Older homes inside the City

Some of the oldest houses in the area are inside the City. Broadmont and East Falls Church have homes built as early as 1918. Greenway Downs and Virginia Forest date to the early 1940s. Winter Hill, built in 1949, is mostly condominiums, and Cherry Hill Townhomes went up in 1978 and 1979.

Older houses hide water in different ways than new ones. Plaster walls hold moisture longer than drywall and take more care to dry without cracking. Original cast iron or clay drain lines, where they are still in place, can crack or root up and back water into a basement. In a 1940s house with several additions, water from one leak can run along an old framing line into a room you would not expect.

Pimmit Hills and the 1950s slab houses

Pimmit Hills, in 22043, was built out between 1950 and the late 1950s with about 1,675 homes. Most of the early houses were small, and the neighborhood's own history says a large share were built on a slab or a crawlspace instead of a basement. That changes the cleanup:

• On a slab, a supply line or water heater leak spreads under flooring and wicks into the bottom of every wall it touches. There is no basement to drain into, so the water sits where you live.
• Over a crawlspace, a leak can run for weeks before you notice a soft floor or a musty smell. By then the insulation is soaked and the subfloor may need to come out.
• Next to a teardown, a large new house with a full basement can change the grading between lots. When the yards drain differently, rain can end up running toward the older, lower house.

Holmes Run Acres and Lake Barcroft

Holmes Run Acres was built between 1951 and 1958 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its houses are mid-century modern, with lots of wood and glass, which sets them apart from the brick ramblers and split-levels around them. On homes with long runs of windows and low-pitched roofs, water from a roof or flashing leak can travel along a beam and show up far from where it got in. Repairs on these houses need a builder who respects the original design.

Lake Barcroft, in 22041, was developed in the early 1950s around a private lake. Many homes sit on sloped lots, and a lower level that faces downhill can take on water when a heavy storm overwhelms the yard drains.

Tripps Run, Four Mile Run and flash floods

Tripps Run and Four Mile Run carry water through the City toward the Potomac. In September 2011, flooding hit the floodplain corridors of both streams. On July 8, 2019, more than three inches of rain fell on the City in about an hour and a half. Tripps Run flooded into backyards and basements, and the South Oak Street bridge was damaged. A storm like that can leave flooded basements across a whole neighborhood at once, including in homes that had never taken on water before.

From the first call to the finished room

When you call, we stop the water, extract it and set drying equipment. We take moisture readings on every visit until the structure is dry, and we photograph the damage and write the estimate as we go. We send that documentation to your insurer and meet your adjuster at your home. Then the same crew does the rebuild, from drywall and insulation to flooring, trim and paint. The company is owned by Curtis Berg, a Navy Seabees veteran with 42 years as a journeyman builder, so an old house gets put back together by people who build for a living.