Freshly painted wall over a bare concrete floor with moving boxes waiting along the wall

Water Damage Repair in Dallas, From Wet Walls to Finished Rooms

Repair is the second half of a water job. First the house is dried and checked, then drywall, floors, cabinets and paint go back in. Call to reach a local company for either stage.

Call (469) 649-7066 Mitigation versus repair

Water damage repair in Dallas is really two jobs

Most people who look up water damage repair in Dallas mean the whole thing: getting a wet, torn-up room back to the way it looked before. In practice that happens in two separate stages, and knowing which one you are in makes every phone call easier.

Stage one: mitigation

Also called abatement or water damage restoration. The goal is to stop the damage from spreading. That means extracting standing water, cutting out wet drywall and pulling carpet pad that cannot be saved, and running air movers and dehumidifiers until moisture readings are normal. The industry standard for this stage is ANSI/IICRC S500.

Stage two: repair or rebuild

Once the structure is dry, the house gets put back together: new drywall, tape and texture, baseboards, flooring, cabinets, countertops if they came out, and paint. This is ordinary construction work, and it may involve permits, inspections and several trades.

Some DFW restoration companies do both stages. Others dry the house and hand the rebuild to a general contractor. Neither is wrong, but you should know which you are getting before anyone starts, so ask directly.

Room with the drywall cut away in a straight line about two feet up, showing the studs

What gets repaired, part by part

Each material reacts to water differently, which is why one room can end up with some parts kept and others replaced.

Part of the house	Often dried and kept when	Often replaced when
Drywall	Wet briefly with clean water, still firm, dried quickly	Soft, swollen, wet from a drain or floodwater, or moldy; usually cut a set height above the waterline
Insulation in walls	Rarely; it holds water	Soaked batts or blown-in insulation behind removed drywall
Carpet and pad	Clean water caught early; carpet may be dried, pad less often	Gray or black water, or pad that stayed wet
Wood floors	Mild cupping that settles as the floor dries slowly	Boards that buckle, crack or lift from the subfloor
Cabinets	Solid wood boxes dried with toe kicks removed	Particleboard bases that swelled or delaminated
Slab and framing	Almost always dried in place	Rotted or mold-damaged framing

On a concrete slab foundation, the floor can only dry from the top, so concrete under tile or vinyl may stay wet longer than you expect. An older pier-and-beam house, built on short posts with open space beneath, has a crawlspace under the floor that may need its own drying.

Building permits for water damage repairs in Dallas

Many homeowners are surprised to learn that some repairs need a city permit. City of Dallas guidance written for single-family storm repairs says that construction work, including repair work, requires permits, while replacing or repairing damaged sheetrock, siding or windows typically does not. Replacing structural members such as joists, rafters and wall sections requires a building permit, and electrical work may need its own permit and inspection.

Usually no permit: patching or replacing damaged drywall, painting, and laying new floor covering.
Likely a permit: replacing water lines or drains, moving or adding outlets or circuits, replacing a water heater, removing or moving walls, or structural repairs to joists or framing.
Who pulls it: the city says a registered contractor is generally listed on the permit application. A homeowner may work as their own contractor on their homestead under city rules, but only if no one is paid to help.
Not sure? Call Dallas Development Services at 214-948-4480 before the walls go back up. Fort Worth, Plano, Arlington and the other DFW cities have their own permit offices and rules.

Who repairs water damage: matching the trade to the problem

A water job often needs more than one kind of company. Getting the order right saves money and keeps you from paying twice.

The source gets fixed. A licensed plumber repairs a broken pipe, a slab leak or a failed water heater; a roof repair company handles a storm leak; an HVAC technician clears an AC drain line.
The house gets dried. A water damage restoration company removes water and wet materials, dries the structure and records moisture readings.
Mold gets handled if it is found. Texas rules come into play once a patch of mold reaches 25 contiguous square feet: a licensed assessment consultant writes the plan, and a different licensed remediation contractor follows it.
The house gets rebuilt. The restoration company or a general contractor puts back drywall, flooring, cabinets and paint, with permits and inspections where the city requires them.

The slab leak page explains the plumber and restoration split in more detail.

Kitchen with a lower cabinet removed and the floor and wall exposed after a leak

The written scope: your best tool in a water damage repair

A scope of work is the list of what will be removed, dried, replaced and finished, room by room. It is what your insurer compares against its own estimate, and it is how you hold a contractor to what was promised. A useful one includes:

Each room, with measurements and the materials in it.
What is being removed and why, such as "drywall cut 2 feet above floor, Category 2 water."
Drying equipment, how many days, and the readings at the start and the end.
Rebuild items listed separately from mitigation items, with quantities.
Who supplies matching materials, like flooring, cabinet doors or a texture match.
Any permit, who pulls it and when the inspection happens.

Keep your own record next to it: photos before anything was removed, the date the water started, a list of damaged belongings, and copies of every invoice. Texas Department of Insurance guidance warns that a claim can be turned down when the owner fails to take reasonable steps to keep the damage from growing, so save receipts for anything you did to stop the water.

Homeowner reading printed contract pages at a kitchen table beside a coffee mug

Ask your insurer, not the contractor. Guidance from the Texas Department of Insurance separates water that shows up suddenly and by accident, like a split pipe, an overflowing toilet or a failed washer hose, which most home and renter policies include, from slow leaks and seepage, which they usually leave out. Flooding is excluded from home policies altogether and needs a separate flood policy. Insurers can also refuse a claim when the owner did not take reasonable steps to limit further damage. Before you sign for any work, pull out your policy and call the insurer about what it includes. More on water damage and insurance.

Before you sign for repairs

Is the structure confirmed dry, and can I see the final moisture readings?
Will your company do the rebuild, or will you hand it off? Who is responsible if something is missed?
Which parts of this job need a City of Dallas permit (or my city's), and who will pull it?
Can you give me the scope in writing, with mitigation and rebuild listed separately?
How will you match the texture, paint, floor and cabinets in the rooms that were not damaged?
Can you send a certificate of insurance and tell me whether your firm is on the IICRC Global Locator?

See how to vet a water damage company for ways to verify each answer.

Other water damage pages

Water Extraction and Emergency Water Removal

Standing water from a supply line, water heater or storm: what extraction equipment does, carpet and pad decisions, and why drying has to follow.

Burst Pipe Water Damage

Frozen and failed pipes in attics, outside walls and garages. Shut the water off, call a plumber for the pipe and a restoration company for the drying.

Ceiling Water Damage

A brown ring, a bubble in the paint or a ceiling that has started to sag. What each sign means, how to stay safe under it and how a company decides to dry or replace.

How a call to the line works

Call the numberAn automated assistant answers (469) 649-7066 at any hour and asks what you need help with. The same number answers other home service calls too, so start with "water damage" or "mold".
Describe what happenedA burst pipe, standing water, a wet ceiling, a slab leak, a sewage backup or mold, plus your town and whether water is still coming in.
Get transferredWater damage calls go to an independent, locally owned DFW restoration company; mold removal calls go to an independent mold remediation company. Each hears a short summary before it picks up. Mold testing calls are taken as a message for now.
Deal with that company directlyIt inspects, quotes and does the work, and you pay it (or your insurer does, as you arrange). If it cannot answer, it gets your name, number, city and problem so it can call you back.

Still drying, or ready to rebuild? Call and describe where things stand. You will be transferred to an independent DFW restoration company, which looks at the house and writes up its own scope and estimate.

Call (469) 649-7066

About this line: Water Damage Pro Dallas is a free phone line, not a restoration or mold company. It answers your call and connects you with an independent local company, which inspects, quotes and does the work, and which you pay directly. Companies may pay a referral fee. Calling the line costs you nothing. See how a call is handled.

More pages that may help

Water damage repair across Dallas-Fort Worth

Water damage repair questions

Is water damage repairable?

Most of the time, yes, if the water is stopped and the structure is dried before it rots or grows mold. Framing, slabs and many cabinets can be dried and kept. Soaked carpet pad, swollen particleboard, wet insulation and drywall that sat in dirty water usually get replaced. What decides it is the type of water, how long it sat and what each material is made of. A restoration company checks with a moisture meter and tells you what can stay.

Who fixes water damage in a house?

Usually two or three trades. A plumber or roof repair company stops the source. A water damage restoration company handles mitigation: removing water, tearing out what cannot be saved and drying the structure. Then a contractor, sometimes the same restoration company and sometimes a separate builder, does the rebuild. Ask up front who will do each part. The free line connects you with a local restoration company.

How long does water damage repair take?

There is no single answer, because the job runs in stages. Drying alone usually takes several days of equipment running and daily moisture readings, and it is not finished until the readings say so. The rebuild depends on how much was removed, whether cabinets or flooring must be ordered, any permit or inspection, and your insurer's approval. Ask the company for a written schedule for each stage and what could change it.

Does Dallas require a permit for water damage repairs?

It depends on the work. City of Dallas guidance for single-family storm repairs says replacing or repairing damaged sheetrock typically does not require a permit, but structural work such as replacing joists or wall sections does, and electrical work may need its own permit and inspection. If walls are being moved, pipes replaced or wiring changed, a permit is likely. Ask your contractor who will pull it, or call Dallas Development Services at 214-948-4480. Other DFW cities set their own rules.

What is water damage abatement?

It is another name for mitigation, the work that stops water damage from getting worse: extracting standing water, removing soaked materials that cannot be dried, setting up air movers and dehumidifiers, and taking moisture readings until they come back normal. It comes before repair. Insurers often look at the two separately, so ask for each one to be listed on its own in the estimate. More on the first stage at water extraction.

Ready to put the house back together? Call the free DFW line

Say what happened and which town you are in. The automated assistant passes a water damage call to an independent, locally owned DFW restoration company, and a mold removal call to an independent mold remediation company. That company comes out, sees the damage and prices the work itself.

Call (469) 649-7066

Answers day or nightPipes burst at 3 a.m. and storms roll in after dark. The assistant picks up at any hour, every day of the year.
Free to callThe line never bills you. Any price comes from the company you are connected with, and you can ask for it in writing.
Mold testing is separateTexas keeps the mold assessor and the remediator on one job apart, so testing calls are taken as a message.
You decideHear what the company found, read its estimate, ask your insurer your questions, and say yes only when it makes sense.