Water damage restoration in Fort Worth, TX starts with knowing which water you have
Fort Worth grew up where the Clear Fork and the West Fork of the Trinity River come together, and it still lives with that river, with creeks that rise fast inside Loop 820, and with an aging water system that buckled in February 2021.
When you search for water damage restoration in Fort Worth, TX, the first useful question is where the water came from. Rain that rose up out of Marine Creek or Village Creek is a different job, with different insurance and different safety rules, than a supply line that split in the attic of a Fairmount bungalow or a water heater that failed in a garage in far north Fort Worth.
Water Damage Pro Dallas is a free phone line for the whole metroplex, Fort Worth included. Call (469) 649-7066 at any hour, tell the automated assistant what happened and where, and it transfers you to an independent, locally owned restoration company that takes Fort Worth calls. That company visits, takes moisture readings and writes up its own estimate for you to review.
Fort Worth numbers to have before you need them
A restoration company cannot do much until the water is stopped. These are the public contacts that apply inside Fort Worth city limits. Write them down or save them in your phone.
| Problem | Who handles it | How to reach them |
|---|---|---|
| Water main break, water surfacing in the street or yard, sewer backup from the city line | Fort Worth Water | 817-392-4477, option 1, or the MyFW app, 24 hours a day including holidays |
| Street flooding, clogged inlets, drainage that sends water toward houses | City stormwater staff | City Call Center 817-392-1234 or the MyFW app |
| Questions about a flood zone, base flood elevation or a floodway | Floodplain Management | 817-392-6261 or floodplain@fortworthtexas.gov |
| Power outage or a downed line | Oncor | 888-313-4747; for a downed line, stay away and call 911 |
| Gas smell | Atmos Energy | Leave first, then call 911 and 866-322-8667 from outside |
| Water inside the house after the source is off | A restoration company | The free line: (469) 649-7066 |
The city says email to the water department is not watched around the clock, so never report a break that way. A break on the house side of the meter, say a split pipe inside a wall, is yours to handle: close the home's main valve when that is safe to do, and have a plumber repair the line.
Safety first. Shut off the main water valve if you can get to it without risk. Water and electricity together are the real hazard, so stay out of any puddle that touches an outlet, a cord or an appliance. Switch off the breaker only when the panel can be reached from dry flooring; if it cannot, call Oncor or an electrician. A gas smell means everyone goes outside, and the calls to 911 and Atmos Energy are made from there. Floodwater and sewage are not safe to wade through, for adults, children or pets. Once everyone is safe, take photos for the insurance claim and carry valuables and documents to a dry room.
A river city: the floodway, the creeks and flash floods inside Loop 820
The flood of 1949 shaped modern Fort Worth. The Tarrant Regional Water District says it killed 10 people, left more than 13,000 homeless and wrecked hundreds of homes and businesses along the Clear Fork and West Fork. What came next was the Fort Worth Floodway, 27 miles of levees designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and run today by the water district.
Those levees were sized for a much smaller city. The water district says today's residents and buildings behind those levees are not adequately protected, which is why the Central City project is building a 1.5-mile bypass channel near downtown to carry Trinity floodwater past the area north of downtown.
Creeks that flood roads
The city's stormwater program lists the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity, Mary's Creek, Marine Creek and Village Creek among its major flood sources, plus several smaller streams.
Flash floods are the usual kind
Fort Worth says flash flooding is its most common flood type and that it mostly happens inside Loop 820, where pavement sends rain into drains and channels in minutes.
Flashers are not permission
High-water warning flashers mark some of the worst road crossings. The city's advice: if water is over the road, do not drive through it, even when the lights are not flashing.
Storms Fort Worth remembers
Big rain events here tend to hit streets and cars first and houses second, but the water that reaches a home is usually the dirtiest kind. Rising creek water is Category 3 in the ANSI/IICRC S500 water damage standard, the same grade as sewage, so carpet, pad and lower drywall it soaked are usually cut out rather than dried.
- September 8, 2018. A flash flood in Fort Worth pushed a stalled car off an access road and into a flooded culvert near Wilbarger Street, drowning a young mother and her 2-year-old daughter. That afternoon a man died when his vehicle was swept away in the 4200 block of South Cravens Road.
- August 21 to 22, 2022. The storm that set a 24-hour rain mark at DFW Airport also hit Fort Worth hard: the fire department took about 500 calls for service and carried out 174 high-water rescues and investigations.
- February 2021. Not a flood, but the most widespread water damage event of recent years. More on that below.
If floodwater came into your house, stay out of it until the power is off and the water is gone, photograph everything from a dry spot, and call your flood insurer if you carry a policy. Standard homeowners policies do not cover flood. The flood damage restoration page walks through what a company does with Category 3 water.
Check your flood risk by address, not by rumor
Fort Worth gives residents three ways to look up a property: the city's Flood Risk Viewer, the OneAddress portal and the FEMA Map Service Center. The first one matters most here because Fort Worth also maps local flood risk areas that are not on FEMA's maps. A city presentation on that effort called it a common misconception that FEMA maps every floodplain.
That has two practical meanings. A lender may not require flood insurance on a house that still sits near a known problem street. And under FEMA rules a fresh National Flood Insurance Program policy usually starts 30 days after you buy it, with limited exceptions, so buying one when the forecast turns ugly is usually too late.
Before you sign anything after a flood, ask your insurer which policy applies: the homeowners policy for a burst pipe or appliance leak, the flood policy for water that rose from outside.
February 2021 in Fort Worth: more than 700 broken mains
When the winter storm knocked out power across Texas, three of Fort Worth's four water treatment plants lost power too. KERA reported more than 700 water main breaks in Fort Worth during the storm, more than the city had in all of 2020, and a boil notice for more than 300,000 people, many of whom had no power to boil anything. Losing power at the Eagle Mountain plant is what set off the north Fort Worth boil notice.
Part of the story is the pipe itself. More than 20 percent of the city's water mains are cast iron, and those pipes cause most of Fort Worth's main breaks even in mild weather. After the storm the city sped up its replacement of that old cast iron, a job measured in hundreds of miles of pipe.
Inside homes, the damage showed up when the thaw came: split lines in attics, exterior walls and crawlspaces started spraying as soon as water pressure returned. If a freeze is forecast, know where your main shutoff is before it gets cold. If a pipe bursts, shut the main, open a faucet to drain the line, and call. Our burst pipe page explains what drying a frozen pipe leak usually involves.
Water damage in Fort Worth's older frame houses
A lot of Fort Worth's character comes from its early neighborhoods. The city's preservation office describes Fairmount, on the Southside, as a middle-class district built between 1890 and 1938, with most of its houses dating from 1905 to 1920. They are mostly wood-frame, and bungalows are the most common style. Its National Register survey counted more than 1,000 contributing buildings.
Houses of that age and type often sit on pier-and-beam foundations: a wood floor frame resting on piers, with a crawlspace under it instead of a concrete slab. That changes how water damage behaves.
- A leak can drip into the crawlspace for weeks without a stain inside, while the subfloor, joists and soil underneath stay wet.
- Rain that ponds against the foundation can collect under the house, raising humidity in the floor frame.
- Supply lines in a crawlspace are more exposed in a hard freeze than lines buried under a slab.
- Old plaster walls and original wood floors dry differently than drywall and carpet, and the IICRC treats dense materials like these as specialty drying.
In newer Fort Worth houses built on a concrete slab, the hidden problem is different: a slab leak, where a water line under the concrete breaks and shows up as a warm or damp floor spot or a monthly water bill that climbs with no new use to explain it. A plumber finds and fixes the pipe; a restoration company dries what got wet. See slab leak water damage.
Fort Worth permits after water damage
Once the house is dry, the rebuild has rules. Fort Worth Development Services publishes a residential guide that spells out several common triggers:
- Drywall. Replacing 16 square feet or more of drywall in any wall or ceiling needs a building permit. A typical flood cut along a bedroom wall passes that quickly.
- Plumbing. Plumbing repairs, including replacing a water heater or a shower pan, need a plumbing permit.
- Heating and air. Repairs to HVAC equipment and duct work need a mechanical permit, which matters when attic ducts were soaked.
- Historic districts. If you live in one of the city's designated historic districts, ask the preservation office what review applies before changing windows, siding or porches.
Ask the company you hire, in writing, who pulls which permits and whether the cost is in the estimate. Development Services now works out of the City Hall building at 100 Fort Worth Trail.
Services Fort Worth callers ask about most
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.
Flood Damage Restoration
Rising water from creeks, streets and the Trinity is Category 3. What flood cleanup involves, how to read a FEMA flood map, and why a home policy is not a flood policy.
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.
Sewage Cleanup
A toilet, tub or floor drain pushing up dirty water is a Category 3 mess. Who owns the pipe, who to call first and what a careful cleanup looks like.
Mold Remediation
How a licensed Texas mold remediation runs from the assessor's protocol to clearance and the certificate, and how to judge a Dallas mold remediation company before you sign.
What to ask a Fort Worth restoration company before work starts
- Did the water come from inside the house or from outside, and what category do you think it is?
- Is this a crawlspace job, a slab job or both, and how will you check under the floor?
- Which materials will you cut out, and can the original wood floors or plaster be dried in place?
- Will you give me daily moisture readings and a written estimate before you start?
- Who pulls the City of Fort Worth permits for drywall, plumbing or mechanical work?
- Is your firm listed on the IICRC Global Locator, and will your insurer send me a certificate of insurance?
- If you find mold over 25 square feet, will you tell me so I can hire a separate licensed assessor?
The guide to checking a company explains each question, and the Texas mold rules guide shows how to look up a TDLR license.
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.
How the free line works for Fort Worth calls
- 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.
Tell the assistant your Fort Worth neighborhood or ZIP code, what got wet and whether water is still coming in. Whoever picks up the transfer will look at the house before giving you any written number.
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 in Saginaw
- Water damage in North Richland Hills
- Water damage in Arlington
- Water damage in Burleson
- What to Do in the First 24 to 48 Hours
Other DFW towns the line covers
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