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Historic courthouse square with brick storefronts on a wet street after rain in a North Texas county seat

Water Damage Restoration in McKinney, Texas

A century-old house off the square or a five-year-old two-story in a master-planned neighborhood: when water gets loose, call free at any hour and get connected with an independent company that takes McKinney calls.

Call (469) 649-7066 McKinney water and utility contacts

Two McKinneys, two kinds of water problems

McKinney is the Collin County seat, and it still has the houses to prove its age. It has also grown at a pace few towns match, so a water damage call here can come from an 1880s cottage or from a house finished last spring.

The square and the streets around it are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a commercial historic district and a residential historic district, with Italianate storefronts and Queen Anne and revival style houses from about 1880 into the 1930s. Chestnut Square keeps homes as old as the 1850s. A few miles west, the city filled in with master-planned neighborhoods such as Stonebridge Ranch, Craig Ranch near the Sam Rayburn Tollway, and Tucker Hill near US 380. Community Impact reported that the population grew 141 percent from 2000 to 2010 alone.

Those two kinds of housing fail in different ways, and they dry in different ways. That is the main reason water damage restoration in McKinney is not one job.

Older kitchen with wood cabinets and the door under the sink standing open

Water damage restoration in McKinney, by the age of the house

Historic homes near the square

Original plaster, heart pine and oak floors, old brick and decades of layered paint hold water longer than modern materials. The IICRC's S500 standard calls drying dense materials like these Class 4, specialty drying, which takes slower, more targeted work. Houses of this era were often built off the ground on piers and beams rather than on a slab, so water can collect in the space under the floor where nobody sees it. Old supply lines and drains inside walls are another common source.

Ask whether the company has dried plaster and solid wood floors before, and how it will protect trim and finishes you want to keep.

Newer subdivisions

Two-story houses built in the last 25 years tend to fail at the joints: a washer hose, an ice maker line, a toilet supply, an upstairs bathroom leaking through the kitchen ceiling, or a water heater or AC drain pan in the attic. These homes sit on concrete slabs over Blackland Prairie clay, which swells when wet and shrinks when dry. That movement can stress pipes under the slab until a floor turns warm or damp.

Ask for moisture readings in the rooms below and beside the leak, not only the room where you saw water.

New subdivision rooftops at the edge of open prairie, seen from above

McKinney water, power and permit contacts

  • Water emergencies: City of McKinney, 972-547-7360, answered 24 hours, for an emergency turn-off, a main break, a meter leak, a hydrant leak or an overflowing wastewater main.
  • Your side of the meter: the city says owners are responsible for plumbing from the meter into the house, and for a frozen or broken private pipe you need a licensed plumber. The valve between the meter and the street is for city staff only.
  • Electricity: Oncor delivers power to much of the city, but Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative also serves an area it calls McKinney East, and outage trackers list CoServ for parts of McKinney too. Look at your bill so you know which one to call.
  • Gas: Atmos Energy. A gas smell means everyone leaves and calls 911 and Atmos from outside.
  • Permits: Building Inspections, 469-617-4800, and the city's home repair permit page.
  • Floodplain: the city Engineering Department keeps floodplain records and links to FEMA's flood map viewer.

McKinney's treated water comes from the North Texas Municipal Water District, which draws on Lavon Lake among other sources and treats it at its Wylie plant, so a regional supply notice can reach McKinney taps even when nothing is wrong in your street.

Wilson Creek, the East Fork and where McKinney floods

Water has shaped McKinney from the start. Wilson Creek runs through the city, under US 380 and US 75, and joins the East Fork of the Trinity River at Lavon Lake. Local history holds that high water on Wilson Creek and nearby streams in 1846 kept voters away from the polls in the election that settled the county seat. Today the US Geological Survey keeps stream gauges on Wilson Creek at McKinney and just downstream of US 75, and you can watch the readings online during a storm.

FEMA finalized new flood insurance rate maps for McKinney, Plano, Allen and unincorporated Collin County in 2017. Before you buy, sell or renew, look up your address on the FEMA map the city links to. Two points matter after a storm:

  • Water rising from a creek or running in from the street is Category 3 under the IICRC standard, grossly contaminated. Stay out of it, and expect soaked carpet, pad and lower drywall it touched to be removed.
  • Standard homeowners policies do not cover flood. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program sells separate policies, and a new one generally takes 30 days to take effect, so it cannot be bought once the creek is up.
Person at a kitchen counter looking at a colored flood map on a laptop

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 CoServ or Grayson-Collin, if one of them is on your bill) 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.

Storms, ice and big old trees

McKinney's mature trees are part of its charm, and they are also how a lot of rain gets indoors. A heavy limb through the roof, hail that cracks shingles and windows, or ice that brings down a branch can each open a house to the next rain.

Each of those starts the same way: an opening in the roof or a wall, rain coming in behind it, and wet insulation and drywall that keep holding water after the sky clears. The February 2021 freeze hit every Collin County town, too. DFW Airport stayed at or below freezing for 139 hours and dropped to minus 2 degrees, and pipes in attics and outside walls split across the region.

After a storm, get the roof or wall covered first, photograph everything for your insurer, and then have the wet areas measured. Insulation that looks fine on top can be soaked against the ceiling drywall.

See burst pipe water damage and ceiling water damage for what happens next.

Large oak limb lying across the roof of a brick ranch home after a storm

Services McKinney callers ask about

Most McKinney calls fit one of these. Each page explains the job and what to ask before you sign.

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.

Slab Leak Water Damage

A leak under the foundation needs two trades: a licensed plumber finds and repairs the pipe, and a restoration company dries the floors and walls it soaked.

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.

Mold Removal and Black Mold

Black mold after a leak in a DFW home: why color does not decide the risk, where the 25 square foot line falls in Texas, what to leave alone, and why the leak is fixed first.

Questions to put to a company working in McKinney

  1. What category and class is this water? The answer decides which floors and walls get saved and which get torn out.
  2. How will you dry plaster, old wood floors or the space under a raised floor? Ask this in any house built before about 1940.
  3. Which repairs will need a McKinney permit? A new water heater, rewiring or foundation work usually does; ask who pulls it.
  4. Can I see the IICRC firm listing and a certificate of insurance? Check the firm on the IICRC Global Locator yourself.
  5. If you find mold, does the job cross the 25 square foot line where Texas rules generally call for one licensed firm to write the plan and another to carry it out? Run each name through TDLR's online lookup before anyone starts.
  6. Will the estimate be in writing before work begins? Then call your insurer and ask what your policy covers.

How the free line handles a McKinney call

Nobody from Water Damage Pro Dallas comes to the house; the number exists to put you through to a company that does. Say McKinney first, then the source of the water and whether it is still running.

  1. 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".
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

Whether it is a split pipe in a Stonebridge Ranch attic or water under the floor of an old house near the square, start by naming the street or neighborhood. The company on the other end comes out to look, and you can ask it to put its price on paper before anything is cut or pulled up.

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

Other DFW towns the line covers

What McKinney homeowners ask about water damage

Who do I call in McKinney to shut off water at the meter?

The City of McKinney asks residents to call 972-547-7360 to request an emergency water turn-off or to report a water main break, a meter leak or an overflowing wastewater main, and lists that line as answered 24 hours. The valve between the meter and the street is for city staff only, so use your own private shutoff first if you can reach it. Then call the line for the water removal side of the job.

Does my old house near downtown McKinney need a different kind of drying?

It can. Homes in McKinney's historic districts date as far back as the 1850s, and old plaster, solid wood floors and brick dry far more slowly than modern drywall. The IICRC's S500 standard treats dense materials like these as Class 4, specialty drying. Ask the company how it plans to dry them without damaging original finishes, and get that plan in writing before work starts. The company checklist has more questions.

Do I need a McKinney permit to fix water damage?

Some repairs do. The city's home repair page lists permits for electrical, mechanical, foundation and roof work, doors and windows and water heaters, while painting, flooring, cabinets and minor leak repairs are listed as not needing one. If a burst pipe ruins your water heater or the wiring got wet, expect a permit. Building Inspections answers questions at 469-617-4800. See water damage repair.

Is my McKinney home in a flood zone?

Check the address. The city's Engineering Department keeps McKinney's floodplain records and links to FEMA's map viewer, and FEMA finalized new flood maps for McKinney, Plano and Allen in 2017. Wilson Creek and the streams feeding the East Fork of the Trinity River carry most of the mapped floodplain. Standard home policies do not cover flood, so read the insurance guide before you assume either way.

Can I get a mold test in McKinney through this number?

Not by transfer yet. Texas keeps mold assessment and mold remediation separate on any one project, so testing is its own job. If you call about testing, the assistant takes your name, number, address and need as a message, and it cannot promise when a test happens. Mold removal calls are transferred to an independent remediation company. Read how mold testing works in Texas.

Water in a McKinney home right now? Call the free 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.