What the crew does when they get there
The first visit is about getting water out of the house and stopping it from spreading into dry rooms. Expect the crew to:
- Confirm the source is shut off. If it is a supply line or water heater, they will show you the valve.
- Pump out standing water, then pull water out of carpet and pad with a portable or truck-mounted extractor.
- Check drywall, baseboards, subfloor and cabinet bases with moisture meters to see how far the water climbed.
- Remove pad and drywall that are too wet to dry in place, and take photos as they go.
- Set air movers and dehumidifiers, then come back to take readings until the house is dry.
Drywall wicks water upward for hours after a leak stops. A crew that starts the same day can usually keep the cut line low on the wall.
While you wait
- Turn off the water. Most Aurora homes have the main shutoff in the basement or crawlspace near the front wall, or in a utility closet in slab homes.
- Keep away from water that is touching outlets, cords, a furnace or the electrical panel. Shut off breakers only if you can reach the panel while standing somewhere dry.
- Get rugs, electronics and paper boxes off the wet floor.
- Take wide photos and close-ups of every wet room before you move or throw anything away.
- If the water came up through a floor drain or toilet, treat it as sewage and stay off it.
Where emergency calls come from in Aurora
Aurora grew in waves, and the leaks follow the age of the house. In Original Aurora, Delmar Parkway and Hoffman Heights, many homes went up in the 1940s and 1950s. Those houses tend to have galvanized supply lines, older water heaters tucked into small utility rooms, and basements that were finished years after the house was built. A slow leak there often shows up as a stain on the ceiling below a bathroom.
Central Aurora, around Village East, Utah Park and Heather Gardens, is mostly 1970s and 1980s construction with full basements. Out along E-470, in Saddle Rock, Tallyn's Reach and Murphy Creek, the houses are newer and often have finished lower levels, upstairs laundry rooms and PEX plumbing. When a washer hose splits or a water heater fails in one of those homes, water reaches carpet and drywall in minutes.
Crews take calls across Aurora ZIP codes 80010 through 80019 and 80045, plus Centennial, Parker, Commerce City and Englewood.