Contact Fortville Water Restoration

What should Fortville homeowners do in the first hour after a leak?

Start by making the area safe, then cut off the water at the closest valve you can reach. You don't need to clean anything up before you call.

• If you can reach the breaker panel from a dry floor, switch off the circuits for the wet rooms. If you'd have to step through water to get there, leave it alone and tell us on the call.
• Find the main shutoff and turn it clockwise until it stops. In a basement it's often next to the water meter, low on the wall that faces the street.
• For storm water coming in, the Ready.gov severe weather page has general safety steps. Once you're safe, move what you can off the floor and call us.
• After a hard freeze, check exterior walls and the garage for wet spots before you turn the water back on.
• If the sump pump is running nonstop and still losing ground, tell us on the call, because that changes what equipment the crew brings.
• Lift furniture onto blocks or move it to a dry room if you can do it safely, and leave heavy pieces for the crew.
• The EPA's mold and moisture guide says water damaged areas and items should be dried within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, so it's worth calling as soon as the water is under control.
• The Indiana Department of Insurance advises against permanent repairs before the insurance company's inspection, so stick to steps that stop the water and protect your things.

What will we ask when you call about water damage in Fortville?

A few details on the first call help the crew plan the visit before they leave.

• Which fixture or pipe is leaking, or that you can't tell yet.
• Whether anything came up through a basement floor drain, since older sewer lines in Fortville can back up in heavy rain.
• How deep the water is in the basement and whether it has reached the furnace or water heater.
• When you first noticed it, because the drying plan depends on how long materials have been wet.
• Roughly when the house was built. Much of Fortville went up in the 1970s to 2020s, and the age points the crew toward likely trouble spots.
• If the water came from the unit above or next door, so we know whose plumbing to look at.
• If any outlets or appliances are in the water.

Short answers are enough, since the crew will look at everything again in person.

How does the first visit to your house work?

They start where the water started, whether that's a supply line or a drain, and confirm it's stopped.

With the source stopped, they use moisture meters to find where the water spread inside walls and under floors, and the crew photographs each area for the photo report.

Our water restoration manager is IICRC certified. The IICRC's S500 standard covers professional water damage restoration, and its S520 standard covers mold remediation.

Then the crew walks you through what they found and what they'd recommend, so you can decide with your insurance company before any work starts.

When sewage is involved, the area is cleaned before it's dried, and the crew walks you through which soaked materials need to come out.

From there it's extraction and then drying, with the crew checking moisture readings until the wet materials are dry again.

What should the crew know about homes in Fortville?

With homes in Fortville built anywhere from the 1970s to 2020s, it helps to know which decade yours came from. The mix in Fortville includes ranch and two story homes. You'll find full basements and slab foundations around town, and the crew plans the drying differently for each. If your house has its original clay sewer line, a slow drain or a gurgling toilet can be an early warning. If your lot sits low, storm water and groundwater can come in through the foundation, so tell us if the water came from outside. Tell the person who answers what you know, and the crew will take it from there.

What parts of Fortville and nearby towns do we cover?

Homeowners in these parts of Fortville use this page:

• Historic Downtown Core · basements are common
• Blossom Trace · homes from the 2010s to 2020s, most with basements
• Beyers Estates · built mostly in the 2010s to 2020s, basements are common
• Mt. Vernon North · homes from the 2010s, basements are common
• Manship Estates · finished basements are common
• Memorial Park Neighborhood · homes from the 1960s to 1980s, basements are common

Calls from nearby Ingalls, Britton Falls, Avalon, McCordsville, Bridgewater, Tanglewood, Hawthorns and Saxony reach the same team. For addresses near the edge of the service area, call and the team will check whether a crew can get there. The service pages cover each job in more detail, starting with water damage restoration and basement flooding.

What should you know before you call?