Water, Fire & Mold Damage Restoration in Spring Hill

Spring Hill at a glance

Kanawha Restoration serves Spring Hill and western South Charleston (25309) with basement water removal and drying, fire and smoke cleanup, and mold removal. Most water damage here comes downhill into lower levels, or from plumbing and appliances inside the house.

Homes built into the hills

Spring Hill, Garden Heights, Ruthdale, Rock Lake Village, Yorktowne and the neighborhoods around them sit on the ridges and slopes above the Kanawha in western South Charleston. Streets wind along the contours, and many homes are built into the hillside: split-levels, raised ranches and walkout basements where the back of the lower level is buried in the slope and the front opens at ground level.

Those lower levels are usually finished, with family rooms, bedrooms, laundry rooms and bathrooms. That makes them comfortable, and it makes water damage more expensive, because carpet, pad, drywall and paneling all trap water.

Water damage in hillside homes

Runoff into lower levels is the most common problem. Rain from everything uphill runs toward the buried wall of the house, soaks the soil and pushes water through block joints, the floor-wall joint and window wells. It often shows up first as a damp strip of carpet along the back wall.

Sump pump failures are the second. Many lower levels depend on a sump pump that runs hardest during long storms, which is also when the power is most likely to go out.

Plumbing and appliances cause the rest: a laundry room on the lower level, a bathroom above a finished family room, or a water heater tucked into a utility closet. When water spreads under carpet and behind finished walls, the visible wet area is usually much smaller than the real one. Flooded basement cleanup and water extraction and drying explain how that is found and dried.

What we check in a Spring Hill home

• The buried uphill wall and the floor-wall joint, for seepage
• Carpet pad and tack strip along walls, where water spreads first
• The bottom of finished drywall and paneling, with moisture meters
• The sump pit, pump, discharge line and backup
• Bathrooms and laundry rooms above finished spaces

Fire and smoke damage

In a split-level or multi-level home, smoke rises through open stairways and spreads quickly to upper floors, even from a fire in a lower-level room. Kitchen fires, dryer fires and electrical fires are the usual causes. Cleanup covers every level the smoke reached, including the HVAC system. Smoke damage cleanup explains the process.

Mold in finished lower levels

Finished basements built into a hillside are one of the most common places for mold in the area. Drywall and carpet against cool concrete, humid summers and the occasional seepage are all it takes. Mold usually starts behind the drywall on the uphill wall or under carpet pad. Basement mold removal covers the work, and how to prevent mold in a damp basement covers keeping it away.

Keeping a hillside basement dry

• Clean gutters twice a year and extend downspouts well away from the house.
• Make sure soil slopes away from the foundation, especially on the uphill side.
• Ask a drainage contractor about a swale or curtain drain uphill of the house if water keeps coming in.
• Test the sump pump each spring and add a battery backup.
• Run a dehumidifier in the lower level through the summer.

How to reduce the risk of basement moisture goes into each of these.

Nearby areas

Spring Hill borders South Charleston, South Hills to the east and Cross Lanes across the river. All are part of the water, fire and mold damage restoration in Charleston, WV on this site.

Spring Hill restoration FAQs