Extraction, moisture mapping and drying for Portland-area houses, whether the water came through the roof, up from the ground or out of a wall.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Portland Water Damage Restoration answers calls about water damage 24/7 across Portland and Multnomah County. A local technician finds where the water traveled, pumps out what is standing, dries the structure to measured readings and lists what cannot be saved. A crew is dispatched as fast as one is available, and the price is confirmed on site.
Portland does not flood the way a desert city does, in one violent afternoon. It soaks. Downtown averages about 44 inches of rain a year over the 1991 to 2020 period, and December alone brings more than seven, while July brings less than half an inch. That lopsided calendar means a house can go nine months without a drip and then spend the next six quietly absorbing water through every weak point it has.
Those weak points are not hard to name. Older houses here have basements, and roughly 45 percent of the city's homes were built before 1960, so original supply lines, clay and cast-iron drains and cut-stone or poured foundations are still doing duty. Water arrives from three directions: down from moss-heavy roofs and clogged gutters, up from saturated soil, and out of plumbing that has outlived its design. A fourth, less common route is the sewer itself, because many older neighborhoods drain through combined pipes that carry rain and household waste together.
Restoration is the stretch between wet and ready for repairs. It starts with finding every wet material, not just the visible patch, then removing standing water, pulling out only what cannot dry, and running air movers and dehumidifiers until the readings match an unaffected part of your own house. Fixing the pipe, the roof or the sewer lateral belongs to other trades. The technician's job is the water and the drying, and saying early which of those trades you still need.
Do not wade through a flooded basement if the water has reached an outlet, the panel, the furnace or the water heater, and never use a household vacuum on water that came up a drain. Call (833) 490-5225 and wait somewhere dry.
The first questions are whether the water is still running and whether it has touched outlets, cords or the furnace. If a pipe or appliance is involved the supply is closed first. If the source is rain or ground water, the goal is to protect what sits below the entry point.
Pin and pinless moisture meters and a thermal camera show how far the water traveled along joists, behind baseboards and under flooring. Readings and photographs are logged from the first visit so you have a record for your insurer.
Pumps and extractors take out standing water. Saturated pad, swollen particleboard and drywall that has wicked water upward are cut back so air can reach the framing, and nothing comes out until the reason is explained to you.
Air movers and dehumidifiers run while the technician returns to take the same readings. The target is a number taken from a dry wall in your own house, not a feeling in the hand.
When the readings agree, you receive a list of what needs rebuilding, from insulation to flooring. Rebuilding is priced separately, and you choose who does it.
Four things set the price of a restoration job: how much of the house is wet, what kind of water it was, which materials it soaked, and how many days of drying the readings call for. We print no dollar range because none we could source describes a Portland job.
| Job | Typical range | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Size of the wet area | Measured on site | Extraction time and equipment count rise with square footage and the number of rooms |
| Category of water | Set by the technician | Clean, gray and contaminated water call for different protection, removal and cleaning |
| Materials affected | Varies | Plaster, drywall, hardwood, carpet and bare concrete behave very differently |
| Basement or crawl space access | Quoted on site | Depth of water, hatch size and stair access change pumping and setup time |
Your own price is confirmed on site, and put in writing, before any equipment is switched on.
Close the supply valve if a pipe or appliance is the cause, keep out of water that reaches outlets or cords, photograph everything, and lift valuables off wet floors. Then call. The EPA advises drying wet materials within 24 to 48 hours, so waiting to see what happens usually costs time.
People who have been through a pipe failure tend to say the same thing: they wish they had known where the main shutoff was. In older Portland houses it is often a gate valve where the service line enters the basement wall or crawl space, and a valve that has sat untouched for decades can seize. Test yours once on a dry day, and if it is stiff, mention that to a plumber rather than forcing it.
If the water is rain coming through a roof or wall, nothing can be shut off, so the work is protection. Move furniture away, lay towels, and set a bucket where it falls. Stay off a wet roof, and do not enter a basement where water has risen to an outlet or the furnace.
Oregon's Construction Contractors Board issues a Residential Restoration Contractor endorsement that covers restoration work after a disaster, and seven other endorsements also allow it. That endorsement does not permit demolition or removing parts of the structure. We could not confirm whether drying alone needs a license, so ask for the number.
Since 2015 the state has had a specific endorsement for restoration, and before that water and smoke cleanup had no license requirement at all. What the endorsement does not cover is the part homeowners often assume it does: tearing out sheetrock, carpet or other pieces of the structure falls outside it. A company that cuts walls open should be able to say which license it works under.
Our own research did not settle whether a company doing extraction and drying only must hold a CCB license today, and we will not claim an answer. The practical step is the same either way. Ask for the company's CCB license number and check it on the Board's own lookup, not a third-party directory. On the Washington side of the river, in Vancouver and Camas, the check is a registration with the state Department of Labor & Industries instead.
Cool, damp outdoor air holds little extra moisture, so evaporation is slow from October through March. Opening windows rarely helps. A closed room with dehumidifiers and air movers dries faster, and a technician keeps adjusting equipment after each reading until the structure matches its dry reference.
The wet season is the same stretch of the year that heaters run and windows stay shut, which is both good and bad for drying. Closed rooms let a dehumidifier do its job, but old plaster, thick fir framing and concrete slabs give up water slowly. A single bedroom may be done in a few days, while a finished basement with plaster walls can take noticeably longer.
The calendar below shows how the year tends to run. It is a tendency based on the NWS Portland climate normals for 1991 to 2020, not a forecast.
| Month | Average rain | What tends to go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Nov to Dec | 6.58 in and 7.35 in | Roof and gutter leaks, wet crawl spaces, window-well overflow, windstorm damage |
| Jan to Feb | 6.36 in and 4.74 in | Saturated ground pushes seepage into basements; the occasional hard freeze splits exposed pipes |
| Jul to Aug | 0.43 in and 0.54 in | Dry weather: a good time to clear gutters, inspect roofs and test sump pumps |
Often, yes. Intact plaster and lath, hardwood and solid framing can frequently be dried in place when a meter shows the water has not been trapped for long. Materials come out when they have softened, crumbled or stayed wet after repeated readings, and each opening is explained and photographed first.
Many pre-war Portland houses were framed with materials that tolerate wetting better than modern ones do. Dense fir joists, plank subfloors and plaster over wood lath will often dry where particleboard and paper-faced drywall would be ruined. The catch is speed: a wall that was wet for three days dries differently from one wet for three weeks.
That is why the first call matters more than the first visit. Telling the dispatcher how long the water has been present, which floor it is on and whether it came from a clean source helps the technician arrive with the right gear.
Moss holds moisture against shingles all winter, fir needles fill gutters, and wind-driven rain finds flashing gaps around chimneys and skylights. The water often runs along a rafter and stains a ceiling several feet from the hole. See roof leak water damage and ceiling water damage.
Saturated soil presses on foundation walls and floor slabs, and crawl spaces can collect standing water through the wet months. Seepage like this is often excluded from homeowners policies, so documentation matters. See basement water damage and crawl space water damage.
A split supply line delivers clean water at first. A drain or sewer failure does not, and in combined-sewer neighborhoods heavy rain can push wastewater back toward a basement. See burst pipe water damage and sewage backup cleanup.
Portland sits where the Willamette meets the Columbia, with the West Hills rising to the west and flat, low land along both rivers. Water behaves differently on each: hillside lots shed it downhill toward neighbors, and low river land collects it. The city is also home to older neighborhoods whose sewers were built as combined pipes beginning in the 1860s, a design that still carries stormwater and wastewater together in many areas.
Housing here skews old. Census-based estimates put roughly 45 percent of homes before 1960, and many older houses have basements. That is a very different restoration problem from a slab-on-grade suburb: lower levels are often finished, stored with belongings, and wired for outlets close to the floor.
Winters also bring the occasional hard freeze, and the January 2024 ice storm was a reminder that Portland houses are not always prepared. Burst lines are rarer than wet-season leaks, but when they happen the water can run for hours inside a wall before anyone notices.
If it's an emergency, call now. For non-urgent water damage restoration, send the form and we'll call you back.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Pumping and extraction for standing water in Portland basements, living areas and crawl spaces, followed by the drying plan.
How air movers and dehumidifiers dry Portland houses in a cool, humid climate, and how readings decide when the job is finished.
Water removal and drying for Portland basements, from slow wall seepage to a drain that has backed up into a finished lower level.
How mold is found, documented and sampled in Portland houses, and why an inspection should be separate from the cleanup.
We found no price for water damage restoration that we could trace to a Portland job, so this guide prints no dollar figure.
Oregon issues a Residential Restoration Contractor endorsement through the Construction Contractors Board, and seven other endorsements also allow restoration work.
Oregon has a Residential Restoration Contractor endorsement, but we could not confirm whether extraction and drying alone fall under the licensing rules, and the endorsement does not allow demolition. Ask the company for its CCB license number and look it up on the Board's website before you sign anything.
A single room often needs three to five days of equipment, and a whole finished lower level can need a week or more. Cool, humid winter air slows things down, so the technician takes readings at each visit and removes equipment only when the structure reaches its dry target.
Usually not between October and March. The outside air is cold and damp, so open windows can add moisture rather than remove it. A closed room with a dehumidifier dries faster. The technician decides after reading the room.
Often yes when the wet area is one room or a basement. The equipment is loud and runs day and night. If water reached the kitchen or the only bathroom, or the source was sewage, sleeping elsewhere for a few nights is easier.
That depends on the cause and on your own policy, and only your insurer can say. Sudden pipe failures are more often covered than ground-water seepage, and flood is usually a separate policy. Photographs and moisture logs help whatever the answer turns out to be.