Stop the Water Damage Before It Spreads.
We’re at Your Door in Columbia
Within 2 Hours, Day or Night.

No, and the sooner you call, the more we can save. Water keeps moving into subfloors, drywall, and cabinets after the surface looks dry, and mold doesn’t wait long. We see this most with a leak somebody was told to “put a fan on.” The fan dries the surface and the subfloor under it stays soaked. We’ll meter the floors and walls and tell you what’s still wet. Mold that has already started is a separate job; see the details on our mold page.

No cutting on the first visit, except in the rare case where you ask us to look behind something. We walk the house with moisture meters and a thermal camera, find where the water came from, and follow it to see how far it traveled. Then we show you the readings and explain what has to come out, what can be dried in place, and what it will take. Homes built before 1980 and all commercial buildings get lead and asbestos testing before any demolition. The visit takes 30 minutes to an hour and is free anywhere in the Columbia area.

No. We start at the source and work outward, and we remove only what the meters say is too far gone to dry. Carpet pad, soaked drywall, and particleboard subfloor usually have to go. Hardwood and plywood subfloor can often be saved when the drying starts fast. Everything we remove gets photographed and listed for your insurance, and you see the plan before we start.

Both, and you deal only with us. The drying is Drip Ninjas start to finish, and we manage the trades we’ve vetted for flooring, drywall, and paint. Your home goes back to the way it was before the water, with a one-year warranty on the repair work.

Drying takes 5 to 10 days. Small repairs take one to three days after that, and larger rebuilds with new flooring, drywall, and cabinets run four days to three weeks. The biggest variable is how fast your insurance company approves and pays, and we’ll tell you where things stand at every step.

The water damage we see most often in Columbia starts with plumbing, appliances, or a water heater inside the house. CPVC supply lines split, often with no warning in older homes. Refrigerator, dishwasher, and washing machine lines leak behind the appliance for weeks before anyone notices. Water heaters let go all at once. Toilets and sinks overflow, HVAC drain pans leak into the ceiling below, and worn grout lets shower water through the tile and into the subfloor. Weather adds its share: roof leaks during storms, and pipes that freeze on the handful of nights each winter that drop into the teens. We’ve also pulled a crawlspace full of water that started with a dog chewing a hose off the spigot. The source matters less than the clock; whatever started it, the damage grows the longer the water sits.

Water keeps doing damage after the surface looks dry, and the cost goes up with every day it sits. In the first hours, water runs under flooring and wicks up into drywall and door casings, so the wet area is bigger than the puddle. Over the first few days, particleboard subfloor swells and crumbles, drywall softens, and mold starts in the dark, damp spots a fan never reaches: under the floor, behind the cabinet toe kicks, inside the wall. A musty smell usually shows up before anything visible does. Weeks in, cabinets and framing are involved, and the job has moved from drying to demolition. Your insurance company watches the same clock. A sudden loss you acted on quickly is usually covered; a leak that sat for months is often treated as neglect and denied. The homeowner who calls the day it happens generally keeps the floors. The one who waits a week is usually replacing them.