These are the questions homeowners in Atkinson and across New Hampshire ask most often when they call. Every answer starts with the answer.
Shut off the water at the main valve or flip the breaker for the well pump. Keep power off to any part of the basement with wet outlets or a wet furnace. Move what you can carry off the floor and take photos of everything before anything is thrown away. Then leave the wet materials alone.
Probably not. In March and April the frost goes out, groundwater rises, and it comes through the joint between the slab and the wall or through the fieldstone itself. Basement flooding cleanup handles the water either way, and the crew can tell you whether the source was the ground or a pipe.
That depends on how long it ran after it thawed. A split copper line does not leak while it is frozen. It leaks when the house warms up, and a camp that sat closed for a week can have days of water in the walls. Frozen pipe cleanup starts by working out that timeline.
Get the water out first, then dry the finished walls before they hold the damp. A pump that failed in a power outage or a March rain leaves water in the carpet pad, the paneling, and the bottom of the studs. Sump pump failure cleanup goes past pumping to the drying.
Usually not. Drywall, subfloor, and framing hold moisture long after the surface feels dry, and a New Hampshire basement in April has no warm dry air to help. A provider takes meter readings and runs air movers and dehumidifiers until the materials hit their target. Structural drying is the part that keeps a wet wall from becoming a mold problem.
Nobody on this site can tell you what your policy will pay. Many policies cover sudden losses such as a burst pipe or a failed water heater. Groundwater seepage is usually excluded, sump pump failure often needs its own endorsement, and a frozen pipe in an unheated house may be treated differently. Ask the crew to document photos, readings, and an itemized scope for your adjuster.
Sometimes. Oak or pine that cupped within the last day or two can often be dried with floor mats before it buckles. Boards that sat wet for a week in a cold house usually cannot. Hardwood floor drying starts with a meter, not a decision.
It changes where the shutoff is. There is no street valve to close, so the water stops at the pump breaker in the panel or the valve on the pressure tank. If the split is in the line between the well and the house, the pump keeps running until you cut the power to it. Tell the crew the house is on a well when you call.
A fieldstone cellar can be managed, not sealed. The stones let groundwater through in a wet spring, so the crew focuses on getting water off the floor, drying the framing above the sill, and keeping stored belongings off the dirt or concrete. Anything finished against a fieldstone wall is the first thing to check.
Yes, if the water is still on. A camp in Alton Bay or East Wakefield with the heat set low and the water left on is the classic frozen-pipe loss. Draining the lines or shutting the pump off before you leave, and having a neighbor check after a deep freeze, is the difference between a wet wall and a wet house.
Drying and cleanup do not need a permit. Replacing drywall, plumbing, or electrical usually does. Every New Hampshire town runs its own building inspector, and the area pages on this site name the right office for your town. The provider handles permits when the rebuild requires them.
This site does not quote prices, and a provider cannot either until they have taken readings in the house. The scope depends on the source, how long the water sat, and what it reached. Ask for a written scope before work begins.
Atkinson, Plaistow, Danville, Hampstead, and Brentwood along the Massachusetts line; Newington, Lee, Madbury, and Barrington on the Seacoast side; Alton, Farmington, and the Lakes Region towns; and Conway, Bartlett, and Glen in the Mount Washington Valley. See the full list of communities.
Call (603) 665-0909 and tell us what you see. Say where the water started, which rooms are wet, and whether it is still coming in.