Repairing Water Damage in a Dallas Home’s Bathroom

After a pipe behind a shower sprung a leak, these Dallas homeowners knew that they could count on our SERVPRO team to help. As a trusted restoration team for Dallas County, we had a crew on site that same day to begin assessing the situation and determining the needs of the water-damaged property. Plumbing leaks like this one often go on for long periods without being noticed, making the ultimately affected area much larger than the homeowner realized. We showed where water damage existed and why certain restoration steps were best to keep the customer at ease through the process.

Isolating the Work Area

There is a finite timeline with water damage restoration, and with a plumbing vulnerability, water service to these fixtures needed to be severed until controlled demolition and cleanup could complete. To stop water service to these connections, the crawlspace beneath the house had to be accessed to reach the ball valves and later to disconnect the existing pipes from the network and replace them with new PVC.

Controlled Demolition for Access

The next step to access the space where water removal services would be necessary was to remove the entire shower stall from the framing behind it. As this whole unit pulls out as two pieces, we could quickly discard these structural elements and utilize wet vacuums for extraction in the exposed wall system. You can see this portable extractor at the bottom of the Before Photo.

Drying Solutions for Structural Cavities

Clearing out the moisture concerns was critical to preventing mold damage and further structural degradation. While our IICRC certified SERVPRO team was reinstalling new pipe into this exposed structural cavity, the bathroom of this Dallas home was undergoing evaporative drying using our air movers and dehumidifiers. With the limited space, placement was critical.

Mold Inhibiting Solutions for Dallas Homes

As a final measure to ensure that our efforts were long-term, we introduced a mold inhibiting agent to exposed wood framing and backing material. This product prevents otherwise dormant spores from finding a home on surfaces still reaching optimal moisture levels. With the step remaining to reinstall discarded bathroom structural elements, this product is preventative to keep our professionals from tearing out these shower components again. Similarly, new plumbing was run throughout this Dallas structural cavity rather than patching the individual vulnerability to prolong the life of these fixtures.

Putting the Bathroom Back Together

With the bathroom in disarray but clean and dry, our SERVPRO team could fixate on putting everything back as it should be. Any removed drywall was replaced along the edges where the new shower stall would sit in place. We placed a new stall, attaching the necessary drains and fixtures to ensure that it could be up and running quickly. We also laid tilework at the entrance of the shower at our customer’s request. As you can see in the After Photo, you cannot tell that water damage ever existed, and the homeowner cannot either.