Water damage restoration in Colorado Springs, CO.
Burn scars above the city shedding water and mud instead of absorbing it, expansive clay working on foundations, hail that opens a roof in minutes, and a deep freeze at altitude. Tell us the ZIP code and the request goes to an El Paso County crew.
- El Paso and Teller counties, one request
- Free to use. Restoration companies pay us, property owners never do
- One local crew, not a panel of firms racing to your phone
Colorado Springs sits higher and colder than Denver, and it has something Denver largely does not: burn scars on the slopes directly above populated areas.
A hillside stripped by wildfire sheds water rather than absorbing it, sometimes for years afterwards. That turns an ordinary summer storm into a debris flow, and it is treated differently by insurers from both flooding and ordinary water damage.
Why Colorado Springs properties take water damage
Six failures account for most of what crews attend across this market.
Burn scar runoff and debris flow
Slopes stripped by fire shed water and mud into drainages below. This is handled as flooding rather than under a standard homeowners policy, and it can happen years after the fire.
Expansive clay and foundation movement
Reactive soils swell when wet and lift slabs and walls, so water reaching the ground beside a foundation matters more here than in most markets.
Deep freeze bursts
At altitude the cold is harder and longer than in the metro to the north. Lines in unheated garages, crawlspaces and exterior walls split, and the damage appears on the thaw.
Ice dams
Snow sitting on a roof with attic heat escaping produces meltwater that refreezes at the eave and pushes back under the shingles into the wall.
Hail
The Front Range takes heavy hail. The roof opens in minutes and the water arrives with the next storm, often well away from the impact point.
Sump pump failure
Where there is a basement, a pump under load during a storm or a snowmelt week is the usual way it fills.
Mudflow and landslide are not the same thing
Below a burn scar this distinction decides a great deal. Mudflow, meaning a river of liquid mud moving across the ground, is generally handled as flooding and falls under a flood policy. Landslide and earth movement, meaning the ground itself failing, is normally excluded by both the homeowners policy and the flood policy.
Neither is covered by a standard homeowners policy on its own, which catches a lot of people who assumed fire related consequences would be handled by the same insurer who paid for the fire.
If you are downhill of a scar, the time to find out which cover you actually hold is before the summer storm season rather than during it.
Know what is uphill of you
Burn scars change the drainage above a property for years. If there is one above you, that is a flood cover question rather than a maintenance question.
Downspout extensions protect the foundation
In an expansive clay market, water beside the wall is a soil problem rather than a damp patch.
What to do first
Safety, then documentation, then drying.
Shut the water off
The main is usually near the street side of the property. Stopping the supply also stops the meter, which is how a suspected hidden leak gets confirmed.
Work out whether the water came off the slope
Mud and debris arriving at ground level points at runoff rather than a building failure, and that changes which policy is even in the conversation.
Do not enter standing water
Flood water carries whatever it crossed on the way in. Treat it as contaminated, keep children and pets out, and do not assume a shallow depth is safe around power.
Photograph the water line first
Where the water reached on the wall is the single piece of evidence that separates a flood claim from a homeowners claim. Take it before anybody moves furniture.
Notify the right insurer
Flooding is claimed on a flood policy, not the homeowners policy. If you hold both, notify both and let them establish which responds.
Discard what absorbed it
Porous material that took flood water comes out rather than being cleaned. Photograph it first, then get it away from anything still dry.
Keep every receipt
Accommodation, cleaning supplies, and anything else the loss forced you to spend. Claims reimburse what you can evidence.
How Colorado insurance treats it
The question that decides most claims is whether the water arrived suddenly or built up over time.
Usually covered
- A pipe that froze and burst in a heated, maintained property
- Ice dam damage, which most policies treat as a covered sudden loss
- Hail or wind opening the roof and letting rain in
- A supply line or water heater failing suddenly
Usually excluded
- Flooding, surface water and mudflow, which need flood cover
- Landslide and earth movement, normally excluded outright
- Foundation heave caused by expansive soil
- A freeze burst in an unheated, unattended property
Fire cover does not follow the water
People downhill of a burn scar frequently assume the insurer who handled the fire will handle what the scar does afterwards. That is generally not how it works. Post fire runoff is treated as flooding, which is a separate policy with a waiting period.
Check which cover you hold before the season. Nothing here is a coverage determination on your policy.
Areas we cover
One request covers the whole market, which spans 38 ZIP codes and roughly 694,000 residents across El Paso and Teller.
The form will tell you rather than passing your details to somebody who cannot attend. Where a provider does cover your ZIP code, the request reaches them directly.
Colorado Springs questions
Is burn scar flooding covered by my homeowners policy?
How long does a burn scar stay a risk?
Is ice dam damage covered?
My pipes froze while I was away for the winter. Am I covered?
Which areas does this cover?
Often needed after a water loss here
Mold removal
Where water sat before anyone found it, remediation usually follows the dry out. Mold removal and remediation
Sewage and biohazard
Backups and contaminated water run under containment rules. Biohazard and trauma cleanup