English Basement or Rowhouse Flooded in Washington, DC: Who to Call First

Three different calls fix three different problems, and the order depends on what the water is doing. This follows DC Water's own published guidance for sewer problems. For immediate water removal, DC Water's sewer backup page tells people to look under "Fire & Water Damage Restoration" in a local directory.

DC Water runs the public water and sewer system. Its emergency line, (202) 612-3400, takes sewer backups, water main breaks and other water emergencies on public property. Its own pages say:

• Report a sewer backup right away. DC Water checks whether the public sewer main is the cause.
• If the main is clear, the property has to hire a registered master plumber to clear the sewer lateral, the line that serves the building. The plumber files a report with DC Water if the blockage is in the public part of the lateral.
• A problem with a bathroom on the lowest level goes to DC Water. A toilet above the lowest floor, or a single fixture, can be cleared by the resident or by a licensed master plumber.
• For immediate water removal, its sewer backup page tells people to look under "Fire & Water Damage Restoration" in a local directory.
• For emergency service inside your home, such as a burst pipe, its cold-weather page says to contact a licensed plumber. Its emergency page lists DC Water as a contact if you need instructions for shutting off water.

Source: DC Water, Know What to Do if You Have a Sewer Backup, Sewer Emergency FAQ, Protect your Pipes from the Cold and Take Steps to Protect Yourself and Your Family During Emergencies, read October 26, 2026. DC Water's role is the public system. Extracting the water, removing contaminated materials and drying the space is restoration work.

1. 1

   Get everyone out of the wet area

   Keep people and pets out, above all if the water came up a drain. Do not wade through standing water if an outlet, power strip, appliance or the panel could be in it.

2. 2

   Stop the source if it is inside the house

   Close the main shutoff. In most DC rowhouses it sits near where the service line enters the basement. If it will not close, do not force it: call a licensed plumber, or DC Water at (202) 612-3400 if you need instructions for shutting off the water. Where the shutoff is in a DC rowhouse.

3. 3

   Make the electrical call

   If water has reached outlets, the panel or the meter, do not touch them. Switch off affected circuits only if you can reach the breaker from dry ground. Otherwise leave it and have the power cut.

4. 4

   Make the right phone call

   Use the table above: DC Water for sewage, a plumber for a pipe or a valve that will not close, then a restoration company for the water. Tell them the address and whether the water looks clean, gray or like sewage.

5. 5

   Photograph before anything moves

   Take photos and video of the water line on the walls, the source and the damaged items, with your phone's date and time stamp on.

6. 6

   Move what you can up and out

   Lift valuables to the upper floors, as DC Water's own FAQ advises. Leave wet carpet, pad and drywall in place for the crew to assess.

7. 7

   Keep the drains quiet

   If the water was sewage, do not flush toilets or run the washer, sinks or showers that drain toward the backup until the line is cleared. Anything you send down can come back up.

1. 1

   A person answers

   (202) 922-1444 reaches a person at any hour. They take the address, ask whether the water is clean, gray or sewage, and help you find the shutoff if the source is still running.

2. 2

   The water is classified

   Under ANSI/IICRC S500, sewage is Category 3 and groundwater that has run through soil is treated as at least Category 2. The category decides what can be saved and what comes out.

3. 3

   Contain and extract

   On a sewage loss the area is contained first, so contamination is not carried through the rest of the house. Standing water is then extracted.

4. 4

   Map the moisture

   Thermal imaging and moisture meters, room by room, find where the water went. In an attached house that includes metering the shared party wall from your side.

5. 5

   Remove what cannot be saved

   After sewage, porous materials the water touched, such as carpet, pad, drywall and insulation, come out. Masonry, framing and concrete are cleaned and dried.

6. 6

   Dry to a measured standard

   Air movers and dehumidifiers are sized to the space, and a technician returns daily to record readings. Equipment comes out when the meter says the materials are dry, not on a calendar date.

7. 7

   You receive the file

   Daily moisture logs, time-stamped photographs, an equipment record and a line-item estimate. You are the customer and we bill you. You may share the file with your insurer.

What an English basement is

A level of a rowhouse set partly below the sidewalk, usually with its own entrance down a few steps from the street and windows at or just above ground level. In the District's older rowhouse neighborhoods, such as Capitol Hill, Petworth, Columbia Heights, Shaw and Bloomingdale, many have been finished as apartments or in-law suites.

Four ways water gets in

• Sewer backup. In the older parts of the District, stormwater and sewage share one pipe. DC Water says about one-third of the District is served by combined sewers, a system developed before 1900 (DC Water, Combined Sewer System), and that backups into homes happen, particularly in low-lying neighborhoods (DC Water, Flooding). In a rowhouse the lowest drain is in the basement.
• Groundwater. When the soil is saturated, pressure builds against below-grade walls and water finds the slab, the joint where wall meets floor, or a crack.
• Window wells and areaways. Leaves and silt block the drains in front window wells and rear stair wells, and a downpour spills in at the window or the door.
• Plumbing. Supply lines, water heaters and appliances fail, and in a rowhouse the water travels down to the lowest level.

Party walls and neighbors

In an attached house the wall you share carries water too. If your basement flooded, tell your neighbors, and ask the crew to meter the shared wall from your side.

Historic plaster and floors

Many rowhouses have plaster on wood lath and original wood floors above the basement. Plaster can often be dried in place where drywall would simply be cut out, so ask a crew to measure before it opens anything above the wet level.

Seasons and access

Summer thunderstorms drive the sewer and window-well floods. A hard freeze drives burst pipes in unheated rooms and along exterior walls. Most English basements are reached by a narrow stair, so crews carry extraction and drying equipment in by hand. Clear the stairs and the path from the street before they arrive.

A basement that flooded once can flood again until the cause is fixed. DC Water publishes a backwater valve information and rebate program page. The blog covers the rest in depth:

• Sump pump failure in DC storms
• DC flood prevention programs and rebates explained