Choosing the Best Water Damage Restoration Company in Washington, DC

A company saying it is the best is not something you can check. These eight things are. Each one ends with our own answer, so you can hold us to it.

The same checks apply anywhere. In the District, four kinds of building change what a good answer looks like.

Rowhouses share walls

Water moves through a party wall into the attached house. Ask whether the scope includes metering the shared wall from your side, and how the company will reach your neighbor. Drying one side while the other stays wet only relocates the problem.

Many older English basements sit on the combined sewer

In the older parts of the city a heavy rain can push sewage back up the lowest drains, and in a rowhouse the lowest drain is usually in the basement. Ask whether the company treats that as Category 3 water, with containment and removal of porous materials, rather than as a clean-water dry-out. The English basement guide covers who to call first.

Condos and co-ops have house rules

Buildings often set their own terms for outside vendors: a certificate of insurance, a license number, work hours and elevator reservations. Ask any company whether it can supply those the same day. Our licenses are listed above. Ask us, as you would anyone, for the insurance certificate. See condo and apartment water damage in DC.

Historic districts change the method

In Georgetown, Capitol Hill and other historic districts, exterior work can require review by the Historic Preservation Office. Interior drying is a separate question: plaster on wood lath can often be dried in place where drywall would simply be cut out. Ask which one the company proposes, and why. See historic district water damage repair.

• Someone at your door offering to start work before you have read the agreement, or any pressure to sign something you have not had time to read.
• No written scope before demolition begins.
• No moisture readings in writing, or an end date set by the calendar instead of a meter.
• One lump-sum price with no line items to check.
• A promise about what your insurer will pay or approve. No restoration company controls that.
• A license number that DLCP's records do not show, or show under a different company name.

• What is your DC Basic Business License number, and whose name is it in?
• Who on the crew holds an IICRC certification, and which standard will you follow on my job?
• How soon can a crew be here, and what could delay it?
• What will I receive in writing, and when?
• Who will bill me, and what will the invoice show?
• If the water came up from a sewer backup, how will you contain it and what comes out?

• License: verify the DC number above in DLCP's Scout system, which DLCP lists as the place to verify a business license.
• Reviews: read the full list on our Google Business Profile, or the same Google aggregate on RestorationDoctorsReviews.com.
• Work: every neighborhood page shows documented project files, with dated photographs, from the Washington, DC metro.
• Company: read about Restoration Doctor of Washington DC.