Water removal, drying and documentation for houses and buildings on the campus side of Champaign and Urbana.
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Campus-area water damage is water in a building that sits between Champaign and Urbana, close to the University of Illinois campus, where the southern part of the campus lies on the upper Embarras River. Champaign Water Damage Restoration takes calls around the clock, sends a local crew as soon as one is free, and handles each building by its own layout and ownership.
The University of Illinois campus lies between Champaign and Urbana, and its southern part sits on the upper Embarras River. The buildings around it are a mix of university property, older houses, rental houses and apartments, and commercial premises, and each of those has a different owner and a different route for water. A call from that side of town often involves more than one party, and the first job is to find out who owns and occupies the building.
Water in a campus-area building can come from the same sources as anywhere else in the two cities: a supply line, an appliance, a drain, a roof or the ground. Because so many buildings here are shared, the damage can also cross from one unit into the next through the floor, the wall or the shared drain. A crew checks the building as one structure, not as a single apartment.
The campus-area work is not a campus service. This company does not act for the university, and it does not hold any building records. What it does is answer the call, remove the water, dry the building to measured readings and keep the log an owner or an insurer will ask for.
Do not enter a shared basement or a unit with standing water until the power to that area is confirmed off. Keep the shared electrical panel closed unless a technician or the owner has checked it. Do not run a generator in a shared hallway, a basement or a garage that opens into the building. Keep children and pets out of wet common areas and stairwells.
The first call identifies the building, the affected units and the people who need to be let in. A crew needs access to the wet areas and to any unit where the water may have moved, so the list is confirmed before the visit.
The crew looks for the supply line, drain, appliance or roof that let the water in. The shut-off is found and the source is stopped, or the building's owner is told how to stop it.
Water is pumped or extracted in each unit where it has gone. Water that has moved through a floor or a wall is traced, because it often appears in a unit far from the source.
Moisture readings are taken in each unit and in the shared framing, so the drying is planned across the building and not unit by unit. The readings are logged for each unit separately.
Equipment is set so that one unit's drying does not wet the next. Each unit's log, photographs and readings are kept, so the owner and any insurer can see the work unit by unit.
Water follows gravity and the path of least resistance. In a building with shared floors, it can pass through the subfloor, the joist bays and the plumbing chases into the unit below, often at a point far from the source. The crew checks the unit beneath every affected wet area.
A wet ceiling below a bathroom is the most common sign, but water can also travel along a joist or through a gap around a pipe and show in a corner of the room below. The crew reads each unit's ceiling and walls to trace the route.
The people in the lower unit may not know the water has reached them until the paint starts to bubble. A call from one unit can therefore lead to a visit to another, and the crew plans for that from the start.
The owner of the building or the unit is responsible for repairs to the structure and to the plumbing, and the occupants are usually responsible for their own belongings. The crew identifies the owner and the occupants at the start, and it does not decide responsibility for a lease or a claim.
Repairs to a supply line, a drain or an appliance are for the trade that does that work. Repairs to the structure after drying are a separate trade again. Where a lease sets out who pays for what, that is a matter for the parties to the lease.
The crew records what it found and who it found to be present, so the owner and the occupants both have the same account of the visit.
Calls are answered 24/7 and a crew is sent as soon as one is free. For a commercial premises the crew can arrange access outside trading hours where the owner agrees, and it plans the work around the hours the space is needed.
Water does not wait for office hours, and drying does not stop because a shop is open. The crew explains the layout, the noise and the equipment in each area so that the owner can plan around them.
No arrival time is promised. The crew will say when it expects to be there and what is needed from the owner to start.
Keep photographs, the list of affected units, the readings, the drying log and any repair estimates from the trade that does the work. Those records show the timeline and the extent of the loss, and the insurer will usually ask for them.
The crew gives each unit's readings and photographs in one place, so the owner can send them in a single set. Repair estimates from plumbing, roofing or flooring trades are separate and should be kept with them.
What a policy pays is decided by the policy and the insurer. For questions about a claim, contact the insurer first. The Illinois Department of Insurance takes complaints about insurers.
A leak in one apartment can run down into the unit below it, and the crew reads both. The drying is set for the unit that was wet, and the unit below is checked for the same water even if the tenant there reports nothing.
A rental house with one owner and one or more tenants is usually simpler to access, but the tenants' belongings and the owner's records are both at stake. The crew explains the scope to the owner and the occupants, and it plans the drying around the rooms that are still in use.
A basement used for storage by several households can hold water in the boxes and items that are stacked there. The items are photographed and listed before they are moved, so that each household can recover what can be recovered.
An office or a shop near the campus needs the same drying and the same documentation as a home, with a plan for the hours it is open. The crew arranges access outside the trading hours where it can, and records each area it dries.
The University of Illinois campus lies between Champaign and Urbana, and its southern part is on the upper Embarras River. A building on that side of the two cities can be reached by river or storm water as well as by a pipe in its own walls, so the crew asks about the ground outside and the drains as well as the plumbing.
Buildings near the campus are a mix of university property, houses, rental houses, apartments and commercial premises, and each has a different owner. The crew identifies the owner and the people in each unit before it starts, because access and records depend on it.
Champaign and Urbana are separate cities with their own building departments. The City of Champaign and the City of Urbana building departments answer repair-permit questions for a building in their city, and a building on the campus edge has to be checked against the city it is in.
A crew is dispatched as fast as one is available, and you approve the estimate before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Emergency removal and drying for river flood water that reached a home or business in Champaign or Champaign County.
Removal, disinfection and drying after sewage backs up through a drain, toilet or floor drain in Champaign and Urbana.
Water removal, drying and documentation for commercial premises and multi-unit rental buildings in Champaign and Urbana.
Opening, drying and documenting ceilings and walls that took in water from above, a leak or a storm.
Buildings near the University of Illinois campus, between Champaign and Urbana, are often shared, rented or mixed-use, and their southern part sits on the upper Embarras River.
Call the line, and tell the crew you are a tenant so that it can reach the owner. The owner is responsible for the building's structure and plumbing, and the crew will contact them with you present or on your behalf.
Yes, when the water could have reached it. The crew reads the ceiling and the walls of the unit below, and it logs each reading so that both units are covered.
Move what is safe to move, but photograph each item first and keep a list. Do not move anything from a room with standing water near live outlets.
No. This company is a separate call line. It does not act for the university and it does not hold building records for it.
Calls are answered 24/7 and a crew is sent as soon as one is free. No arrival time is promised.
Stop using water in the affected unit and call the line. The crew checks the drain route and tells the owner who must clear the shared line, since that is outside your unit.