Stop the water source first, Then call us.
Call Now if you don’t know how to stop it. 303-816-0068
If you can safely reach the shutoff valve, turn it off. Under a sink, behind the toilet, at the main shutoff near your water meter — stop the flow before anything else. If you can’t reach it safely, or if the water is coming from a roof leak, flooding, or a source you can’t control, don’t risk it. Get out of the affected area and call 303-816-0068 immediately. We’re here 24/7.
Turn off electricity to flooded areas if you can do it safely from a dry location. If you have any doubt about whether it’s safe, leave it alone. Water and electricity together are a serious hazard and not worth the risk.
Do not use a regular household vacuum to try to pull up water. Standard vacuums aren’t designed for it and create electrical hazards. Leave water extraction to professional equipment.
Your insurance company requires you to take immediate action to prevent further damage. That requirement starts the moment you discover the loss. Calling us immediately — regardless of what time it is — satisfies that requirement and gets the clock started on your claim. Waiting, even until morning, works against your coverage.
I’ve been doing this work for over 30 years. The calls we get the next morning from people who discovered water the night before are always harder jobs than the calls we get the moment water is found. Every hour counts.
First: Make Sure It’s Safe to Stay
Before anything else, assess whether the affected area is safe to be in.
Water damage creates hazards that aren’t always obvious. If there’s any possibility that water has contacted electrical outlets, panels, appliances, or wiring, stay out of the area entirely. Water conducts electricity. A flooded basement with a water heater, HVAC system, or electrical panel is a potentially lethal environment. Don’t enter it to retrieve belongings.
Structural hazards are a second concern. Saturated ceilings can collapse without warning. Water-soaked floors can weaken rapidly, particularly over crawl spaces or above basements. If a ceiling is visibly sagging, bulging, or dripping heavily, stay out of the room below it.
If you smell gas at any point, get everyone out of the building immediately, leave the door open as you exit, and call your gas company from outside. Don’t operate any switches or electronics on your way out.
Once you’ve confirmed the area is safe to be in, or identified that it isn’t and gotten clear of it, everything else follows.
Stop the Water Source If You Can
Stopping ongoing water flow is the single most effective action you can take in the first minutes after discovering water damage.
For most indoor water emergencies — burst pipe, failed supply line, appliance overflow, toilet malfunction — there’s a shutoff valve nearby. Under sinks, behind toilets, behind washing machines, and at the water heater, individual shutoffs allow you to stop flow to that specific fixture without cutting water to the whole house. Know where these are before you need them.
If you can’t find or reach the individual shutoff, the main water shutoff for your home is typically located where the water line enters the structure — often in a utility room, basement, crawl space, or near the water meter. Turning this off stops all water flow to the house. You’ll lose water to everything, but stopping the flow stops the damage from getting worse.
For mountain homes around Pine, Conifer, and the Lakewood foothills, main shutoffs are sometimes in exterior meter boxes or in crawl spaces that require a bit of work to access. If you haven’t located yours yet, find it now — before a crisis makes finding it an emergency in itself.
If water is coming from a roof leak, exterior flooding, or any source you can’t shut off, focus on limiting what gets damaged rather than stopping the source. Move what you can out of the water’s path.
Document Everything Before You Touch It
Once the water source is controlled and you’ve confirmed it’s safe, start documenting before you move anything or begin any cleanup.
Take photos and video of every affected area. Include the source of the water if visible. Capture standing water, affected contents, damaged walls and flooring, and any structural damage. Get the footage before cleanup starts — adjusters work from evidence, and the original damage state is the baseline for your entire claim.
Your photos should show the extent of saturation, not just the source. Water spreads under flooring, behind baseboards, and along wall cavities far from where you first see it. Document wet areas throughout the space, not just at the obvious point of entry.
If you have a policy number and your insurance company’s claims number, call to report the loss after you’ve called us. We can also help you with that call if you’re not sure how to describe what happened.
Move Valuables Out of the Water’s Path
While waiting for us to arrive, move items out of affected areas if you can do so safely.
Electronics, documents, photos, irreplaceable items, and furniture should be moved to dry areas. If items are already wet, don’t discard anything before we assess it — many items that look like total losses can be restored if handled correctly. Documents and photos can be frozen to halt deterioration until proper drying services can address them.
Don’t move items through contaminated water if the source is a sewage backup, toilet overflow, or exterior flooding. Category 3 water carries serious pathogens. Contact with it should be minimized until we’ve assessed the situation and confirmed what’s safe to handle.
Lift furniture off wet carpet if you can. Place aluminum foil or plastic under furniture legs to prevent dye transfer and rust staining on carpet and flooring. These are small actions that protect contents while we’re in transit.
What Not to Do
A few actions that seem logical in the moment actually make the situation worse.
Don’t run ceiling fans or your HVAC system to try to speed drying. Fans move air, but they also spread contaminants and mold spores if the water is Category 2 or 3. HVAC systems can distribute moisture and particulates throughout the entire structure. Leave the HVAC off until we assess.
Don’t use a wet/dry shop vac unless you have no other option for standing water that’s actively causing more damage. A shop vac removes surface water but does nothing for water that has already absorbed into materials, and it’s no substitute for professional extraction equipment.
Don’t try to dry things with heat guns, space heaters, or hair dryers. Rapid surface drying traps moisture inside materials rather than drawing it out through proper evaporation. The IICRC S500 standard — the industry’s governing document for water damage restoration — specifically addresses the importance of controlled, calibrated drying rather than aggressive surface heat.
Don’t throw away damaged items before we’ve documented them for your claim. Even items that can’t be restored may be replaceable under your policy, but only with documentation.
What Happens When We Arrive
When our crew arrives, the first action is assessment and documentation — not immediately tearing into walls or pulling up flooring.
We conduct moisture mapping of the affected area using calibrated moisture meters and thermal imaging cameras. This tells us where water actually is, not just where it’s visible. Water travels along structural elements, through wall cavities, under flooring, and into spaces that look completely dry from the surface. The moisture map drives everything that follows.
From there we establish the water category. Is this clean water from a supply line? Gray water from an appliance? Black water from a sewage source or exterior flooding? The category determines what can be saved, what protocols we follow, what protective equipment our crew uses, and what your insurance company will need to document.
Extraction begins as soon as the assessment is complete. Truck-mounted extractors remove standing water at volumes no portable equipment can match. Then equipment placement begins — commercial dehumidifiers, air movers, and where needed, HEPA air scrubbers — all positioned based on the moisture map, not just placed in the obvious wet spots.
The first hour of professional response establishes the drying plan that controls everything over the following days. It matters that it’s done right from the start.
The Call You Need to Make Right Now
If you’re reading this because water damage just happened, stop reading and call 303-816-0068.
If you’re reading this to prepare, the most useful thing you can do is locate your main water shutoff, know where your individual fixture shutoffs are, and save this number in your phone before you need it.
Water damage doesn’t improve on its own. It spreads, it deepens, and after 24 to 48 hours it begins producing conditions for mold growth. The actions you take in the first minutes and the first hour determine how much of your property can be saved and what your restoration will cost.
We’re available every hour of every day because water damage doesn’t keep business hours. Call immediately. Don’t wait until morning.
303-816-0068 — American Restoration — Available 24/7, Every Day of the Year
