Freshly hung and taped drywall along the lower half of a living room wall in a Houston home, with new baseboards waiting on the floor

Water Damage Repair in Houston: The Rebuild After Drying

Repair is the second half of a water damage job: new drywall, baseboards, flooring, cabinets and paint once the structure is truly dry. Call one free number at any hour to be connected with an independent, locally owned restoration company in greater Houston.

Call (832) 662-4107 Check the permit table

Repair comes after drying, not instead of it

Water damage repair in Houston is the rebuilding stage: the part where the house starts to look like home again. It only works if it comes after the drying is finished and documented.

The industry splits a water job into two halves. Mitigation is the emergency half: stopping the spread, extracting water, drying the structure and removing what could not be saved. Repair, sometimes called reconstruction or rebuild, is everything after that: hanging new drywall, replacing baseboards and trim, putting down new flooring, replacing swollen cabinet boxes, texturing and painting. Insurers and contractors often write these up as separate estimates.

Water Damage Pro Houston does neither half. It is a free phone line: once you dial (832) 662-4107 and describe what happened, your call is transferred to an independent, locally owned restoration company. That company tells you whether it handles repairs itself, gives you its own estimate and bills you directly.

A clean horizontal cut line in drywall two feet above a concrete slab, with dry studs exposed beneath it in a Houston home

Who fixes water damage, trade by trade

Most homeowners expect one call to fix everything. In practice, a water damage repair in Houston often involves several trades, and knowing who does what keeps the job in order.

The plumber

Repairs the supply line, drain, water heater or fixture that leaked. The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners says a company offering plumbing to the public must have a Responsible Master Plumber, whose license number should appear in its ads, estimates and invoices. Master Plumber numbers start with M, and the board's public license search shows whether the license is current.

The restoration company

Extracts, dries and removes damaged materials, then documents that the structure is dry. Many also rebuild. The water damage restoration page explains that process.

The repair contractor

Hangs and finishes drywall, sets baseboards and trim, installs flooring and cabinets and paints. This may be the restoration company's own rebuild crew or a separate general contractor you hire.

The electrician and mold professionals

Outlets, wiring or appliances that got wet need a licensed electrician to check them. Mold larger than a small patch generally calls for licensed mold professionals; see mold remediation.

For any trade the state licenses, such as plumbers, check the license with the state agency before work starts. For everyone else, ask for references and an address you can verify.

Before anything gets rebuilt

Closing a wall too early is the most expensive mistake in water damage repair. Four things should be true before new drywall goes up.

The leak is fixed. The plumber's repair is finished, and if a permit was needed, it has passed inspection.
The structure is dry by the numbers. The restoration company's moisture log shows studs, bottom plates, subfloor or slab and cabinet bases at the dry goal it set from unaffected materials. Feeling dry is not the test.
No mold is hiding. Look at the exposed studs and the back of any drywall that was kept. If mold is found, stop and sort out the mold work first.
Your insurer has what it needs. The adjuster has seen the damage or has the photos, readings and removed-materials list, and you know what the policy covers for the rebuild.

Repair by material, and what City of Houston permits say

The Houston Permitting Center publishes guidelines on which residential repairs need a permit. The table below summarizes them for common water damage work. The guidelines are several years old, so confirm the current rules with the permitting center before relying on them. They apply inside City of Houston limits only. Suburbs such as Sugar Land, Pearland or League City have their own permit offices, and unincorporated areas follow county rules, so check with yours.

Common water damage repairs and City of Houston permit guidance
Material	What usually happens after water damage	City of Houston permit guidance
Drywall	Swollen or contaminated drywall is cut out above the water line and replaced, then taped, textured and painted	Exempt if the wall is not part of a fire-rated assembly and the repair totals 100 square feet or less; larger repairs need a permit
Baseboards and trim	MDF or particleboard trim usually swells and is replaced; solid wood can sometimes be reused	Not named in the list; trim is usually treated like other finish work, but confirm with the city
Flooring	Carpet and pad, laminate and engineered wood are often replaced; tile may survive if the setting bed dried	Carpet, tile and wood flooring are exempt finish work
Cabinets and countertops	Particleboard cabinet bases swell and often need replacing; countertops may be saved and reset	Exempt, but replacing plumbing fixtures or doing electrical work with them needs its own permit
Paint and wall covering	Repainting the repaired wall, often the whole wall or room so colors match	Exempt
Wiring, outlets, plumbing	Checked or replaced by the licensed trade	Permit required and work done by a licensed person
Studs, plates, subfloor	Usually dried and kept; replaced when rotted or badly damaged	Replacing structural members falls under a residential repairs permit

An exemption from a permit does not let anyone do the work badly; the city's code still applies. If your neighborhood has deed restrictions or a homeowners association, check those too before changing materials or colors.

After a flood in a mapped floodplain

Flood repairs in Houston carry one more rule that surprises people. If your home is in the special flood hazard area (the 100-year floodplain on FEMA maps) and the cost to restore it to its condition before the flood equals or exceeds 50 percent of the structure's market value, not counting the land, the City of Houston treats it as substantially damaged. Repair permits are then held until the house is brought into compliance with the city's floodplain ordinance, which usually means showing the house meets the city's elevation standard, often by raising it.

The city's Floodplain Management Office makes that determination, and lowering what you personally spend does not get a house under the 50 percent line. If your home flooded from outside, ask the office about your address before the rebuild starts. The flood damage restoration page and the why Houston floods guide cover flood risk and cleanup.

New lower kitchen cabinets installed along a wall in a Houston home with the countertop reset and fresh paint above

One company for both halves, or two?

When one company makes sense

The same people who dried the house know where the wet areas were, what was removed and what the readings showed. Your insurer deals with one set of paperwork. The handoff from drying to rebuilding has no gap, which matters in humid weather.

When to bring in someone else

The restoration company does not do rebuilds, or you want to compare repair bids, or the repair has grown into a remodel you want to plan yourself. Ask the restoration company for its moisture log, photos and removed-materials list to hand to the new contractor.

Homes built before 1978 have one more factor. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires a paid contractor who disturbs painted surfaces in those homes to be lead-safe certified, unless the work is minor: 6 square feet or less of painted surface per room inside, or 20 square feet or less outside. Removing water-damaged drywall in an older Houston bungalow can pass that limit quickly, so ask whether the contractor is certified.

Questions to ask before you sign a repair contract

Is the drying documented as complete, and can I have the final moisture readings?
Is the repair estimate itemized by room and material, and does it line up with the adjuster's estimate?
Who pulls any permits, and who schedules the inspections?
Will you match existing texture, trim profile and flooring, or replace whole rooms?
How is payment scheduled? (Avoid paying large sums up front and do not sign an insurance check over to a contractor.)
Does the contract have any blank spaces, or language that assigns my insurance payment to you?

The Texas Department of Insurance warns that a contract assigning your insurance proceeds to a contractor can let that contractor collect all of it, and that it is illegal for a contractor to offer to waive your deductible. Comparing more than one written bid and never signing a contract with blank spaces are also sensible. The guide to checking a company before hiring goes further.

Check the mold license first. In Texas, mold assessment and mold remediation are licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). In most cases visible mold under 25 contiguous square feet can be cleaned by people without a license; larger jobs generally call for a licensed mold assessment consultant to write the remediation protocol and a separate licensed mold remediation contractor to do the work. Ask for both license numbers and look them up on the TDLR license search (opens in a new tab). The line does not check licenses for you.

Not sure whether you need drying, mold work or just repairs? Call and describe it. The local restoration company you are connected with looks in person and gives you its own estimate before any work starts.

Call (832) 662-4107

Greater Houston areas

About this line: Water Damage Pro Houston is a free phone line, not a restoration company. It answers your call and connects you with an independent local water damage restoration company, which inspects, quotes and does the work, and which you pay directly. Companies may pay a referral fee. The line never charges you. Read how the line works.

Common questions

Who fixes water damage?

Usually more than one trade. A licensed plumber repairs the pipe or fixture that leaked. A water damage restoration company removes the water, dries the structure and takes out what cannot be saved. The rebuild of drywall, flooring, cabinets and paint is done either by that same restoration company or by a separate contractor. Wet wiring needs a licensed electrician, and mold beyond a small area generally calls for licensed mold professionals.

Do I need a permit to repair water damage in Houston?

Inside the City of Houston, much of the finish work does not. The Houston Permitting Center lists painting, wallpaper, tile, carpet, wood flooring, cabinets and countertops as exempt finish work, and drywall repair on walls that are not fire rated is exempt up to 100 square feet in total. Larger drywall jobs, structural repairs, plumbing and electrical work need permits. Homes in a mapped floodplain have extra rules after a flood. The city's published guidelines are several years old, so confirm with the Houston Permitting Center before work starts; suburbs have their own permit offices.

Can the water restoration company also do the repairs?

Many can. Some restoration companies have their own rebuild crews, while others focus only on drying and refer repairs to a contractor. One company for both keeps the handoff simple. Hiring separately lets you compare repair bids. Either way, ask for the repair scope in writing and make sure the drying records are finished before walls are closed.

Is water damage repair expensive?

It depends on how much had to be removed. A few feet of drywall and baseboard in one room is a very different job from new cabinets, flooring through the whole first floor and repainting. The line does not quote prices; the company you reach gives its own estimate. The cost guide explains what drives the total and cites published ranges.

How do I know the wall is dry enough to close up?

Ask for the moisture log. A careful restoration company sets a dry standard by measuring unaffected material of the same type elsewhere in the house, then records readings until the wet materials reach that goal. If the last readings are still above the goal, it is too early for new drywall, paint or flooring. Trapped moisture behind a new wall is how mold problems start.

Ready to rebuild after a leak? Call the free line

Tell the automated assistant what happened and whether water is still coming in. Your call is passed to an independent, locally owned Houston-area water damage restoration company, which comes out, looks at the damage and sets its own price.