Water, Fire & Storm Restoration in Northwoods, MO

Water losses on Lucas and Hunt Road

Northwoods sits in the north part of St. Louis County, and the homes you pass along Lucas and Hunt Road are mostly brick houses built around the middle of the last century. They have held up well, but the plumbing underneath them is another matter. Bales Cleaning & Restoration is a family-owned company with its office in St. Charles, and we answer calls from Northwoods for water damage, sewage backup, and the cleanup that follows. The St. Louis County overview shows the rest of the communities nearby.

The cast-iron problem

The most common story we expect to hear from a Northwoods homeowner starts with a gurgling toilet or a shower that will not drain, followed by dirty water rising out of the basement floor drain. A house of this age often has a cast-iron sewer lateral. Cast iron lasts a long time, but it rusts from the inside, and the buildup catches paper and grease. Tree roots find the joints. When the line gives out or clogs, the lowest fixture in the house takes the overflow.

That water is not clean. It carries bacteria, and it soaks into anything porous it touches. Treat it as a health matter, not just a mess, and keep children and pets out of the area.

What to keep and what to discard

Homeowners ask us this more than anything else, so here is a plain way to sort it out.

Usually discarded after contact with sewage water: carpet and pad, cardboard storage boxes, books and papers, upholstered furniture, mattresses, stuffed toys, and drywall that wicked water up from the floor. Often cleanable: tools, metal shelving, plastic tubs with lids, glass, ceramic, and solid wood that can be sanded or sealed. Items with sentimental value, such as photographs, deserve a separate conversation, because there are cleaning methods for some of them and none for others. Our contents cleaning work covers the middle ground.

Photograph the pile before anything goes to the curb. Your insurer may ask what was lost.

Order of operations

Stop the source first. That usually means a plumber with a camera and a snake or a cutter. Once water stops entering, extraction comes next, then removal of the porous materials, then cleaning and disinfecting of the hard surfaces, then drying with air movers and dehumidifiers. We take moisture readings in the walls and the slab so that nothing gets closed back up while it is still damp. The process page lays out the stages if you want to see how they connect.

Rebuilding the basement afterward

A finished basement in a brick home may need baseboard, the lower portion of drywall, flooring and sometimes insulation replaced. If a drain line has failed once, ask your plumber about a backwater valve or a repair of the lateral, since it helps prevent a second round. We can handle the reconstruction side as well, so the dry-out and the rebuild stay in one conversation.

Insurance and Northwoods backups

Sewer backup is frequently excluded from a standard homeowners policy unless an endorsement was added. If you have one, we work with your insurer and can bill them directly, and our notes and moisture readings support the claim. Our insurance page explains how that works. If you are unsure what you have, call us anyway and we will tell you what to look for.

Nearby areas we serve

Close to Northwoods are Pasadena Hills, Pine Lawn and Normandy. The full list is on our St. Louis County page.