Water Damage Restoration in Arlington, WA

Arlington sits on a bluff where the North and South Forks of the Stillaguamish River meet, and it gets some of the coldest nights in this part of Snohomish County. That shapes water damage restoration in Arlington: many calls start in a freeze, when a supply line in a vented crawlspace or an exterior garage wall splits and then floods once it thaws. Others come during long atmospheric river storms, when water pools under the house or a roof gives way. Crews stop the source, pump or extract standing water, pull wet insulation and vapor barrier from the crawlspace and map moisture in subfloors and walls. Drying should begin the same day, because damp framing in a cool, humid crawlspace dries slowly and starts to smell.

Most of Arlington's housing went up during the suburban growth of the 1980s through the 2000s. In Gleneagle, the city's largest single development, and in Kent Prairie, crews often find two-story homes with carpet upstairs, hard flooring downstairs and a water heater in the garage. Around Old Town and Olympic Avenue the houses are older and the layouts vary more from one street to the next. On a typical job, wet carpet pad and swollen baseboards come out, drywall is cut above the wet line only where readings stay high, and soaked crawlspace insulation is removed rather than dried. Subfloor, joists and most framing are dried in place with dehumidifiers and air movers.

Arlington grew by more than 450 percent during its 1980s to 2000s suburban boom, so much of the city is made up of subdivisions from that era, and the median home was built around 1996. Many Puget Sound houses of that age sit over vented crawlspaces, where supply lines and drains run close to cold outside air, while some newer townhomes sit on slabs. Water heaters often sit in garages, and laundry rooms and bathrooms are frequently upstairs over finished ceilings. Older homes near Old Town and Olympic Avenue can have plumbing that has been changed piece by piece over many decades. Along Smokey Point Boulevard and in the Cascade Industrial Center, shops, warehouses and offices can need drying too.

Arlington sits where the North and South Forks of the Stillaguamish join, and the river is the area's big flood story. On December 5, 2023 it set a record crest of 21.34 feet at the Arlington gauge, beating the 21.16-foot mark from December 2010, and the flooding submerged Twin Rivers Park. The city itself sits up on a bluff, so for most homes the more common water comes from long fall and winter atmospheric river storms that soak roofs, gutters and crawlspaces from November through January.

Arlington also gets some of the hardest freezes in the region. On December 20, 2008 it fell to 6 below zero, two days after 30 inches of snow sat on the ground, and on January 13 to 14, 2024 a record cold snap took it to about 7 degrees. Cold like that splits pipes in crawlspaces, garages and outside walls.