Lawrence water damage restoration

Downtown Lawrence sits on the south bank of the Kansas River, on a rise above the water. North Lawrence, across the bridges, sits on lower, flatter ground on the north side of the river ^[1]. The 1951 flood that devastated Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas also caused heavy damage in Lawrence ^[2], and the low areas along the river have been the focus of levees and drainage work since.

Today, the large-river flood risk in protected areas is far lower than it was in 1951, but heavy local rain can still overwhelm drainage on flat ground, and some properties remain in mapped flood zones. If your home is in North Lawrence or near a creek, check your flood zone, and remember that flood damage is generally not covered by homeowners insurance and that new flood policies usually take 30 days to start ^[6].

Elsewhere in Lawrence, the hills shape water damage more than the river does. Water runs downhill toward foundations, collects against the uphill side of basements and finds its way through old stone walls.

Lawrence has some of the oldest housing in Kansas. Old West Lawrence, one of the city's historic residential districts ^[1], and East Lawrence include houses from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: limestone and brick foundations, wood frame and stone houses, plaster walls, tall windows and original wood floors and trim. Many have basements or cellars that were dug for storage, not living space, and have since been partly finished.

Older foundations made of stone set in lime mortar are porous by design. They breathe, and when the soil around them is saturated, they seep. Painting or sealing them from the inside can trap moisture in the wall. Plaster walls upstairs handle short wetting fairly well but can crack or separate from the lath if soaked. Original plumbing may be galvanized steel, cast iron or a patchwork of later repairs.

In houses built before 1978, removing wet drywall, plaster or trim calls for lead-safe practices ^[4], and older homes may contain asbestos in pipe insulation, floor tile or textures ^[5]. Ask the contractor about their experience with historic houses and how they protect original materials.

With the University of Kansas in the middle of the city ^[3], Lawrence has a very large rental market: houses shared by several students, older homes divided into apartments, duplexes and large apartment complexes. Water damage in rentals has its own challenges. Tenants may be away over winter break when pipes freeze, nobody may notice a slow leak in a basement unit for weeks, and responsibility is split between the landlord, the property manager and each tenant's renters insurance.

If you rent, report water to your landlord or manager in writing right away and photograph your belongings and the damage. Do not wait for someone else to notice. If you own or manage rentals, make sure tenants know where the main water shutoff is, set thermostats for break periods, and act quickly on any report of water: the faster extraction and drying start, the less damage there is to the building and to everyone's belongings.

Winter break is a particularly risky time in Lawrence. Many rentals are empty for weeks just as northeast Kansas sees its coldest weather ^[7]. A thermostat turned down to save energy, a furnace that fails, or a window left cracked can let pipes freeze in exterior walls, under kitchen sinks and in older basements. When temperatures rise, the split pipes leak into an empty house. By the time someone returns, water may have run for days.

Simple steps help: keep the heat at a steady, reasonable temperature, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, ask someone to check the property, and consider shutting off the main water valve and draining the lines if the house will be empty for long. See burst pipe water damage.

Lawrence's rental calendar is unusually concentrated. Leases often turn over at the start of summer and around the academic year, and for a few weeks many houses are empty, half-moved or full of new tenants who do not yet know the building. That is a good time to catch slow problems before they become water damage. Landlords and incoming tenants can walk through together and look at the same few things: stains on ceilings under bathrooms, soft spots in floors around toilets and tubs, the condition of washer hoses, drips under sinks, the age of the water heater and whether the basement smells musty.

Show every tenant the main water shutoff and how to turn it, and leave a written note near it. Point out the floor drain and the sump pump if there is one, and explain what a backup looks like. Agree how water problems should be reported and who to call if the landlord cannot be reached. When tenants leave for the summer or winter, agree on the thermostat setting and who will check on the house.

Photographs at move-in and move-out help everyone. If water damage happens later, they show what was already there and what is new, which makes conversations with insurers and each other far easier.

Older Lawrence houses often still have their original oak or pine floors, tall baseboards, door and window casings and built-in cabinets. These are worth protecting during a water loss. Solid wood floors that get wet will cup as the bottoms of the boards swell; dried slowly and carefully, many flatten again and can be refinished rather than replaced. Sanding too early, before the wood has fully dried, can leave boards crowned once they finish drying, so patience matters.

Trim and built-ins that were wet can usually be removed carefully, labeled, dried and reinstalled. Ask the contractor to save original pieces rather than discard them, and to photograph and number each piece so it goes back where it came from. Matching old millwork later is difficult, and the originals are part of what makes these houses valuable.

Many older Lawrence houses have enclosed porches, former sleeping porches and rear kitchen or bathroom additions built over crawlspaces or on separate foundations. These spaces are often colder than the main house, with less insulation and plumbing that was added later. They are prime spots for frozen pipes in winter and for roof leaks where a low-slope porch roof meets the main wall.

When water damage shows up in one of these spaces, the restorer will check the crawlspace below and the joint where the addition meets the original house, because water often travels along that seam into the main structure. Tell the contractor if part of your house sits over a crawlspace.

Lawrence shares the spring and summer storm season of eastern Kansas, with hail, strong winds and heavy downpours ^[7]. Older houses meet those storms with roofs and gutters that are more complicated than a modern subdivision home's. Steep roofs with many valleys, dormers and chimneys have more places for water to get in. Some historic houses have built-in box gutters hidden behind the roof edge; when their linings fail or they clog with leaves, water overflows into the wall or the ceiling below rather than off the eave.

Chimneys are another weak point. Flashing around an old brick chimney can crack or pull away, letting water run down inside the chimney chase and stain plaster on several floors. After a storm, look at ceilings near chimneys and exterior walls, as well as in the attic, and photograph anything new.

Inside, water from a roof leak in an older house often spreads across plaster ceilings and down inside walls before it shows. Ask the restorer to check the full path, including the attic, the wall cavities below the leak and any rooms underneath, and to coordinate with a roofer who works on older roofs, so the leak is fixed before the ceilings are repaired, primed and painted again by the trades who follow.

West and south of the older city, Lawrence has grown with subdivisions and apartment communities built in recent decades. These homes look more like Johnson County than Old West Lawrence: poured concrete basements, many of them finished, sump pumps, PEX plumbing and attached garages. Their water problems are the modern ones. A sump pump that loses power in a storm, a window well that fills, a failed fitting on a supply line, a water heater that leaks into a finished lower level or a washing machine hose that bursts while nobody is home.

Prevention is straightforward: test the sump pump each spring and add a battery backup, fit window well covers, replace washer hoses with braided ones, put leak sensors near the water heater and washer, and extend downspouts away from the foundation. In apartment communities, tenants should know where the shutoff valve for their unit is, often under the sink or in a utility closet.

In apartment buildings, water from one unit often affects several. A washing machine overflow, a toilet supply line failure or a bathtub overflow on an upper floor can soak the ceiling and walls of every unit below it. The restorer needs access to all of them, and building management usually coordinates. Tenants in affected units should photograph their belongings and contact their renters insurer; the building's insurer usually handles the structure.

Drying stacked units involves extraction from the floors, opening ceilings that are holding water, and drying several layers of ceiling and floor at once. Readings in each unit show when it is dry.

Drying and cleaning do not usually need permits, but repairs to plumbing, electrical systems, furnaces, water heaters and structure often do. Lawrence has historic districts and individually listed properties where exterior changes, such as replacing water-damaged siding, windows or porches, may need historic review before work starts. Interior repairs usually do not. Ask the contractor who will pull permits and check with the city before committing to exterior work on a historic house.

Eudora, east of Lawrence along the Kansas River, has an older core near the river and newer neighborhoods on higher ground. Baldwin City, to the south, is a small college town with older homes near downtown and newer housing on its edges. Some properties around both towns use private wells or septic systems, which changes how a backup or contaminated floodwater is handled. If your home is on a well and floodwater reached the wellhead, have the water tested before drinking it. Each town has its own permit office for repairs.

Back to all of Kansas. Nearby pages: Kansas City, KS, Overland Park, Shawnee, Topeka, Wichita.

Related help for Lawrence: water extraction, structural drying, sewage backup cleanup, fire damage restoration and smoke damage cleanup. First time dealing with this? Read the first hours after water damage.