24/7 Water Damage Restoration in Ottawa
HMRS extracts standing water, dries the structure to a documented moisture target, and writes the file your insurer and property manager need — with crews dispatched around the clock across Ottawa and Eastern Ontario.
Dispatch — 24 hours
(613) 239-4728Answered at any hour, including through storm events. You are told a real attendance window on the call.
When you need water damage restoration
- 1A burst or frozen pipe with water in occupied suites.
- 2A flooded basement after storm or spring melt.
- 3Sewage backup through a floor drain or fixture.
- 4An appliance failure — washer hose, water heater, dishwasher supply.
- 5A roof or window leak that has soaked into the ceiling cavity.
- 6Water left behind after fire suppression.
- 7A sprinkler discharge in a commercial building.
- 8A slow leak found weeks late, with staining and swelling already visible.
The first hours and what follows
- 01
Stop the source and make safe
Water off, power isolated where it needs to be, and the immediate hazard controlled. On a multi-unit building this is also the point at which the scope of affected suites gets established, because water travels laterally through floor assemblies further than the visible damage suggests.
- 02
Extract
Standing water out first. Extraction in the first hours removes more water than days of air movement will, and every litre extracted is a litre that does not have to be evaporated out of the structure later.
- 03
Classify the water
Clean supply water, grey water from an appliance, or category three from a sewage backup. The classification decides what can be dried and kept versus what has to be removed and replaced, and it is not a judgement call to revisit later.
- 04
Open and inspect the assembly
Moisture meters and, where it helps, thermal imaging to find where water has moved behind finishes. Selective removal of material that will not dry in place — wet insulation in a wall cavity does not dry from the room side.
- 05
Controlled drying
Air movement and dehumidification sized to the affected volume, with moisture readings logged over the dry-down rather than a single reading at the end. Drying continues to a target, not to a date.
- 06
Document and hand back
Moisture log, photo progress, the scope of what was removed, and the drying record. That package is the difference between a claim that settles and a claim that gets queried. Reconstruction follows on the same file where you want it run that way.
Why property managers and adjusters call HMRS
- Extraction speed treated as the priority it is
- The first hours decide how much structure has to come out later. Dispatch is answered live, around the clock, by an Ottawa company.
- IICRC-standard drying, documented
- HMRS is IICRC certified, and the drying is run to those standards: readings logged across the dry-down rather than one reading at the end. The log is part of the closeout package, not something reconstructed for the claim.
- Asbestos and mould assessed on the same visit
- A water loss in a pre-1990 building routinely opens an assembly containing asbestos. Finding that out mid-removal changes the job. HMRS scopes for it up front.
- Multi-unit and commercial capacity
- Losses that cross suites and floors are scoped per building, with reporting a property manager can pass upward without rewriting it.
Common questions
01What should I do in the first hour of a flood?
Shut off the water at the source or the main. Kill power to the affected area at the panel if water is anywhere near outlets or equipment, and do not enter standing water where you cannot confirm the power is off. Move what you can lift out of the water. Photograph everything before anything is moved or removed, because that record is what an adjuster works from. Then call — extraction in the first hours does more than anything that happens on day three.
02Can wet drywall and insulation be dried in place?
Drywall sometimes, depending on how long it was wet and what class of water it was. Batt insulation in a wall cavity generally cannot — it holds water against the framing and does not dry from the room side, which is why cutting it out is usually faster and cheaper than trying to dry around it.
03Why does drying take days rather than hours?
Because the water in the structure is not the water on the floor. Framing, subfloor, and sheathing release moisture slowly, and pulling the room air down without pulling the assembly down leaves you with a surface that reads dry over a cavity that is not. The equipment stays until the readings say the structure has reached the target.
04Is sewage backup handled differently?
Yes. Category three water carries pathogens, and the rule is that porous material it has contacted comes out rather than being dried and kept. Carpet, underlay, insulation, and affected drywall are removed; hard surfaces are cleaned and disinfected. Treating a sewage backup as a drying job is the most common serious error in this trade.
05Will my insurance cover this?
Sudden and accidental water damage is generally covered; long-term seepage and deferred maintenance generally are not, and most policies distinguish sewer backup as a separate endorsement. What consistently helps is documentation showing when the event happened and what was done in response. HMRS writes the file with that in mind.
06Do you work directly with adjusters?
Yes. Scope, moisture documentation, and photo progress are prepared for the adjuster to work from, and scope changes are raised as they are found rather than at invoicing. Scope integrity is the whole basis of the relationship on the insurance side.
07How soon can someone be on site?
Dispatch is answered 24 hours a day. Actual arrival depends on where in the service area the loss is and what is already running, and HMRS will tell you a real window on the call rather than a number chosen to win the job.
08Can HMRS handle a whole building, not just one unit?
Yes. Multi-unit water losses are a large share of the work — the Chapman Hills project was a multi-unit loss run through moisture investigation, controlled drying, documented readings, and restoration to pre-loss condition. Portfolio-scale response is scoped per building rather than per unit.
In this section
Related services
- Mould RemovalWhat an incomplete dry-down turns into. Containment, removal, and verification when growth has already started.
- Biohazard CleanupSewage backup and category three water, where removal replaces drying.
- Winter ResponseFreeze-ups, ice dams, and the Ottawa losses that only happen between December and March.
- Fire & SmokeWater left behind by suppression, on the same file as the smoke and soot.
Dispatch
Water damage response across Ottawa, Gatineau, and Eastern Ontario, from a single flooded basement to a multi-unit loss. Call for dispatch, or request a site assessment and a written scope.