What is the average cost of hiring a professional water damage company?

There are two different jobs hiding in that question, and the price gap between them is big. If you need cleanup after a flood or a burst pipe, that is restoration work, and we don’t do restoration. If you want to stop water from coming into your basement in the first place, that is waterproofing, and our basement waterproofing runs $3,000 to $30,000 for a typical New Hampshire home. Figure out which one you have before you call anyone.

Here is the simple split. Water damage restoration is the company that shows up with fans and shop-vacs to dry out a soaked floor, pull wet drywall, and treat mold after the water already got in. Pricing for that depends on how much got wet and how fast you caught it, so a restoration outfit has to see it to quote it. We are the other side of the coin. We keep the water out so you don’t end up calling the restoration crew every spring.

Why your basement floods in the first place

Most wet basements in New England aren’t a mystery. When your house was built, crews dug a hole, set the foundation, then shoveled the dirt back in around it. That backfill is loose. It drains slow and it holds water against your wall. Add a few NH freeze-thaw cycles and frost heave starts pushing those walls inward. Water finds the weak spots. It seeps through the floor wall joint where the slab meets the wall, or through a hairline crack you can barely see.

Drying it out after the fact does nothing about that. The water comes back.

What it costs to actually fix it

The fix that lasts is interior drainage. Our Forever Dry System is a full-perimeter drain run inside the footing, a sump pump (we size it at 1/2 hp per 120 feet of drain), a 12-mil vapor barrier on the walls, and a dehumidifier to handle the air. It runs $3,000 to $30,000 for a typical basement. It is 100% guaranteed to be dry for life!

What moves that number up or down:

• How many feet of wall need drainage.
• Whether you have one sump or two.
• Cracks that need injection on top of the drain, which run $1,000 to $3,000.
• A finished basement that has to be opened up first.

A crawl space is a different animal. That gets crawlspace encapsulation, not the Forever Dry System, and it runs $3,000 to $25,000. We seal it with a 12-mil wall and 20-mil floor vapor barrier, dimpled matting under the floor, spray-foamed seams, a dehumidifier, and a sump.

You don’t always need the full system. If you’ve got one weeping crack and a dry floor everywhere else, a crack injection at $1,000 to $3,000 might be all you need. We’ll tell you that when we look. No reason to sell you a perimeter drain for a problem one repair fixes.

A note on outside digging

Some companies will pitch exterior excavation, digging down the outside of the foundation to seal it. We don’t do that. In our experience here in NH, that fix fails in about two or three years once the soil settles back. Interior drainage is the durable way to keep a basement dry, so that’s what we install.

If your power goes out during a storm, the backup sump matters. Ours runs on a battery, and a charged battery pumps roughly a residential pool’s worth of water, about 15,000 to 20,000 gallons, before it quits. That buys you a lot of room during an outage.

What you’re really buying

A restoration bill is money spent cleaning up after the damage. Waterproofing is money spent so the damage never happens. One is a recurring cost every wet season. The other comes with our transferable lifetime guarantee. We’ve kept 5,000+ New England homeowners dry, we’re rated 4.9 on Google across 250 reviews, and we’re BBB A+ accredited. Free inspection, free estimate, quote in 24 hours.

Want to know which job you actually have? Call us at 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection and we’ll come look. We’ll tell you whether you need a drain, a single crack repair, or just a dehumidifier.

Read more on our basement waterproofing, crawl space services, and structural and foundation repair pages.

Related questions

Does 603 do water damage restoration or cleanup? No. We don’t do flood cleanup, drying, or mold remediation after water gets in. We stop water from getting in. If you’re standing in an inch of water right now, you need a restoration company first, then call us to fix why it happened.

Is it cheaper to dry out a basement or waterproof it? A one-time dry-out can look cheaper on paper, but a wet basement floods again, so you pay again every season. Waterproofing with the Forever Dry System at $3,000 to $30,000 is one cost with a lifetime guarantee. Over a few years it usually costs less than repeat cleanups.

Will homeowners insurance pay for waterproofing? Usually no. Policies tend to cover sudden accidents like a burst pipe, not gradual seepage or preventive waterproofing. Check your own policy. The Insurance Information Institute (iii.org) explains what most policies cover and exclude.

What if it’s just one crack leaking? Then you might only need crack injection at $1,000 to $3,000, not a full system. We’ll tell you that at the inspection. No upsell.