Water Damage Restoration
Extraction, structural drying and moisture verification after burst pipes, appliance failures and basement flooding.
Learn more →What extraction actually involves
Extraction is the mechanical removal of standing and absorbed water before any drying equipment is set. It is the first thing a contractor does after the source is shut off and the area is made electrically safe.
Submersible pumps handle deep standing water — a flooded basement with several inches on the slab gets pumped before anything else happens. Truck-mounted extractors provide the highest vacuum lift and are used on large-volume jobs. Portable extractors cover upper floors and anywhere a hose run from the street is impractical. Weighted extraction tools are dragged across saturated carpet, using the operator's body weight to compress the pad and pull water out of it — the single most effective tool on a carpeted room, and the one a homeowner cannot replicate.
Moisture mapping runs alongside. Water travels along framing and under cabinets and finds the lowest point in a building, so extraction crews use meters and thermal imaging to find where it went rather than where it is visible.
The Colorado timing problem
Most water losses here happen at the worst possible hour. Frozen pipes split overnight on the coldest night and thaw with the morning sun, so the flood starts while the house is empty. Monsoon cells roll over the metro in the late afternoon and overwhelm a sump pump while nobody is watching the basement. Snowmelt seeps in gradually over days in March and is often only found when somebody smells it.
That lag is why the extraction window is usually already partly spent by the time anyone calls. Mold germinates within 24 to 48 hours in damp materials, and clean Category 1 water starts degrading toward contaminated Category 2 over roughly the same period. Extraction inside that window keeps the job in the drying column. Extraction outside it moves work into the tear-out column, where material removal and rebuild costs far more than equipment rental.
What it costs
Truck-mounted extraction typically runs $100 to $300 per room, and the extraction component of a Category 1 job usually falls between $300 and $1,000 depending on volume. After-hours response adds $50 to $200. Full ranges are in the cost guide.
That is a small fraction of a restoration bill, which is the point. Extraction is the cheapest phase and the one that most determines the cost of every phase after it.
What happens next
Once water is out, structural drying begins: air movers sized to room volume, dehumidifiers sized to class, and daily moisture readings until the building hits dry standard. If the water was Category 3, extraction is followed by sewage cleanup protocols rather than drying, because contaminated porous material does not get dried, it gets removed.
If the source was a frozen line, see burst pipe cleanup. If it came in from outside, see flood cleanup. Realistic timelines for both phases are in our guide to how long water extraction takes.
More services
Explore our other services
Fire & Smoke Damage
Soot removal, odor control and cleanup of the firefighting water that usually does more damage than the flames.
Learn more →Mold Remediation
Containment, removal and moisture-source correction when water sat long enough for mold to take hold.
Learn more →Storm & Hail Damage
Roof tarping, water intrusion cleanup and documentation after Front Range hail and wind events.
Learn more →Sewage Cleanup
Category 3 backups handled with containment, full removal of porous materials and disinfection.
Learn more →Structural Drying
Air movers, dehumidifiers and daily moisture readings until framing, subfloor and drywall hit dry standard.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How long does water extraction take?
Small leaks are usually pulled in one to two hours. Medium damage across several rooms runs three to five hours. A large basement flood is six hours or more. Extraction is the fast part; the drying that follows takes days, and how well extraction was done determines how many.
Can I extract the water myself with a shop vac?
For a small spill on a hard floor, yes. For anything that reached carpet pad, drywall or subfloor, no. A shop vac fills constantly, lacks the vacuum lift to pull water out of pad, and cannot reach water that has migrated under cabinets or into wall cavities. Partial extraction is what produces mold six weeks later.
Why does extraction matter more than drying?
Because mechanical removal is hundreds of times more efficient than evaporation. Every gallon pulled with an extractor is a gallon that does not have to be evaporated into the air and then condensed out by a dehumidifier over three days. Poor extraction is the most common reason drying runs long.
Do you charge extra after hours?
Contractors typically add $50 to $200 for after-hours emergency response. That is a real cost and it is worth paying. Waiting until morning to save the call-out fee routinely costs multiples of it in additional material removal.
Free, no-obligation