Emergency Repairs

A ceiling sagging under water from the unit upstairs, a back door split during a break-in, a basement window broken by a falling branch: none of these can sit on a to-do list. Our first job is to make the property safe and closed up and to protect what has not been damaged yet. The permanent repair comes after, planned properly rather than patched in a hurry.

Stopping the water comes before any repair

Water is behind many urgent repairs, and dealing with it takes more than one trade. The flow has to be stopped first: close the main shut-off valve if you can reach it safely, and have a licensed plumber repair the pipe, fitting or fixture that failed. In a condo or apartment, tell building management as well, since the source may be in another suite. Soaked materials then need to be dried out by a restoration or drying company, which brings extraction equipment, air movers and moisture meters. Our part is the building work on either side of the drying: making the space safe at the start, and putting back drywall, ceilings, insulation, trim and paint once everything has dried.

If water has reached outlets, baseboard heaters, the furnace or the area around the electrical panel, stay out of that space and do not try to switch anything off yourself. Your local electricity utility can disconnect the power, and a licensed electrical contractor should inspect the system before it is turned back on. If you smell gas, see sparking, or think part of a ceiling or wall could come down, get everyone out and call 911 or your gas utility from outside before calling a contractor.

Make-safe work we carry out

• Plywood board-up of broken windows, glass doors and storefronts
• Re-securing forced doors, damaged frames and strike plates, or closing the opening temporarily until a new door can be fitted
• Temporary sheathing and poly over openings in exterior walls to keep the weather out
• Taking down sagging, waterlogged ceiling drywall before it falls, after checking whether an older ceiling needs asbestos testing
• Covering floors, furniture and neighbouring rooms so the damage is not tracked further
• Clearing broken materials and debris so the rest of the space can be used

Where framing has been hit — by a vehicle, a fallen tree or a fire — a structural engineer may need to assess it before the permanent repair is designed. We close up and protect the area in the meantime, then rebuild the framing to the engineer's direction once any permit the repair needs is in place.

From temporary fix to finished repair

1. Tell us what happened. What is broken or wet, which rooms are affected and whether the source has been stopped. Photos help us arrive with the right materials.
2. Make safe. We secure openings, deal with anything that could fall or let weather in, and protect the areas that were not touched.
3. Let it dry. After a leak, the drying company's moisture readings decide when walls and ceilings can be closed in again, not the calendar or how the surface looks.
4. Agree on the scope. We write up the permanent repair line by line — which walls and ceilings, how much flooring, what paint — and you approve it before we begin.
5. Repair and walk through. We rebuild, blend new finishes into the old as closely as the materials allow, and go over the finished area with you.

When the damage covers a whole floor, a kitchen or the aftermath of a fire, the rebuild becomes a project of its own; our restoration and damage repair page explains how that work is organized. Smaller stained or soft patches of wall and ceiling are replaced and finished as ordinary drywall and taping repairs.

How the damage shapes the bill

Make-safe work is priced on what it takes: the size of the openings to cover, the materials needed and how much has to be cut out or cleared. The permanent repair depends on how far the damage spread once walls and ceilings are opened, whether existing flooring, trim and paint can still be matched, and access — a condo suite with a booked service elevator runs differently from a detached house. Drying, the availability of a replacement door or matching flooring and, in a condo, the building's own requirements all shape when the permanent work can start.

When something has just gone wrong, phone us. A call is the best way to reach us, and it lets us ask the right questions about what you are seeing. If the property is already safe and you want the damage put right, you can also send photos and a description, and we will send a free written price for the permanent repair.