Commercial Water Damage Restoration in London, Ontario: What Property Teams Should Expect

Commercial water damage restoration in London, Ontario is a different job from drying out a house. A burst sprinkler line in an office, a roof leak over a retail floor or a riser failure in a six-storey apartment building affects tenants, revenue and an insurance claim all at once. This guide walks property managers, condo boards and business owners through what should happen, hour by hour, and what to ask any restoration company before you let them start.

The first hour: stop the water and protect the tenants

Before anyone talks price, three things need to happen:

• Isolate the source. Close the supply valve for the riser, sprinkler zone or fixture. If it is a fire sprinkler system, call your fire protection contractor so the system is restored as quickly as possible and the building is not left unprotected.
• Make the space safe. Cut power to affected circuits from a dry location, rope off wet floors and move tenants out of anything with water near outlets or ceiling fixtures.
• Document before you move anything. Dated photos and video of every affected suite, the source and the water level. Your adjuster will ask for them.

Then call a mitigation company that answers 24/7. Every hour water sits in drywall and carpet pad adds drying days, and after 24 to 48 hours wet materials can start growing mold, which turns a water claim into a remediation job.

Extraction and the moisture map

The first visit should include extraction with truck-mount or portable units, and a moisture map: every wall, ceiling and floor checked with pin and pinless meters and a thermal camera, marked on a floor plan. Water travels along slab, under baseboards and down through ceilings to the floor below, so the affected area is almost always larger than what you can see. The map is what the whole scope and the insurance claim are built on.

The company should also classify the water using the IICRC S500 categories. Clean water from a supply line (Category 1) is handled very differently from grey water from an appliance (Category 2) or sewage and outside flood water (Category 3), which means porous materials like carpet and drywall have to come out.

Drying a commercial building without shutting it down

The goal is to keep the building operating. In practice that means:

• Phased drying. Equipment is set up suite by suite or zone by zone, so occupied areas stay open.
• After-hours work. Flood cuts, carpet removal and other loud or dusty work scheduled for evenings, nights or weekends.
• Containment where needed. Plastic barriers and HEPA air scrubbers keep dust out of common areas and HVAC returns.
• Daily readings. Temperature, relative humidity and material moisture logged every day until each area reaches its dry standard. For wood framing that is typically under 16% moisture content.

Commercial losses use more equipment than residential ones: low-grain refrigerant (LGR) dehumidifiers, high-velocity air movers and sometimes desiccant units for large open floors or cold slabs. Expect three to five days of drying for most losses, longer for concrete and multi-layer flooring.

Older buildings: check for designated substances before cutting

Many commercial and multi-unit buildings in London were built before asbestos was phased out of drywall compound, plaster, floor tile and pipe insulation. Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act requires owners to identify designated substances before construction work starts. A careful mitigation company will ask for your designated substance survey, or have suspect materials tested, before cutting into anything. If someone offers to rip out drywall in a 1970s building without asking, that is a red flag.

The paperwork adjusters and boards want

A commercial claim is approved on evidence. At closeout you should receive one package with:

• The moisture map from day one and the final dry readings
• The daily drying log with temperature, humidity and moisture content
• Dated before, during and after photos, organised by suite or room
• An equipment log showing how many units ran for how many days
• An itemized invoice that lines up with the approved scope

That package is also what your board, ownership group or insurer will want to see if the same unit leaks again in two years.

Who pays: insurance, direction to pay and deductibles

Sudden and accidental water damage, such as a burst pipe or a failed supply line, is usually covered by a commercial property policy, subject to the deductible. Gradual leaks, long-term seepage and poor maintenance often are not. Many restoration companies, including ours, can work on a signed direction to pay so the insurer pays the contractor directly and you cover the deductible. Read your policy wording or call your broker before you assume either way.

Mitigation versus rebuild

Restoration is two separate jobs: mitigation (extraction, drying, removal of damaged materials, mold prevention) and reconstruction (drywall, flooring, paint, millwork). Some companies do both, which can create an incentive to remove more than the readings call for. We do mitigation only, stop at clean, dry structure and hand the moisture records to your own contractor or the one your insurer assigns.

What to ask before you hire

• Do you answer 24/7, and who actually shows up at 2 am?
• Will you give me a moisture map and daily readings in writing?
• Can loud work be scheduled after hours?
• Are your crews WSIB-cleared, and can you send a certificate of insurance?
• Do you follow IICRC S500 for water and S520 for mold?
• Will you check for designated substances before demolition?

If you manage several buildings, set this up before the next leak. Our Priority Response Program keeps your shut-off locations, access details and after-hours contacts on file, so the first hour is spent stopping water, not searching for keys. See our full commercial water damage and mold services for London and Middlesex County.

Common questions