Water Damage Restoration in Ford City

We do, from Tarentum. The drive is Route 28 north along the river, then the Route 66 ramp down into Ford City. That is the same road our trucks run every week, and our Tarentum emergency water removal shop sits at the bottom of it. Un-Flood-It has run out of Tarentum since December 2009, owned by Brian Marra, who also owns the plumbing company 1-Tom-Plumber Pittsburgh.

Our technicians are IICRC certified, and we carry PA Home Improvement Contractor License #PA080868. Ford City was built in one rush. The borough was incorporated in 1889, the year the glass works started up, and the population jumped from 1,255 in 1890 to 2,870 in 1900 and 4,850 in 1910. By the 1913 tax rolls there were 824 houses and lots in town. Most of those houses are still here, with the same foundations and the same drain lines. PPG's Ford City Works, once the largest plate glass factory in the world, closed for good in 1992.

Ford City is one stop on the towns up and down the Allegheny we cover, and the same trucks handle creek flooding cleanup in Freeport and water damage repair work in Leechburg across the river.

Start with the river. NOAA keeps a gauge on the Allegheny River at Kittanning Lock and Dam, four miles upriver. Flood stage there is 21 feet. The St. Patrick's Day flood of March 1936 pushed it to 24.2 feet, past major flood stage, while Pittsburgh peaked near 46 feet and at least 69 people died across western Pennsylvania. The remnants of Hurricane Ivan sent it to 22.2 feet on September 18, 2004, with 164,300 cubic feet of water a second rolling past Ford City.

High water is baked into the town's bones. The 1914 county history notes that Ford City planned its river bridge approaches over the railroad tracks "in order to avoid the high water." The glass workers walked to the plant through a tunnel under those same tracks. When the Allegheny rises, the lower avenues near the old works are the first to get wet.

The flood most people here remember did not come from the river at all. In late June 2006, a downpour hit the hills directly above Ford City and Manorville. The runoff flooded the basements of 100 to 200 homes in Ford City and nearby areas. The county declared a state of emergency, some families were evacuated, and firefighters from six or seven departments spent the weekend pumping out basements. The borough knows its storm sewers are the weak point. In March 2026, Rep. Glenn Thompson announced over $1.9 million in federal funding to replace roughly 6,300 feet of aging storm sewer pipe under the neighborhoods that flood most often.

Then there is the water under the house. Ford City's sewage plant, run by the Ford City Borough Municipal Sewer Disposal Authority, discharges to the Allegheny and is rated for 1.3 million gallons a day. In a hard rain, old laterals let groundwater and sewage push back up through floor drains. Winter adds burst pipes. The storm of January 24 and 25, 2026 came with forecasts of 10 to 14 inches of snow and warnings to winterize pipes, and our own reviews describe homes with burst pipes from it.

Most water losses cannot wait for a callback, so we run around the clock, weekends and holidays included. From Tarentum we take Route 28 north and drop into the 16226 ZIP with extraction and drying gear on the truck. If you are across the river in North Buffalo Township, we come over the Ford City Veterans Bridge on Route 128.

Speed is physics, not a sales line. Water wicks up drywall by the hour and soaks into subfloor and framing. Pull it out fast and you keep the material. Wait a day and you replace it.

We do not pack up when the floor feels dry. We pack up when the meters say it is dry. We map the moisture, including the water hiding in walls and under floors. We pump out the standing water, set air movers and dehumidifiers, and sanitize when the loss calls for it. A final inspection confirms the structure is back to safe moisture levels. A floor can feel dry to your hand while the subfloor under it still reads soaked, and that trapped water is what buckles hardwood weeks later.

Water, sewage, and mold are all we do. If runoff or a backed-up drain came up through a basement floor, treat it as dirty and stay out of it. That water calls for basement sewage cleanup in Ford City, and we show up with the right gear on the truck. Standing water left too long grows mold in a day or two, so we also handle mold remediation when a loss sat wet. We do not sell fire restoration, rebuilds, or plumbing repair, so our drying advice never pads a construction bid.

The paperwork runs alongside the pumps. We photograph and log the loss as we work, then bill your insurance company directly. Your policy and the cause of the loss decide what is covered. You still choose who does the work. It is your claim.