Water Damage Restoration in Fox Chapel

We do, and we are close. Un-Flood-It has cleaned up water in this part of Allegheny County since 2009, out of 214 Ross Street in Tarentum. Fox Chapel sits downriver from that office, about six miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh, a short run down the Route 28 corridor that follows the river's north bank. That short distance is the whole point. A dry-out in hours beats one tomorrow.

Fox Chapel is a borough of about 5,343 people spread over 7.8 square miles of wooded hills. The homes here are large and often older, set back on big lots with finished basements worth protecting. That is exactly the kind of house where water does the most damage before anyone sees it. We know the low spots along the creek and the streets that take water first.

All of our technicians are IICRC certified, and we carry PA Home Improvement Contractor license #PA080868. We handle the water side start to finish: emergency water removal and extraction, structural drying, sewage cleanup, mold remediation, and odor and biohazard work. We do not do the plumbing repair itself. But our owner, Brian Marra, also owns 1-Tom-Plumber Pittsburgh, so the burst pipe and the dry-out can be one phone call.

Fox Chapel is one town on our map. Just across the river is water damage help just across the river in Oakmont. Up the valley sits the Tarentum office that sends our crews, and downstream we run downriver water damage work in Pittsburgh. You can also see every service area along the Allegheny we cover.

Fox Chapel has a creek that runs right through it: Squaw Run, now also called Sycamore Run. It is a tributary of the Allegheny River. It winds down through these hills, gathers feeders like Stony Camp Run and Glade Run, and empties into the river over in O'Hara Township. When a hard rain hits, all of that water funnels off the hillsides into the same narrow channels at once.

That is not a guess. On July 2, 2018, a flash flood put Fox Chapel and O'Hara among the hardest-hit towns in the region. Cars were trapped on Squaw Run Road and the Allegheny County Swift Water Rescue team had to pull drivers out. On Fox Chapel Road, rising water broke through a home's garage doors, and homes and the local clubs took damage after about ninety minutes of rain. One resident said the water rose in less than ten minutes. Flash flooding is one of the hazards the National Weather Service flags for Pennsylvania, and these steep, wooded basins are built for it.

The ground itself makes it worse. Roofs and pavement shed far more water than open grass, so runoff pours downhill faster than the old drainage can carry it. Fox Chapel took the problem seriously enough to add a stormwater fee in 2020 and to plan detention ponds holding up to 1.3 million gallons on new parkland. For a finished basement near one of these runs, a single storm can push water through the walls and up through the floor drains together.

Sewage backups ride the same weather. Much of Allegheny County runs on a combined sewer system, and ALCOSAN documents how heavy rain overwhelms those lines until they surcharge and back up into basements. So a big storm here can mean two problems at once: creek water through the walls, and dirty water up through the drain. Those are not the same cleanup. That is why you want a crew that runs sewage backup cleanup for Fox Chapel basements as its own health-hazard specialty.

Speed is the job. Water spreads by the hour, and if it sits, mold can take hold fast. From Tarentum we run straight down the river toward Fox Chapel and O'Hara. We are a short drive out, not across the county. That is what lets us keep our promise: a 60-minute response and a crew at your door in about two hours, day or night.

This corner of the county needed that speed during the January 24 and 25, 2026 winter storm too. Forecasters called for 10 to 14 inches of snow and told everyone to winterize their pipes. Plenty of homes lost that race, and burst pipes flooded basements overnight. Frozen line, failed sump pump, or Squaw Run over its banks, the first hour is the same.

Here is what happens after we arrive. We find the water you can see and the water you cannot, then dry the structure. Dry is a number, not a feeling. We read moisture with meters and run air movers and dehumidifiers, and we do not pull the gear until the readings say a material is truly dry, not just dry to the touch.

You will know what we know the whole way through. We document the loss, track the drying, and bill your insurance company directly, so the paperwork goes to your adjuster. If a claim is not the route you want, financing is available through Foundation Finance. If the water sat long enough to start growing something, our mold crew handles that too.

One honest note on scope. We do the water, drying, sewage, mold, and odor and biohazard work. We do not do fire restoration or rebuilds, and we do not self-perform mold testing. Clearance testing is done by an independent third-party hygienist.