Water Damage Restoration in Shaler Township

We do, and we are close. Un-Flood-It has worked this corner of Allegheny County since 2009, out of 214 Ross Street in Tarentum. Shaler Township, centered on Glenshaw, sits roughly a dozen miles southwest of that office, about a 20 to 30 minute run down the Route 28 river corridor. That short distance is the point: a dry-out in hours beats one tomorrow.

Shaler is a big township. It covers more than eleven square miles, holds about 28,000 people, and dates back to 1847, when it was named for a Pittsburgh judge, Charles Shaler. Old creek-side homes in the low spots and newer builds up the hills all share the same set of streams. We know where the water shows up 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: 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 pipe fix and the dry-out can be one phone call.

Shaler is one town we cover. Closer in, meet our Tarentum home-base crew. Right next door is water damage help next door in Allison Park, and downriver is water damage restoration in Fox Chapel. Or see every Allegheny County town we cover.

Shaler has a water problem built into its shape. Three stream valleys run down through the township toward the Allegheny River. Pine Creek and Little Pine Creek drop through the north side and meet in the borough of Etna, and Girtys Run runs from Shaler down into Millvale. When a hard rain hits, all of that water funnels into the same low channels, and the lowest floors get it first.

The township does not treat this as a guess. Shaler's own government keeps six flood-zone maps and current FEMA flood insurance maps, and its building inspector helps residents figure out the floodplain line on their property. The township's own flood protection page names the trouble spots by stream: Pine Creek, both branches of Little Pine Creek, and Girtys Run. When a town maps its own flood zones this carefully, the risk is real.

Girtys Run has the record to prove it. Its watershed covers about 13.4 square miles and drains parts of six towns, Shaler among them. During heavy storms in late February 2011, the creek rose more than three feet in half an hour and flooded homes across Millvale, Shaler, and Ross. One Shaler resident near Wible Run Road watched about four inches of water push up through a sewer drain. Over on Pine Creek, flooding has been bad enough that homes in the low "Shaler Flats" area were bought out with PEMA and FEMA money and torn down. When a town removes houses because the water keeps coming back, that is a flood risk you take seriously.

Sewage backups ride the same weather. All of Shaler's wastewater runs to ALCOSAN's regional plant, and much of Allegheny County sits on a combined sewer system where heavy rain overwhelms the lines until they back up into basements. So a big storm here can mean two problems at once: rain water up through the floor, and dirty water up through the drain. Those are not the same cleanup, which is why you want a crew that treats sewage backup cleanup for Shaler Township basements as its own specialty.

Speed is the job. Water spreads by the hour. Mold can start within 24 to 48 hours of a soaking, which the EPA warns about in its mold guidance. From Tarentum we run down the river corridor straight into Shaler, a dozen miles out and not across the county. That lets us keep our promise: a 60-minute response and a crew at your door in about two hours, day or night.

This area needed that speed during the January 24 and 25, 2026 winter storm. 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 appliance, or Girtys Run over its banks, the first hour is the same. Stop the source and get us rolling.

Here is what happens after we arrive. We find the water you can see and the water you cannot, get it out, and dry the structure. Dry is a number, not a feeling. We read moisture with meters and set air movers, 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, not onto your kitchen table. 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 remediation 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. That clearance testing is done by an independent third-party hygienist.