Water Damage Restoration in Vandergrift

We do, from just down the river. The Kiski runs 27 miles from Saltsburg past Avonmore, Apollo, Vandergrift, Hyde Park, and Leechburg before it meets the Allegheny near Freeport. Our Tarentum shop sits a few miles below that meeting point, so Vandergrift is inside our home valley. The towns along these two rivers make up the Alle-Kiski Valley, and our crews work the whole Alle-Kiski Valley.

Un-Flood-It has run out of Tarentum since December 2009. Brian Marra owns it, and he also owns the plumbing company 1-Tom-Plumber Pittsburgh. Our technicians are IICRC certified, and we carry PA Home Improvement Contractor License #PA080868. Vandergrift is one stop on the full list of towns we serve. The same trucks handle water damage down the river in Leechburg and flood cleanup down the valley in New Kensington.

The Kiski is the short answer. The river drains 1,825 square miles of hill country above the USGS Kiskiminetas River gauge at Vandergrift, all the way back to the Conemaugh and the Loyalhanna. Rain that falls two counties away reaches Vandergrift hours later. In March 1936, the St. Patrick's Day flood sent the Kiski more than 15 feet above flood stage. Only three bridges on the Kiski were left standing, and the Vandergrift bridge was one of them.

The federal dams built after that flood are the reason it has not happened again. In September 2018, the Army Corps of Engineers held back so much water at Conemaugh and Loyalhanna that the Kiski crested at 13 feet instead of 30. Without those dams, the Vandergrift area would have seen its largest flood since 1936.

The flash floods are the ones we see most. On August 28, 2013, two to three inches of rain fell in about two hours. Runoff broke up the asphalt on Jackson Avenue and carried it down onto Route 56, and emergency dispatchers took close to 500 calls in two hours, most of them flooded basements. On July 1, 2025, slow-moving storms dropped up to 3 inches of rain. Westmoreland 911 said it had a ton of calls in the Vandergrift area. Sheridan Road in East Vandergrift closed under high water and a landslide, and a Wallace Street business took 3 inches of water in its kitchen. Calls for flooded basements came in across the region all afternoon.

Then there are the sewers. Vandergrift and East Vandergrift send their flow to the Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority plant in Leechburg. Parts of that system are combined sewers, where rain and sewage share one pipe. The state permit for the plant spells it out: two overflow outfalls on the Kiski are still permitted because stormwater can enter the sewers and overwhelm them. Towns across the Alle-Kiski Valley have been under a federal directive to separate those old pipes. When a storm fills a combined line faster than it can drain, the extra can come up through your floor drain.

The houses finish the picture. Vandergrift was laid out in 1895 by the Olmsted firm as a model steel town for the Apollo Iron and Steel Company, and much of that town still stands. More than half of the borough's homes, about 54%, were built before 1940, and roughly four of five went up before 1960. Those old basements seep when the ground is soaked and back up when the sewer surges.

Water losses cannot wait for a callback, so we run around the clock, weekends and holidays included. From Tarentum we cross the Allegheny and head up Route 56 into the valley, with extraction and drying gear already on the truck. Vandergrift, East Vandergrift, North Vandergrift, the 15690 ZIP and the 15629 ZIP all get the same crew. We are close, and we get there fast.

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 save the material. Wait a day and you replace it. That is the point of calling the crew already in your valley.

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 pull the standing water with high-powered pumps, 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.

Water, sewage, and mold are all we do. If river water or a backed-up drain came up through the basement floor, treat it as dirty and stay out of it. That water calls for sewage backup cleanup for Vandergrift basements, and we bring 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.