Water Damage Restoration in Manayunk, PA

How bad does Schuylkill flooding get on Main Street?

Manayunk is a known Schuylkill flood spot. In August 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias put Main Street businesses under water and forced an apartment complex to evacuate. In September 2021, the remnants of Ida brought the most water the area had seen in a hundred years, trapping some residents in apartments along Main Street.

River floodwater is Category 3. Carpet, pad, drywall, insulation and stored goods that touched it generally cannot be saved, and hard surfaces are cleaned and treated. Floodwater also leaves silt and debris that must come out before drying starts.

The flood damage cleanup page explains the work. Flood from a river is excluded from standard homeowners policies, so a separate flood policy, which takes 30 days to take effect, is the usual route.

Apartment residents face a particular problem. When the ground floor floods, the heating, electric service and laundry are often in the lowest rooms, and a building may lose them all at once. Ask the property manager what the plan is, and keep documents and medications on an upper floor.

What happened on Mallory Street?

CBS Philadelphia reported that residents on Mallory Street saw raw sewage and stormwater in their basements while the Philadelphia Water Department replaced water and sewer mains there. It is a reminder that street work and heavy rain can combine to push water into cellars.

If sewage reaches your cellar, the cleanup is different from a clean-water leak. The crew wears protective gear, removes porous material and cleans and treats what remains. Photograph everything first and contact your insurer early.

The utility is responsible for the mains and the street connection. The crew deals with the water inside your house.

Why are hillside rowhouses and stone twins here wet from the street side?

Hillside rowhouses and stone twins sit above the river, but cellars take seepage and street runoff. On a steep street, water runs along the curb at speed and can pour down a driveway or cellar stairwell. Row-style houses stacked up a hill also share walls, so a leak can pass sideways.

These are general patterns for the housing type, not measurements. A technician checks where the water entered and how far it traveled, using moisture meters and thermal tools.

Roxborough and East Falls have the same pattern of slope-side housing. Mill-era stone and brick dry slowly, and the crew keeps readings until the materials are dry.

Manayunk was a mill town, and many buildings are old stone and brick with thick walls and low cellars. Thick masonry soaks up floodwater and gives it back slowly, so a basement that looks dry a week after a flood can still be damp inside the wall.

What about apartments and shops along Main Street?

Main Street has storefronts and apartments above them, so one unit's leak can reach another. In a flood the ground-floor shops go first. The commercial water damage page covers how light-commercial jobs are walked through and quoted.

Tenants and owners should photograph damage, ask the landlord or building manager who is responsible, and tell their insurers early.

What does the hillside do to a Manayunk storm?

Manayunk's streets climb steeply from the river. Rain that falls on the ridge reaches Main Street fast, and the same sewer that serves the upper blocks is the one that is full when the river is high. Water that cannot drain finds basements, garages and cellar doors.

That is why the same blocks can have two different kinds of storm. A short thunderstorm sends runoff downhill, and a tropical remnant sends the river up. Both bring the same first-step advice: stay out of the water, photograph the damage and call once it is safe.

Tropical remnants arrive mostly in August and September. Isaias in 2020 and Ida in 2021 both fit that pattern, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30.