Flood Cleanup in Colorado Springs
Flood water from outdoors is Category 3 — grossly contaminated — and it is not something to walk into or clean up yourself. Stay out of it and call (719) 618-9013.
- ✓IICRC-certified technicians
- ✓Category 3 protocol
- ✓Licensed and insured
- ✓Colorado Springs and El Paso County
Water damage
Is flood water dangerous?
Yes. Any water that has come from outdoors — off a street, out of a creek, down a slope, or up through a floor drain during a storm — is Category 3 water under the IICRC S500 standard. It has travelled across ground, through soil, and frequently through the sanitary sewer system on its way in.
That means pathogens, and it means the porous materials it touched cannot be disinfected in place. Carpet, pad, drywall below the water line, insulation, particleboard cabinetry and upholstered furniture come out. Framing, concrete, tile and metal are cleaned and saved.
Before anyone arrives: stay out of the water. Keep children and pets out entirely. Do not run the HVAC system — it will distribute contamination through the house. If the water reached outlets, the panel or the furnace, cut power at the breaker only if the panel is dry and reachable, and call an electrician if it is not.
Call (719) 618-9013. Tell us how deep it got and how long it has been standing.
📞 Call (719) 618-9013
Colorado Springs
Why does Colorado Springs flood the way it does?
Because flash flooding here is driven by burn scars and terrain, not by rainfall totals. This is the single most misunderstood thing about water risk in this city.
Flash flooding is the most common natural hazard in Colorado Springs according to the City’s Office of Emergency Management. It is not tied to a hurricane season or a river cresting over days. It happens fast, from storms that would be unremarkable anywhere else.
The burn scars
The 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire burned 18,247 acres across four sub-watersheds — Fountain Creek, Camp Creek, Douglas Creek and Monument Creek. Burned soil becomes hydrophobic: it repels water rather than absorbing it. Rain that would have soaked into a vegetated hillside instead runs straight off, picking up ash, sediment and debris on the way down.
Flooding off that scar can begin within about 15 minutes of heavy rain starting, and it can be triggered by rainfall totals that would do nothing in an unburned watershed. Vegetation recovery was estimated at up to 30 years, so the risk has not gone away.
The 2013 Black Forest Fire, the state’s most destructive by homes lost, produced the same effect on the north-east side.
The monsoon window
The North American monsoon concentrates the risk from roughly mid-July to mid-September. That is when the afternoon cells build, and it is when the burn-scar corridors are most dangerous.
Which areas sit in it
- Rockrimmon, Mountain Shadows and Peregrine (80919) — directly below the Waldo Canyon scar. Walkout basements and window wells take the runoff first.
- Manitou Springs and the Ute Pass corridor (80829) — steep terrain, rapid runoff, the oldest housing stock in the area.
- The creek corridors — Fountain Creek, Monument Creek, Camp Creek, Sand Creek and Shooks Run define both floodplain and storm-surcharge risk. The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department handles floodplain management for all of El Paso County.
- Black Forest and Falcon (80908) — the 2013 scar, plus septic systems that surcharge when the ground saturates.
Water damage
Does homeowners insurance cover flooding?
No. Standard homeowners policies exclude flood, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in this market.
Flood coverage is separate — through the NFIP or a private flood policy — and it typically carries a 30-day waiting period, so it cannot be bought once a storm is forecast.
The distinction insurers draw is about where the water came from:
- Water that entered from outside at ground level — off a slope, out of a creek, across a street, up through a floor drain during a storm — is flood. Excluded from your homeowners policy.
- Water that came from inside the building — a burst pipe, a failed appliance, a water heater — is generally covered if it was sudden and accidental.
- Water that came through the roof after hail opened it is usually covered, because a storm-created opening is a sudden event. This is the two-stage loss, and documenting stage one is what gets stage two paid.
In a city whose most common natural hazard is flash flooding off two burn scars, that first bullet is a real exposure and most homeowners here do not know they have it.
Coverage depends on your specific policy. We are a restoration contractor, not licensed insurance advisers.
Water on the floor right now?
Tell us where it came from and how long it has been there. We will give you a time, not a window.
24/7 — Colorado Springs and El Paso County
Colorado Springs
What can be saved and what cannot?
With Category 3 water the rule is porosity, not sentiment.
Comes out:
- Carpet and pad
- Drywall to a line above the water level — usually the flood cut
- Batt insulation, which holds water and cannot be dried in place
- Particleboard and MDF cabinetry, which swells and does not recover
- Upholstered furniture and mattresses that were in the water
- Paper, books and cardboard
Cleaned and saved:
- Framing lumber, in almost every case
- Concrete, block and masonry
- Tile, glass, sealed metal
- Solid wood furniture, usually
- Hard-surface contents that can be washed and disinfected
The judgement calls: hardwood flooring sometimes survives if the water was shallow and brief, though Category 3 usually decides it. Solid-wood cabinetry can often be saved if only the toe kick was submerged. Contents with irreplaceable value get handled separately rather than lumped into a disposal decision.
We photograph and document everything that leaves. That list is what your claim is built on.
Water damage
What should I do while the water is still rising?
Move up, not out into it. Most flash-flood injuries happen to people who went outside.
- Get people and pets to the highest floor. Do not go into a basement that is taking on water.
- Do not drive through it. Vehicles are the leading cause of flash-flood deaths, and depth is impossible to judge from a car.
- Cut power to affected circuits only if the panel is dry and reachable. Otherwise leave it and call an electrician.
- Photograph from a safe position — through a window, from the stairs. Documentation matters but nothing on that list is worth entering the water for.
- Do not run the HVAC.
Once the water recedes, do not start pulling material out before it is documented. That is the mistake that costs people on the claim.
Call (719) 618-9013 as soon as it is safe to be on the phone.
📞 Call (719) 618-9013Colorado Springs
Why does flood water need a different process?
Because the contamination changes the sequence, not just the equipment.
On a clean-water loss the order is extract, dry, verify. On a Category 3 loss it becomes:
- 1Containment first. Sealed plastic barriers with the work area under negative pressure, venting through HEPA filtration. This keeps the contamination in one place while material is removed.
- 2Bulk water and solids removed. Flood water brings sediment, ash and debris — particularly off a burn scar, where the runoff is loaded with material from the hillside.
- 3Porous material out, bagged inside containment.
- 4Cleaning and disinfection of everything remaining — HEPA vacuum, damp wipe, then antimicrobial. In that order, because treating a dirty surface accomplishes nothing.
- 5Structural drying to a documented dry standard, with readings compared against unaffected material of the same type.
- 6Verification before reconstruction begins.
Skipping straight to fans in a flooded basement is how a contaminated loss becomes a mold job six weeks later.
Water damage
Am I in a floodplain?
Possibly, and floodplain status is not the whole picture here.
Floodplain mapping for all of El Paso County is administered through the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, and the City’s Office of Emergency Management maintains burn-scar flood risk information. Both are worth checking for your address.
But the practical point: burn-scar flash flooding does not respect floodplain boundaries. A home well outside any mapped floodplain can take on water if it sits below a burned watershed and a cell parks over the hillside. Rockrimmon and Mountain Shadows are the clearest example — that is not creek flooding, it is runoff arriving from above.
So check the map, and also look at what is uphill of you.
Colorado Springs
Do you serve my part of Colorado Springs?
Colorado Springs and El Paso County, including the corridors that flood: Rockrimmon and Mountain Shadows (80919), Manitou Springs and Ute Pass (80829), the Westside (80904, 80905), downtown and Shooks Run (80903), the southeast along Fountain and Sand Creek (80910, 80916), and Black Forest and Falcon (80908).
Black Forest, Falcon and the far-east rural ZIPs are a genuine drive and we will tell you that on the phone. During a widespread event, everyone in this market is stretched — we will give you a real time rather than a hopeful one.
Frequently asked
Questions people actually ask
How do I know if it is a flood or a leak, for insurance purposes?
Is the burn scar still a flooding risk?
How long do I have to file a flood claim?
Can I clean flood water myself?
Will my basement flood again?
Call Dry Standard Restoration
IICRC-certified. We meter before we quote, and you get the readings.
24/7 — Colorado Springs and El Paso County