Water Damage Guides · Flood & Storm Damage

Water Damage Restoration Checklist for Louisiana Homeowners

A checklist is the simplest tool in a stressful moment. When water is spreading through your home, it is hard to think clearly, and a list of steps, in order, is worth more than any amount of advice. This checklist covers the whole job, from the first minute to the last visit, in the order the steps should happen. It is a general checklist, and the scope of any particular job still needs to be confirmed by the operator, but the order never changes, and the order is what protects the house.

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Keep this checklist somewhere you can find it in a hurry: on the fridge, in a drawer, or on your phone. The steps are the same for homes in New Orleans and Baton Rouge as anywhere else in Louisiana, and the water damage restoration page explains what a professional visit generally covers.

Safety first

The first item on the checklist is safety, and it comes before everything else. Do not enter a flooded room, do not wade through standing water, and do not touch electrical items in or near standing water. Keep children and pets out of the affected rooms, and keep everyone in a dry part of the house. If the water may be contaminated, from a toilet overflow, a sewage backup or floodwater, keep everyone away from it entirely. If you smell gas, leave the property and call 911 first, then the gas utility. If you hear buzzing, see sparking, or smell burning, leave the area and call for help from outside the house.

Safety is not a step to rush through. It is the condition that makes every other step possible. A person who is safe and a house with the water off is a situation that can be dealt with. A person in a flooded room is not. Check the outside of the house from a safe distance if the water came from outside, and do not return to a flooded or evacuated house until you have been told it is safe to do so. The checklist starts here, and it does not move on until everyone is safe.

Shut the water off if safe

The second item is to shut the water off, if it is safe to do so. If the water is coming from inside the house, find the main shut-off valve, usually where the water line enters the house, near the water meter, in a utility area or along an outside wall, and turn it clockwise until it stops. If the leak is from a single fixture, the shut-off valve under the sink or behind the toilet may be enough. Do this only from a dry place. If reaching the valve means crossing standing water, do not go. Call for help instead.

Once the water is off, open a tap at the lowest point in the house to drain the remaining water from the pipes, and open a tap at the highest point to let air in. If the flooding came from outside the house, there is no valve to close, and the priority stays on safety and on calling for help. Knowing where the main shut-off is before an emergency happens is the preparation that makes this step possible, and it is worth finding it on a dry day. The burst pipe water damage repair page covers what happens after a burst pipe is stopped.

Water Damage Restoration Checklist for Louisiana Homeowners — Louisiana water damage guide

Document damage in general terms

The third item is to document the damage, in general terms, before anything is moved or thrown away. Take photographs of every affected room from several angles, the water line on the walls, damaged furniture and belongings, and the apparent source of the water if you can see it safely. Note the time you first noticed the water and what you did in response, and write a short list of the rooms affected and the items damaged. Keep damaged items where they can be inspected, unless a professional tells you to discard something that is a clear health hazard.

Keep your notes and photographs together, along with any receipts you have for valuable items and any home inventory you keep. This record is useful when you speak to your insurer, and it helps the restoration professional understand what happened. General guidance only: coverage is a matter between you and your insurer, and no one can promise what a policy will cover. What you can do is make the record clear, complete and taken early, while the evidence is still there to photograph.

Call a professional

The fourth item is to call a water damage restoration professional. Describe what happened in plain terms: where the water is, how much you can see, where you think it came from, and whether anyone is at risk. Ask what the visit covers and what you should do while you wait. A professional visit generally starts with an inspection, then water removal, then drying, and the visit is shaped by what the inspection finds. While you wait, move belongings away from the water if you can do so safely from dry ground, keep everyone out of the affected rooms, and leave the water itself alone.

Do not mop up standing water, do not run fans or heaters in a wet room, and do not use a household vacuum on standing water. Do not open walls or lift flooring to look for the source, and do not paint over a stain or cover a damp patch. The professional needs to see the loss as it is, not as it was after a well-meaning cleanup. The emergency water removal page describes the removal step that comes first.

Drying, cleaning and repair

The final items on the checklist are the stages that follow the first visit: drying, cleaning and repair. Drying uses air movement and dehumidification, with progress checked by moisture readings rather than by touch or by eye, and it is finished when the readings show the structure is dry, not when the equipment is switched off. Cleaning follows drying, because a surface that is still wet cannot be properly cleaned. Repair follows cleaning, and it puts back what was damaged: drywall, flooring, trim and anything else the water reached.

Keep your own notes through the whole job: when the water started, what was done on each visit, and what the moisture readings showed. Ask what follow-up looks like, what to watch for, and who to call if a damp smell or a new stain appears. For homes in Shreveport and Lafayette, as across Louisiana, the checklist is the same, and the structural drying and dehumidification page explains the drying stage in general terms. Safety, water off, document, call, dry, clean, repair: that is the whole job, in order.

Key Takeaways

The first item on the checklist is safety, and it comes before everything else.
The second item is to shut the water off, if it is safe to do so.
The third item is to document the damage, in general terms, before anything is moved or thrown away.
The fourth item is to call a water damage restoration professional.
The final items on the checklist are the stages that follow the first visit: drying, cleaning and repair.

Questions About Water Damage Restoration Checklist for Louisiana Homeowners

What is the first step on a water damage checklist?

Safety first. Do not enter flooded rooms, do not wade through standing water, and do not touch electrical items in or near standing water. Keep children and pets out of the affected rooms. If you smell gas, leave the property and call 911 first.

What should I document after water damage?

Photograph every affected room from several angles, the water line on the walls, damaged furniture and belongings, and the apparent source if you can see it safely. Note the time you first noticed the water and keep a written list of the rooms and items affected.

Should I clean up the water before the professional arrives?

No. Do not mop up standing water, run fans or heaters in a wet room, or use a household vacuum on standing water. Move belongings away from the water if you can do so safely from dry ground, and leave the water itself alone.

When is the restoration job finished?

When the structure is dry, as shown by moisture readings, and the cleaning and repair that follow are complete. Drying is finished when the readings in the affected areas are close to those in unaffected areas and stable, not when the equipment is switched off.

Your Next Step

If this guide matches what you found at home, the next step is a visit — not a guess. Call and describe what you found, and the visit is arranged from what you describe. The Emergency Water Removal page explains what that service covers, and the water damage restoration page explains how the full sequence works when water has reached more than one room.

Do not enter flooded rooms while you wait, and if water is leaking, turn off the shut-off valve for that fixture where you can reach it safely from dry ground.

Keep the guides on this site bookmarked: the first guide, the signs guide, and the preparation guide cover the checks worth repeating — after moving in, and after bringing used fixtures home.

Water damage help is available across Louisiana. See water damage restoration in Broadmoor, Lafayette, LA for one local example, or find your town on the service areas page.