Key Biscayne Water Damage Cleanup and Drying

Key Biscayne is a low barrier island off Miami, reached by one road, the Rickenbacker Causeway, and condo towers hold most of its housing. South Florida Restoration Co arranges a licensed, insured crew for water damage restoration anywhere in the village, from a 1950s house in Biscayne Key Estates to a unit on a high floor, whether it came up out of the street or out of a broken pipe.

Rain that can’t leave the island at high tide

The village sits on porous limestone at an average of about 3.4 feet above mean sea level. Its storm drains run by gravity, through a mix of pipes and 39 drainage wells, and at high tide that system can’t push rain off the island into the bay. A 2016 study for the village found that poor drainage can leave large areas of standing water after even small storms.

Some streets get it worse than others. The neighborhood around the K-8 school is the village’s most flood-prone area, and during heavy rain the school has had two to three feet of water. The village has a long-term program planned to switch to pumped drainage, rebuild roads and bury power lines, but until it’s done, a hard rain on a high tide still sends water toward garages, front doors and ground-floor units.

Water that sat in the street isn’t clean. Soaked carpet and baseboards get torn out, drywall near the floor is cut away, and the slab gets scrubbed before drying. This is flood cleanup, and it runs differently from drying a clean leak.

Drying one of the original Mackle houses

In 1950 the Mackle brothers bought 220 acres across the middle of the island and built Biscayne Key Estates, 553 three-bedroom houses of about 1,100 square feet each. Miami-Dade’s preservation office says those Mackle houses still make up more than half the single-family homes on the island. The county’s design guidelines count them among the one-story ranch houses of the postwar years.

In a house that size, water doesn’t stay in one room for long. A failed water heater, a washing machine hose or a toilet supply can wet the hall, a bedroom and the closets behind them before anyone sees it, because it travels under baseboards and flooring first.

Getting a condo unit dried

Roughly 72 percent of the island’s housing is stacked, in buildings with at least 20 units. Start with building management. The engineer can shut off the riser or the valve to your unit, tell you which units sit above and below yours, and say whether drying equipment has to come up a service elevator at a set time. Then the readings start in your unit and work outward.

Close to a quarter of the island’s homes are seasonal. In a unit closed with the AC turned up, humid air alone can bring on mildew, and a slow leak has weeks to spread. Before leaving for the season, read how to close up a Florida home.

Salt water after a hurricane

Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key Biscayne in 1992. After Irma in 2017, federal scientists found moderately salty soil up to a block from the coast on the island. Salt that soaks into drywall, wood or a closet full of boxes keeps pulling damp air back in after the water drains, so those materials get washed or removed before drying. Flood water versus leak water explains how the cleanup changes.

ZIP code 33149: the village and Virginia Key

The village and Virginia Key share 33149, and we cover both. Don’t see your ZIP? Call anyway and we’ll check your address.

Let us know if it’s a house or a condo, which floor you’re on and the source: the street, the unit overhead or something in your own place. If you’re off the island, tell us who can open the door.