Margate Water Damage Help for 1970s Condos

Margate and Coconut Creek share a border and several ZIP codes, and South Florida Restoration Co answers water damage restoration calls in both: golf course communities, garden condos, villas and houses. Margate was mostly Everglades and farmland in the 1950s and filled up in the 1970s. Coconut Creek, on its eastern side, did most of its building in the 1980s and 1990s.

Standing water by the Carolina Club

In the rains of early June 2017, the streets around the Carolina Club golf course in Margate stayed under water for three days. Some residents had water a foot deep inside their garages, the homeowners association rented pumps and hose to move it, and at Pinebrook Pointe the water was too deep to drive out. A year earlier, in March 2016, 5 to 6 inches of rain in six hours flooded roads across Coconut Creek and Margate.

Water that sits that long doesn’t stay in the garage. It works under the door into the house, up the drywall of the shared wall and under any flooring nearby. Rain that came across a yard or a street gets handled as flood cleanup: what it soaked gets cut out or pulled up, and the slab and wall faces get cleaned before the drying starts.

When wind opens the roof first

Not every water job here starts on the ground. On January 27, 2016, an EF1 tornado crossed Coconut Creek Parkway and went through the Wynmoor condo complex, where it tore roofing and pieces of block off several mid-level buildings. Two months later, a thunderstorm dropped trees on a Coconut Creek home, punching through the ceiling and leaving significant water damage.

With the roof open, rain hits the attic first. Insulation goes heavy, the ceiling board under it gets wet, and water runs down inside the walls. The ceiling leak guide covers how to tell when a soaked ceiling might fall. If the drywall stays wet more than a day or two, mold remediation may be part of the job.

1970s condos and 1990s houses

Margate built about 44 percent of today’s homes in the 1970s, as its population went from about 8,900 to about 35,900. About 35 percent of homes in Margate and close to 40 percent in Coconut Creek are in buildings of 10 or more units. In a garden condo that age, a water heater, a washer hose or the AC drain on the second floor can soak the unit below before anyone upstairs notices. Coconut Creek’s houses and townhomes are newer, most of them built since the 1980s, so the leak is more likely a supply line, an ice maker hose or a slab pipe than old plumbing in the walls.

Margate and Coconut Creek ZIP codes

Addresses in 33063, 33066, 33073, 33093 and 33097 are covered. Part of Margate also uses 33068, which is covered on our North Lauderdale page. Don’t see your ZIP? Call anyway and we’ll check your address.

Let us know on the call if the water came up from outside or down through the roof, how long it’s been there, and whether a neighbor’s unit took water too.