Restoration and rebuilds across the Bay Area

About this page

One region, many different houses

The Bay Area is one service area for us, but a Victorian on a filled lot, a slab-floor tract house near the bay and a hillside home under oaks fail in different ways. The region-wide facts below are the ones that shape almost every call we get here; the city pages go deeper, one place at a time.

A city gets its own page only when our job records show at least three jobs there. Each of those pages is written for that city alone, from its own housing figures, flood maps, hazard maps and permit office, so no two read alike. If your city is not on the list further down, we still work there: the whole San Francisco Bay Area is our service area, as the where we work section of the home page shows.

The wet season

When does water damage happen in the Bay Area?

Mostly between November and March. The National Weather Service's Climate of San Jose puts 82 % of that city's rain in those five months, and the summer months bring almost none. The totals differ a lot across short distances: about 13.5 inches a year near the bay in San Jose, and 26.12 inches in a normal year at the Berkeley station in NOAA's climate normals.

Much of that rain arrives in a handful of strong storms. NOAA explains that atmospheric rivers carry great amounts of rain that can produce flooding. The Weather Service's Bay Area office documented one on October 24, 2021 that dropped 4.02 inches on downtown San Francisco in a day, with downed trees and power lines around the region, and a run of storms from late December 2022 to mid-January 2023 that brought 17.64 inches to downtown San Francisco and 18.33 inches to Oakland.

What that means inside a house: a roof, a gutter or a window flashing can sit untested through a long dry summer, then take several inches in a week. Water that gets in during a storm often travels along framing before a stain shows. We find where it went with moisture readings, get it out, and dry the structure until the readings say it is dry; the steps are on water damage mitigation, and storm openings in the roof or siding on storm and hail damage repair.

Housing age

Why the age of Bay Area housing matters after damage

Much of the region was built before 1980, and some of it long before. The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey puts the median year built at 1944 in Berkeley, 1953 in Oakland and 1963 in Palo Alto, then 1976 in San Jose and 1990 in Morgan Hill (table B25035 for Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose and Morgan Hill).

Faults and soil

Earthquake faults and liquefaction under Bay Area homes

The U.S. Geological Survey's earthquake outlook for the San Francisco Bay region gives a 72 percent probability of at least one magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake between 2014 and 2043. The Hayward Fault alone produced the magnitude 6.8 earthquake of 1868.

Shaking is not the only concern. Loose, wet soils near the bay and along creeks can lose strength in a quake, which the USGS explains on its liquefaction page. Whether an address sits in a state liquefaction or landslide zone is shown on the California Geological Survey's EQ Zapp map.

None of this changes how a wet house is dried. It matters when a rebuild reaches the foundation, adds a room or a second story, or follows a cracked slab: that is when an engineer and the city's permit office look at the ground before the plans are final. On remodels and rebuilds of that kind we handle the permits and plans; see rebuild after damage.

Flood maps and the shoreline

Is your Bay Area house in a flood zone?

The official answer is on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center: type the address and the map shows the zone the lot sits in. Maps change, too; FEMA announced updated preliminary flood maps for Alameda County in March 2025.

The bay's edge is its own question. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission adopted a Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan in December 2024. Under a state law, SB 272, local governments along the shoreline must prepare their own plans for sea level rise that follow it by January 1, 2034; BCDC tracks them on its local sea level rise plans page.

For a single house, the flood zone shapes two things we deal with: whether a large rebuild has to meet flood-zone rules, and which policy pays for the water. Water from a burst pipe and water that rose from outside are usually handled by different coverage, so tell your insurer and us where the water came from.

How we work here

How a Bay Area job runs with us

1. You call, a person answers

   We answer 24/7. Tell us what happened, which rooms it reached and, if you know it, when the house was built.

2. Readings and photos first

   We find where the water or smoke has gone with moisture readings and measurements, and photograph everything before the work starts.

3. Stop the damage

   Water out, wet material that cannot be saved removed, the structure dried until the readings say it is dry. After mold, everything the mold touched is replaced with new material, never cleaned and reused.

4. The paperwork for the claim

   We write an itemized estimate in Xactimate for your adjuster and answer their questions about our scope. The claim and the settlement stay between you and your insurer.

5. The rebuild, same company

   Walls, floors, cabinets and finishes go back. On remodels we handle permits and plans, and design is included. Each job's contract carries our written warranty.

The first consultation and quote are free, for restoration and for remodeling. Financing is available through our lending partner. If the work is a remodel rather than a repair, construction and remodeling explains what we build, and working with insurance explains the claim side in full.

City pages

Bay Area cities with their own page

Grouped by county. Each page is built from the jobs we have done in that city and its own local sources.

San Mateo County

• Redwood CityPostwar tract houses, bayside flood maps by the Redwood Shores levee, and soft ground.

Santa Clara County

• San JoseWhere most of our jobs are: homes largely from the 1970s, creeks and a short, wet winter.
• Mountain ViewMany renters and shared walls, with tide and creek flooding near the bay.
• Santa ClaraLevee-protected streets, 1950s houses and leaks that start next door.
• MilpitasShallow groundwater, five mapped creeks and the city's limit on flood-zone rebuilds.
• SaratogaHillside lots inside a Very High fire hazard zone, big trees and the city geologist.
• SunnyvaleLittle rain, so the water usually comes from pipes; Eichlers and manufactured homes.
• CupertinoFour creeks, 1960s houses, foothill lots and association approvals.
• Morgan HillMostly newer homes, nine creeks and the rules for building on a slope.
• GilroyClay soil that swells and shrinks, and newer tracts around an older core.
• Palo AltoEichlers with heated slabs, basements with lightwell pumps, a flood zone at every address.
• Los Altos1950s houses beside new ones, four creeks and a Building Division with set hours.
• CampbellOlder homes, the historic inventory, fourplexes and the Zero NOx rule for big rebuilds.

Alameda County

• FremontOur published hardwood floor job, Alameda Creek and life on a major fault.
• OaklandHouses from before the war, creek flood maps and hazard zones in the hills.
• HaywardFirst, is the house inside city limits? Then the shoreline and the fault.
• BerkeleyThe sewer lateral rule, homes from before 1940 and smoke drifting down from the hills.
• San LeandroPostwar houses and the state rule that swaps old fixtures in a permitted rebuild.
• LivermoreArroyos draining the valley, hot dry summers and permits applied for online.
• NewarkHouses at bay level, where heavy rain meeting a high tide brings water in.

San Francisco

• San FranciscoVery old housing, the city's own storm flood map, fill soils and the permit desk.

Contra Costa County

• San RamonNewer homes and townhouses, balcony rules and three flood-prone creeks.
• ConcordA fault that creeps without a quake, postwar houses and silted creek channels.
• Walnut CreekCondos and townhomes that share walls, the downtown creek and the ridges above.

Questions

What Bay Area homeowners ask before they call