Restoring Concord's postwar houses after water, fire or mold

Concord in our job log

4 jobs in Concord, January 2024 to June 2026

Concord is a smaller line in our records than some Bay Area cities: 4 jobs in Concord, the first in January 2024 and the most recent in June 2026. Each was photographed from the first walk-through to the finish, the way every one of our jobs is.

Our log keeps the city and the dates, not the kind of work, so we will not tell you those four were floods or kitchens. What we offer here is what we offer across the Bay Area: water mitigation, mold remediation, fire and smoke cleanup, air duct cleaning, the reconstruction that follows, and construction and remodeling as its own line of work. No owner has cleared photos from a Concord job for the web yet; once one does, they will appear on this page with a plain caption and nothing that identifies the house.

Under the streets

A fault that moves without an earthquake

In 2025, USGS geologists reported that a strand of the Concord fault south of downtown is creeping: sliding slowly and steadily rather than in a quake (Elliott, Madugo and Vermeer, Seismological Research Letters, 2025). They followed the creep more than 7 km farther south than earlier reports, along a trace about 400 m west of where maps had put it, right through built-up neighborhoods.

Their proof is ordinary concrete. Where streets cross the fault, curbs and sidewalks have been shifted sideways by 8 to 18 cm, and the authors write that the creep has already damaged infrastructure. For a homeowner, that adds one more possible reason for a crack that keeps reopening.

The housing

Three in four Concord homes are older than 1980

The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey counts 47,703 homes in Concord, with a median year built of 1970 (give or take two years). About 74 % went up before 1980, and two-thirds were built in the three decades from 1950 to 1979. Since 2010 the city has added only about 2 % of its homes (Census table B25034).

• Mostly houses, mostly owned

  Close to 59 % of Concord's homes are detached single-family houses (table B25024), and about 62 % of occupied homes are lived in by their owners (table B25003). In most Concord calls, the person on the phone is the one who signs off on the repair.

• Generations of other people's fixes

  A 1960s tract house has usually been patched, re-plumbed and remodeled in pieces. When we open a wet wall, the drying plan follows what is actually inside it, and the rebuild either matches the surface that stays or replaces the whole run so the room reads as one.

• Paint from before 1978

  The EPA's lead renovation rule applies to work that disturbs paint in homes built before 1978, which describes most of Concord. Mention the year your house was built when you call.

• Manufactured homes

  The survey also counts 1,108 mobile homes in the city. We repair, remodel and restore them; the state housing department, not the city, permits their repairs.

Water from outside

Silted creek channels and the flood map

Concord drains to the bay through engineered creek channels, and those channels fill with silt. The county's flood control district planned to dig out about 172,300 cubic yards from Walnut Creek and Grayson Creek over two seasons, because silt had cut the channels below their design capacity, to lower flood risk in high-priority areas of Concord (state CEQA filing for the desilting project).

Whether your own lot sits in a mapped flood zone is on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center; type in the address. If water does come in from outside, our job is the same as for a burst pipe: get it out, dry the structure by the readings, replace what the water and any mold touched, then rebuild. Which policy pays for flood water and which for a leak is between you and your insurers; our photos show where the water entered.

The weather

Months without rain, then rain at odd times

Inland Concord gets very dry summers. The National Weather Service's 2014–15 rain year summary notes that the 0.07 inches at Concord Airport on August 5, 2014 was its first measurable August rain since 2003.

The same report shows the other side: in June 2015, Concord was one of three East Bay stations that picked up more than three times its normal June rain. A roof or a window seal nobody has thought about since spring gets tested without warning. Roof, siding and gutter repair after a storm is part of our storm damage work, documented for the claim like any other damage.

Fire hazard

New fire hazard maps for Concord in 2025

The City of Concord's fire hazard severity zones page explains that Cal Fire released new maps for Contra Costa County on February 24, 2025. The county fire district, Con Fire, is the agency that adopts them, not the city, and local agencies can add areas to the state's map but cannot take any away.

The page also notes that a state law, SB 63, extends building code rules from very high hazard zones to high hazard zones. After a fire, we clean up the soot and smoke, then rebuild; the rebuild follows whatever the code requires for the zone your address falls in, so it pays to look that up early. Our fire damage restoration page walks through the full job.

The Building Division

Which repairs Concord wants a permit for

Concord publishes a one-page list, Information Bulletin IB-022, Work Requiring a Permit, for single-family homes and duplexes. It lists kitchen remodels, re-roofing and garage conversions as permit work whether the work is new or a replacement, and states that all work must meet the city's codes whether or not it needs a permit.

1. Check the list, then ask

   The bulletin says plainly that it is not complete. For anything not on it, the city's Building Division answers, and its Project Pal tool shows which permits a project needs.

2. Rebuild scope, remodel rules

   When the repair after damage is as big as a remodel, it is permitted like one. On remodels we handle the permits and the plans, and design is included.

3. An ADU on the same visit

   Some owners use a rebuild to add space. The city offers six free pre-approved ADU plans; only the site plan is reviewed. We build junior ADUs and garage conversions.

Paying for it

When an insurer is paying

We are the repair contractor, never the adjuster. We photograph the damage, take moisture readings and measurements, and send an itemized estimate written in Xactimate to your adjuster, then answer their questions about our scope. The claim and the settlement stay between you and your insurer.

For the covered repair you pay only your deductible, and your insurer pays us the rest directly. Upgrades you choose are priced separately. Financing is available through our lending partner, and our work carries a written warranty with terms set in each job's contract. More on the working with insurance page.

Pages for the work behind a Concord call

• Water damage mitigationExtraction, readings in every room, drying.
• Mold remediationAnything mold touched comes out and is replaced new.
• Fire & smoke cleanupSoot, smoke residue and the board-up.
• Rebuild after damageWalls, floors and kitchens put back.
• Construction & remodelingAdditions, baths and kitchens without any damage first.

Questions

Concord questions, with straight answers