Reisterstown, MD water damage restoration, from Main Street to the newer streets

The short version

Reisterstown at a glance

Reisterstown is in north-western Baltimore County, where Reisterstown Road becomes Main Street through the old town center. It dates from the mid-1700s, when a German settler named John Reister laid out a village on the road west from Baltimore, and a stretch of Main Street is now a historic district. Owings Mills lies to the south-east, Glyndon just to the north-west, and Butler and Upperco out in the countryside beyond.

The historic core holds brick, stone and frame buildings from the 1700s through the early 1900s, many close to the street and some attached to their neighbors. Shops occupy many ground floors, with apartments or offices above. Around that core, the second half of the twentieth century brought ranches, split-levels and colonials, then townhouse communities, garden apartments and newer subdivisions, especially toward Owings Mills and along the main roads.

Those two kinds of property get wet differently. In the old buildings, cellars are stone or brick, walls are plaster on lath or masonry, drains are often cast iron, and one building's roof may drain beside or across the next. In the newer homes, the trouble is more often a finished basement, a sump pit, a water heater or a washer hose. The page covers both.

Many of the old buildings have been repaired and converted many times, so one structure can hold stone walls, plaster, modern drywall and plumbing from several eras. That mix is why readings, not appearances, decide what stays.

We connect homeowners, building owners, landlords and tenants across ZIP code 21136 in Reisterstown with local restoration crews.

Most of Reisterstown is on public water and sewer, though some homes on the rural edges use private wells and septic. The land rolls, with stream valleys running east toward the Gwynns Falls and north toward Glyndon. Mature trees along Main Street's side streets fill gutters every fall, and summer thunderstorms test the downspouts of buildings that sit close together.

A lot of the older buildings are owned by people who rent out the upstairs or the shop below, so leaks often involve more than one household. Knowing which tenant to call, where the building's shutoff is, and who owns the building next door makes the first hour much easier.

Shared walls along Main Street

Several of the older buildings on and near Main Street share side walls with their neighbors, the way rowhouses do. Those walls are usually solid masonry, and water that reaches their base doesn't stop at the property line. It follows joists that rest on the wall, runs along the joint between wall and cellar floor, and can wick into brick or stone. A leak in one building's upstairs kitchen can show up as a stain in the shop next door.

Cellars in these buildings add their own features: floor drains near the shared wall, sewer connections that run close together to the street, and front walls that meet the sidewalk. Roofs connect too. Low-slope roofs drain across or beside each other, and a clogged gutter or scupper on one building can push water under the flashing of the next.

After a leak near a party wall, readings on both sides show whether the neighbor is affected, and drying may need access to both. Tell the neighboring owner early, along with any tenants on either side. Photographs of both sides, taken before anything is moved, help everyone later.

Cast-iron drains in older buildings

Before plastic drains, buildings were plumbed with cast-iron drain and vent pipes joined with lead and oakum, and later with rubber couplings. Many Reisterstown buildings from before about 1970 still have them. Cast iron lasts a long time, but it corrodes from the inside, especially along the bottom of horizontal runs, and joints loosen as old buildings settle. Old lead bends under toilets are another weak point.

Because drains carry water only when fixtures are used, these leaks come and go. A stain on the cellar ceiling that spreads after showers upstairs, a damp spot beneath the kitchen stack, rust streaks along a pipe, or a sewer smell near a cleanout are the common signs. In a building with an apartment above a shop, the leak may be over the shop's ceiling, where the tenant upstairs never sees it.

A plumber can camera-inspect the lines and decide whether to repair a section or replace a run. Water from a drain has been used, so porous materials it reaches are treated more cautiously. Where roots have entered an old clay or cast-iron lateral, cellar drains back up during heavy use or heavy rain. In a building with a shop below, tell the business owner before the plumber opens the ceiling.

Plaster, drywall and insulation: what comes out and why

Drywall is a gypsum core faced with paper, and it wicks water upward, so a wall that sat in water can read wet a foot or more above the floor. Whether it stays depends on the water source, how long it was wet and whether the board is still firm. Clean water caught quickly can often be dried in place. Board that has softened, swollen or been touched by contaminated water is replaced, and soaked fiberglass insulation usually comes out.

When removal is needed, the crew measures first, then cuts in a straight line a little above the highest wet reading. That removes the wet material, opens the cavity to dry and makes the patch neater. Baseboard comes off so the bottom plate can be checked, and it's saved where possible.

The older Main Street buildings are different. Plaster on lath is dense and dries slowly, and sound plaster is often dried in place over several days while loose or bulging sections are removed. Masonry walls hold moisture for a long time. Nothing is closed up again until readings in studs, lath and masonry match dry areas of the building.

Nearby communities and related services

Reisterstown is part of our Baltimore Metro region. Services Reisterstown callers use most:

• Drywall Water Damage Repair
• Ceiling Water Damage Repair
• Commercial Water Damage Restoration
• Multi-Unit & Apartment Water Damage
• Basement Water Damage
• Sewage Backup Cleanup

Neighboring communities:

• Owings Mills
• Glyndon
• Butler
• Upperco

Reisterstown water damage questions