Annapolis, MD water damage restoration for historic rowhouses and older homes

Annapolis at a glance

Annapolis is Maryland's capital and the seat of Anne Arundel County, set on a peninsula where the Severn River and several creeks meet. Arnold lies across the Severn to the north, Crownsville to the north-west and Riva to the south-west. The historic downtown, laid out in the late 1600s, surrounds the State House and Church Circle, and its narrow streets still hold many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings.

Downtown and the older neighborhoods around it are dense with attached brick rowhouses and townhouses, frame houses, and small apartment buildings, many with cellars, plaster walls, wood floors and old drain lines. Eastport, Murray Hill, West Annapolis and Wardour hold early-twentieth-century houses and bungalows, while the outer ZIP codes add postwar ramblers, split-levels, townhouse communities, condos and newer subdivisions.

That range means water behaves differently from street to street. A downtown rowhouse shares walls on both sides, its roof drains beside its neighbors', and its cellar may be damp by design. A 1920s bungalow may still have cast-iron drains and original oak floors. A newer townhouse has a finished basement, a sump pit and stacked baths. Each needs a different first step.

Owners here range from families who have lived downtown for generations to landlords renting rooms and small apartments. Many historic houses have a shop or office on the ground floor, so a leak can involve a business as well as a household, and both need to hear about it quickly.

We connect Annapolis homeowners, landlords, tenants and associations across ZIP codes 21401, 21403, 21405 and 21409 with local restoration crews.

Annapolis is served by public water and sewer in most neighborhoods. The land is low near the waterfront and rises inland, so groundwater sits close under some cellars, and summer humidity off the water slows drying. Mature trees shade the older neighborhoods and fill gutters every autumn, and summer thunderstorms can overwhelm the gutters and downspouts of houses built close together.

Many historic houses have been renovated in stages over a century or more, so one building can hold stone, brick, plaster, drywall and plumbing from several eras. Exterior changes in the historic district may need review, which is one more reason to dry and save original materials wherever readings allow.

Rowhouses and shared walls downtown

A downtown Annapolis rowhouse shares its side walls with the houses next door. In older brick rows those party walls are solid masonry; in newer townhouses they're framed fire walls. Either way, water that reaches the base of a party wall doesn't stop at the property line. It follows joists that bear on the wall, runs along the joint between wall and cellar floor, and wicks into old brick, which holds moisture for a long time.

A leak in one house's kitchen or cellar can show up as a stain or damp plaster next door. Rowhouse cellars add their own features: floor drains tied to closely spaced sewer lines, front walls that meet the sidewalk, and rear areaways. Roofs connect too: low-slope rowhouse roofs drain across or beside each other, and a blocked gutter or scupper on one house can back water under the flashing of the next.

After a leak near a party wall, readings on both sides tell whether the neighbor's home is affected, and drying may need access to both. Tell your neighbor early, and if either house is rented, tell the landlords. Photographs of both sides, taken before anything is moved, help everyone later.

Cast-iron drains: telling a drain leak from a supply leak

Before plastic drains, Annapolis houses were plumbed with cast-iron drain and vent pipes, joined with lead and oakum or later with rubber couplings, and many built before about 1970 still have them. Cast iron corrodes from the inside, especially along the bottom of horizontal runs in the cellar, and joints loosen as old buildings settle. Old lead bends under toilets are another weak point. A drain leak behaves differently from a supply leak, and telling them apart points to the fix.

Drain water has been used, so porous materials it soaks are handled more cautiously. A plumber can camera-inspect the lines and decide whether to repair a section or replace a run; where roots have entered an old lateral, cellar drains back up in heavy use or heavy rain. The restoration crew cleans and dries; the plumber fixes the line. In a rowhouse, the neighbor's line may run close beside yours.

Nearby communities and related services

Annapolis is part of our Howard & Anne Arundel region. Services Annapolis households use most:

• Hardwood Floor Water Damage
• Ceiling Water Damage Repair
• Sewage Backup Cleanup
• Basement Water Damage
• Condo & Shared-Building Water Damage
• Rental Property Water Damage

Neighboring communities:

• Arnold
• Riva
• Crownsville

Old wood floors: cupping, crowning and patience

Wood swells as it absorbs moisture, and a hardwood floor is laid tight. When water gets under the boards, they swell across their width and the edges rise above the centers. That's cupping, and it means the underside is wetter than the top. With enough water, boards lift off the subfloor entirely. Wide old pine and oak laid over board subfloors can also trap water between the layers. Water from a failed dishwasher line often reaches the dining room too.

Cupping often looks worse than it is. When the floor and the subfloor beneath are dried properly, with drying mats sealed to the surface, dehumidifiers in the room and access from the cellar where there is one, many boards settle substantially. Original boards in a historic Annapolis house are worth that effort, because matching them later is very hard. Area rugs and furniture come off the wet floor first.

Wood floors take time, often one to two weeks. The mistake to avoid is sanding early: boards sanded flat while still cupped lose wood at the edges, and once the centers dry the floor crowns. Waiting until readings hold steady, then choosing which boards to replace and whether to refinish, gives the best floor. Any plaster ceiling below gets checked at the same time.

Annapolis water damage questions