Brentwood, MD water damage restoration for bungalows, foursquares and brick homes

Brentwood at a glance

Brentwood is a small town in Prince George's County just across the line from Washington, D.C., along Rhode Island Avenue and Route 1, with Hyattsville to the north, Bladensburg to the east and Riverdale close by. It's part of the Gateway Arts District along Route 1, and ZIP code 20722 also takes in neighboring small towns such as North Brentwood, Colmar Manor and Cottage City.

The town grew in the early twentieth century as a streetcar suburb, when a trolley line along Rhode Island Avenue made the commute into Washington easy. That era left bungalows, foursquares and frame houses with porches, plaster walls, hardwood floors and full basements. The 1940s and 1950s added brick colonials, Cape Cods and some duplexes, and later decades brought small apartment buildings and newer infill.

Houses of that age share certain parts. Drain stacks and main lines are often cast iron, sewer laterals may be clay or cast iron, and supply lines can mix galvanized steel, early copper and newer work. Angle stops under sinks and toilets may be decades old, and many homes still have original oak or pine floors upstairs.

Many owners here are restoring older houses with care, and a good number rent out a house, a basement apartment or a duplex half. That means the first call may come from an owner, a tenant or a landlord, and often all three need to talk the same day.

We connect Brentwood homeowners, landlords and renters across ZIP code 20722 with local restoration crews.

The area is served by public water and sewer. The land slopes toward the Anacostia's northern branches, and some lower streets sit close to the water table, so basements there can stay damp after long rains. Mature street trees shade most blocks, filling gutters every autumn and sending roots into old sewer laterals. Summer thunderstorms test downspouts that empty right beside old foundations.

Many houses have been renovated room by room over the decades, so one home can hold plumbing and wiring from several eras, and back additions or enclosed porches often sit over crawl spaces. That's why crews here take readings before deciding what to remove, and why saving original floors and trim is often possible.

Cast-iron drains in streetcar-era houses

Before plastic drains became standard, houses were plumbed with cast-iron drain and vent pipes, joined with lead and oakum or later with rubber couplings. Most Brentwood homes built before about 1970 still have at least some of them. Cast iron lasts a long time, but it corrodes from the inside, especially along the bottom of horizontal runs in the basement ceiling, and joints loosen as houses settle.

Because drains carry water only when fixtures are used, these leaks come and go. A stain on the basement ceiling that spreads after showers, a damp spot under the kitchen stack after the dishwasher drains, rust streaks along a horizontal pipe, or a sewer smell near a cleanout are the usual signs. Older bathrooms often have a lead bend under the toilet, another common weak point.

Because drain water isn't clean, carpet, pad and drywall it reaches are removed or cleaned more carefully than after a supply-line leak. In Brentwood's early-twentieth-century houses, the usual culprit is an old lateral to the street that roots have worked into, so the basement drain overflows when the line is under load. A camera inspection shows the plumber where to repair; the crew handles cleanup and drying.

Supply lines, angle stops and appliance hookups

Many of the leaks that cause the most damage start at a fitting smaller than a thumb. Braided supply lines to toilets and sinks, angle stops under fixtures, washing machine hoses, dishwasher lines and refrigerator ice-maker tubing all wear out. Rubber hoses harden and split. Braided lines corrode where the braid meets the crimp. Old multi-turn angle stops seize open, or drip at the stem the first time in years someone turns them.

Because these connections are under constant pressure, a failure keeps running until someone notices or closes a valve. A split washer hose in a basement laundry can put a lot of water on the floor in an hour. In a duplex or small apartment building, the same failure is often what brings water into the neighbor's home.

The fixes are inexpensive: braided washer hoses replaced every several years, new supply lines whenever a fixture is serviced, quarter-turn valves in place of seized angle stops, and a pan or water sensor under the washer and water heater. Landlords can add these checks to every turnover. Knowing where the main shutoff is, and that it turns, matters most.

Nearby communities and related services

Brentwood is part of our Washington Suburbs region. Services Brentwood households use most:

• Hardwood Floor Water Damage
• Sewage Backup Cleanup
• Appliance Leak Water Damage
• Basement Water Damage
• Ceiling Water Damage Repair
• Rental Property Water Damage

Neighboring communities:

• Hyattsville
• Bladensburg
• Riverdale

Old hardwood floors: cupping, crowning and when drying works

Wood swells as it absorbs moisture, and a hardwood floor is installed 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 a lot of water, boards can lift off the subfloor entirely, which is buckling. Older floors laid over board subfloors can hold water between the layers.

Cupping often looks worse than it is. When the floor and the subfloor beneath are dried properly, using drying mats sealed to the surface, dehumidifiers in the room and access from the basement where there is one, many boards settle substantially. Original oak or pine in a Brentwood bungalow is worth that effort, because matching old boards later is hard. Plaster ceilings in the basement below get checked at the same time.

Hardwood dries slowly, often over one to two weeks. The most common mistake is sanding too soon: sanding cupped boards flat removes wood from the raised edges, and when the centers finish drying the floor ends up crowned, higher in the middle. Waiting for stable readings, then deciding which boards need replacing and whether to refinish, gives the best result.

Brentwood water damage questions