In depth
Storm Damage Restoration in Chicago: how the job actually runs.
Chicago storm damage comes in two seasons. From May through September, convective storms cross Chicagoland with straight-line wind, hail and short, intense downpours that put an inch or more of rain on the ground in under an hour. Severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings are issued by the National Weather Service. From December through February the same roofs deal with ice dams, and the meltwater ends up in top-floor ceilings. Storm damage restoration is the work of making the building weather-tight fast, getting the water out, drying the structure to the IICRC S500 standard and documenting all of it for your claim.
What storm damage restoration involves in Chicago
A storm rarely causes one kind of damage. A single July cell can strip shingles off a bungalow in Portage Park, push rain through the flashing, knock out power to the sump pump and surcharge the combined sewer under the street, all inside twenty minutes. We plan the response around where the water came from.
Make-safe first. Tarping the roof opening, boarding up broken windows and doors, and shutting off power to wet circuits. Until the building is closed up, every shower adds to the loss.
Extraction. Standing water in basements and on floors is pumped and vacuumed out with truck-mount and portable extractors. Every gallon removed is a gallon the dehumidifiers do not have to evaporate later.
Water category assessment. Rain through a roof is Category 1 clean water on day one and degrades toward Category 2 after 48 hours. Water that has come up through a floor drain from the combined sewer is Category 3 black water, and it changes how every material in its path is handled. That work runs under our sewage cleanup protocol.
Moisture mapping and structural drying. Pin and non-invasive meters and a thermal camera find where the water went, which is almost always further than the stain. Air movers and low-grain refrigerant (LGR) dehumidifiers are sized to the evaporation load and monitored daily.
Removal and repair. Wet attic insulation, sagging ceiling drywall and delaminated carpet pad come out. Framing and most walls are dried in place and treated with antimicrobial.
Summer storms: wind, hail and the combined sewer
Roof damage that becomes interior water damage
Wind lifts shingles, hail bruises them, and a branch through the deck opens a hole. Rain then tracks down rafters, soaks the attic insulation and shows up as a ceiling stain, a bulge or a steady drip. Insulation holds water against the drywall below, so a ceiling that is merely stained at 6 pm can be sagging by morning.
Sump pump failure in a power outage
The storm that damages the roof also takes down the power, and a sump pump without power is a hole in the floor that fills. Sump pump failure during an outage is a leading cause of basement flooding across Chicagoland. A battery backup pump buys hours; a backwater valve or an overhead sewer conversion stops the sewer side of the problem, and the City of Chicago and many suburbs run rebate programs. Ejector pumps serving basement bathrooms fail the same way.
Combined sewer surcharge
Most of the City of Chicago and the older inner suburbs, including Oak Park, Cicero, Berwyn and parts of Evanston, carry stormwater and sanitary sewage in the same pipes. When a downpour outruns the system, the mix backs up through basement floor drains, toilets and laundry tubs. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Deep Tunnel and the Thornton and McCook reservoirs have reduced backups but not eliminated them. On July 2, 2023, up to about 9 inches of rain fell on parts of the West Side, Cicero and Berwyn, thousands of basements flooded and Cook County received a federal disaster declaration. Our basement flooding cleanup page covers what happens next.
Winter storms: ice dams and the thaw
Ice dams form when heat escaping through the roof melts snow, the meltwater runs to the cold eave and refreezes into a ridge. Water pooling behind the ridge backs up under the roofing and drips into the top-floor ceiling, usually along an exterior wall. Flat and low-slope roofs are the most exposed. The leak often shows in the thaw week after a deep freeze, the same week frozen pipes let go across the city after events like the January 2019 polar vortex. If your ceiling stain arrived with the thaw and there is a pipe above it, see our frozen and burst pipe page instead.
The first hour after a storm
- Do not enter a flooded basement with the power on. Shut off the breaker only if the panel is dry and reachable without standing in water.
- Stay out from under a sagging ceiling. Put a bucket under a drip and move furniture out of the way.
- Photograph everything before it is moved, including the roof from the ground, the ceiling, the water line in the basement and any floor drain that backed up.
- Lift what you can. Rugs off carpet, boxes off the floor, furniture on foil or blocks.
- Call us. We will tell you what to do with the basement while the crew is on the way.
Storm, flood or sewer backup: which water is it and who pays
The source of the water decides both the cleanup protocol and the insurance answer. In Illinois a standard HO-3 homeowners policy treats these very differently.
| Source of water | IICRC category | Standard HO-3 coverage | What we do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rain through a wind or hail opening in the roof | Category 1 (Category 2 after 48 hrs) | Usually covered as a storm peril, including make-safe | Tarp, extract, dry in place, replace wet insulation and ceiling drywall |
| Ice dam meltwater into a top-floor ceiling | Category 1 | Usually covered when sudden; gradual seepage is excluded | Extract, dry the ceiling cavity and wall, address the roof |
| Sump pump failure or overflow | Category 2 or 3 depending on what mixed in | Excluded unless you carry a water backup and sump overflow endorsement ($5,000 to $25,000 typical) | Extract, sanitize, dry the basement, document for the endorsement |
| Combined sewer backup through a floor drain or toilet | Category 3 | Same endorsement as above | Full sewage protocol: remove porous materials, sanitize, dry |
| Overland flooding from a river, creek or the street | Category 3 | Excluded unless you carry NFIP or private flood insurance | Flood protocol, see our flood damage page |
Adjusters expect dated photos, a moisture map, a daily drying log and an itemized scope in Xactimate format. We produce all of it and can bill the carrier directly where the claim is approved. Our flood damage restoration page covers the surface-water side, and the post on sewer backup versus flood claims walks through how the decision is made.
Where storm water ends up in Chicago housing
Brick bungalows in Portage Park, Beverly, Chatham and Berwyn have hip roofs and full basements. Roof leaks show at the top-floor ceilings; sump and sewer water shows in the finished basement, the most common loss location we see.
Two-flats and three-flats share a basement with laundry and often a garden unit. Storm water from a roof travels down through the units below, and a sewer backup lands on the garden-unit tenant first. Condo associations and master policies come into play when a building is owned in units.
Downtown high-rises in the Loop, River North and Streeterville flooded through their basements in May 2020 when the Chicago River overtopped its banks.
Suburban ranches and split-levels in Skokie, Des Plaines, Park Ridge and Naperville often sit near the Des Plaines River or the DuPage River, where a storm brings overland water as well as roof and sump problems.
We respond across the city and suburbs, including Austin, Cicero, Oak Park and Des Plaines.
What drives the cost of storm damage restoration
Make-safe plus drying for a typical single-source storm loss runs $800 to $4,500. The call-out and inspection, with moisture mapping and a written report, is $250 to $500 and is credited against the restoration work. Extraction is $500 to $2,500 depending on volume and access, and drying equipment runs $50 to $125 per unit per day for the three to five days a clean-water job usually takes, or five to ten days for a basement.
The number climbs when the water is contaminated. A basement that flooded through the sump pit is $1,500 to $10,000 to clean and dry; a combined sewer backup is $3,000 to $10,000 because porous materials must be removed and everything sanitized. A full clean-water restoration across two or three rooms is $2,000 to $6,500.
The cheapest storm job is the one that gets tarped before the next cell arrives. If a Chicago storm just put water in your house, call us or send the form. For prevention, the summer storm checklist covers backup pumps and backwater valves.
Last updated September 08, 2026
