Cedar Hills Water Damage Cleanup and Drying
- 5.0 stars from 36 Google reviews
- IICRC-certified WRT
- Licensed Utah General Contractor (B100)
- On-site inspection within 45 minutes
- Direct insurance billing
Upstairs laundry leak, a tired water heater, or a window well full of yard water? Call (385) 625-7333. We're just down the hill and on-site to inspect within 45 minutes.
- Licensed Utah contractor, B100 #14314902-5501
- IICRC-certified WRT
- Direct insurance billing on insured jobs
- Mitigation through rebuild, one company
- 24/7 emergency line
Why Cedar Hills homes flood the way they do
Cedar Hills is young and built out. About 74% of the 2,651 homes went up in 2000 or later, and only about 8% before 1980 (American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year). About 84% are detached, 12% are townhomes or other attached homes, and 89% are owner-occupied. The city's own housing plan says most of the buildable land is gone.
So the calls look like this: two-story homes from the late '90s and 2000s, laundry upstairs, a finished basement below, and plumbing that's now 20-plus years old. Water heaters from the original build are well past middle age. Washer hoses too. A townhome leak can also reach the unit next door, which means talking to the HOA early.
When water reaches more than one room
Before the houses, there were turkeys. Azra and Effie Adams ran a turkey ranch on this bench starting in the Depression, and in 1956 Azra was president of the National Turkey Federation (Utah Division of State History). The ranch was sold in the early 1970s, building started around 1974, and Cedar Hills incorporated as a town in 1977 with only about thirty-one households. It became a city in 1999.
The city sits on an old Lake Bonneville shoreline. Early settlers just called it The Bench. The streets step up in tiers from the American Fork side toward Canyon Road, and that slope matters when water gets loose. It runs downhill, toward a basement wall or the neighbor's yard. We find it, stop it, dry it, and rebuild it. One company. One person to call.
Living on the bench: slope, wind and winter
At around 4,900 to 5,300 feet, Cedar Hills runs a bit colder than the valley floor, and it's right at the mouth of American Fork Canyon. Canyon wind on a January night finds the hose bib on the uphill side of the house.
Slope is the other thing. On a tiered lot, sprinkler water or snowmelt from the yard above can sit against a basement wall. If a window well keeps filling, check the grading and the downspouts before you blame the foundation.
Cedar Hills: what to do first
- Upstairs washer overflowed? Shut both valves behind it and turn the machine off. Then look at the ceiling downstairs. If it's sagging, stay out from under it.
- Water heater leaking from the bottom: turn off the cold-water valve on top and the gas or the breaker. Tank leaks don't stop on their own.
- In a townhome, tell the HOA or the neighbor on the other side of the wall right away. Water doesn't respect the property line.
- Window well filling up from the yard above? Clear the drain if you safely can. Don't open the window.
- Call (385) 625-7333. Nights and weekends too.
Across Cedar Hills
We work every part of town. The lower streets toward American Fork and Pleasant Grove around Harvey Boulevard. The west side near the 4800 West shopping corner and Forest Creek. The loop streets around the golf course on the north end. The higher streets east of Canyon Road, where the hillside lots are.
We're based in American Fork, a few minutes down the hill, and we'll have someone on-site within 45 minutes to inspect. We also serve Highland, Pleasant Grove and Lindon.
What homeowners ask
Our water heater is from when the house was built. Is that a problem?
In a lot of Cedar Hills homes it's 20 years old or more, and tanks that age fail more often. If it's in a closet over finished space, that's worth checking. If it's already leaked, we dry the floor and the room below and you deal with the tank replacement separately.
Water from my townhome went into my neighbor's unit. Who handles that?
We can inspect and document both units if both owners agree, and we'll deal with whoever is managing the claim. Which policy pays, yours, theirs or the HOA's, depends on the CC&Rs and the carriers. We don't decide that and can't guarantee it.
How long until the basement is back together?
Drying usually takes about 3 to 5 days, and that's a range. Rebuild comes after the readings say dry. Since we're a licensed general contractor, we keep it moving with one point of contact.
A clear path from the first call
Response
Call any hour and you reach a person, not a recording. We talk through safety and the water source, then dispatch a crew to your part of Cedar Hills.
Document
We photograph the affected areas and take moisture readings in the materials water reached. That record is what your insurance carrier expects to see.
Extract & dry
Standing water comes out first, then air movers and dehumidifiers run until walls, subfloors, and contents reach a documented dry standard — not just a dry-feeling surface.
Rebuild
When readings confirm the structure is dry, we walk the space with you, list the repairs needed, and Guardian Restoration manages the rebuild itself so the room returns to pre-loss condition.
What stays, what goes, and why
Each material is judged on its own readings and condition. These are the materials we most often assess in Cedar Hills homes.
Ceilings under the laundry
We check for trapped water above the drywall before deciding what comes down. Sometimes drilling and drying is enough.
Carpet and pad
Clean-water carpet can often be dried in place; soaked pad usually gets replaced.
Shared walls
In townhomes we read both sides of a party wall when we can get access.
Basement drywall
A 2 ft flood cut where water wicked up, so the cavity can dry.
Subfloor
OSB under upstairs laundries can swell. We meter it and decide from readings, not looks.
IICRC S500, in plain language
The IICRC S500 is the industry standard for water damage restoration. It is a framework for how to inspect for moisture, classify the water, and dry a structure. It does not say "tear everything out." It asks the restorer to look at the actual conditions and make a reasoned call for each material — then prove the result with readings.
- Inspect: Find where water went with meters, not just where it shows.
- Category: How clean the water is: 1 clean, 2 gray (some contamination), 3 grossly contaminated, like sewage or outside floodwater.
- Class: How much water and how deeply it soaked into materials.
- Dry & verify: Set up drying and track readings until materials reach a dry standard.
When drying in place is reasonable
- The water started clean (a supply line, not a drain or the outside).
- It was caught quickly, before contamination or mold had time to develop.
- The material can release moisture — framing, plaster, solid wood, many subfloors.
- We can get dry air to it, sometimes through small access holes.
When porous materials may need removal
- The water was contaminated (Category 3), such as a toilet base, sewer backup, or yard runoff.
- Materials stayed wet long enough to break down or grow mold.
- The material is porous and holds contamination — carpet pad, drywall, insulation, MDF.
- It has swollen, delaminated, or can't be dried where it is.
More help nearby
Water damage in Cedar Hills?
Call Guardian Restoration any time. We'll help you understand the next step for your home.