Water Damage Florida provides 24/7 water damage restoration, flood cleanup, and mold remediation across Florida. When water hits your property, our FL emergency crews respond fast to stop damage and restore your home.
Hours: Open 24 Hours, 7 Days a Week
Sarasota is the seat of Sarasota County, laid out along Sarasota Bay south of Bradenton, and it is a city where nearly half the area inside the limits is water. The city takes in the mainland downtown and bayfront plus Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Bird Key and the northern part of Siesta Key, all of which sit only a few feet above sea level. Hurricane Helene's surge in September 2024 arrived within hours and rose about a foot an hour, burying St. Armands Circle and Lido Key under sand and seawater, putting two feet of water in bayfront homes on Harbor Drive that had never flooded, sending boats ashore along the bay and wrecking the docks at Bayfront Park. Less than two weeks later Hurricane Milton made landfall on Siesta Key as a major hurricane. Water Damage Florida provides 24/7 water damage restoration across the city and its keys.
We serve Downtown Sarasota, the Rosemary District, Newtown, Pinecraft, Harbor Acres, St. Armands, Lido Key, Bird Key, the northern part of Siesta Key and the Bayfront. Call (888) 435-4769 whenever you need a crew, day or night.
Sarasota's emergencies divide by geography. On the keys and the bayfront it is surge: seawater and sand through ground-floor rooms, garages and the lower enclosures of elevated homes. Downtown it is the high-rise problem: a failed supply line or a washing machine hose on the twelfth floor that runs through several units before anyone notices. In the mainland neighborhoods it is wind and rain, as Milton showed when it stripped roofs and pool cages in Harbor Acres and blew out windows and awnings downtown, and the ordinary plumbing failures that happen in mid-century ranches and older bungalows every week of the year.
We arrive with pumps and extractors for a flooded ground floor, the equipment to handle sand and salt water, and the air movers, dehumidifiers and meters that let drying begin on the first visit. In condo towers we coordinate with management to trace water across floors and protect corridors. Everything is photographed and metered from the start for your claim. Our emergency water damage page describes the first visit in detail.
Few Florida cities mix housing types the way Sarasota does. Downtown is high-rise condominiums. The mainland neighborhoods are mid-century ranch homes, with older bungalows in the historic districts. The keys and the bayfront hold waterfront estates. And roughly a fifth of all units are seasonal or vacant, so a leak can run for weeks before a neighbor or a manager notices. Each building type holds water differently: a condo loss spreads down through the slab and the units below, a block ranch wicks water up its drywall, and a bungalow's wood floors and plaster call for careful drying.
Our plan starts with moisture meters and thermal imaging to find every wet material, removes only what cannot be dried, and dries the rest in place with commercial dehumidifiers and air movers until readings are normal. For seasonal owners we coordinate access through a manager or neighbor and report remotely. The statewide water damage restoration service page walks through each phase.
Helene and Milton arrived less than two weeks apart, and they were different storms. Helene passed offshore but sent a fast-rising surge into St. Armands Circle, Lido Key and the bayfront, with sand and seawater filling ground floors and boats carried onto land. Milton then came ashore directly on Siesta Key as a major hurricane, driving boats onto the sidewalk at Marina Jack and causing widespread tree, roof and pool-cage damage in neighborhoods such as Harbor Acres, though its surge came in lower than forecast. Many homes took surge from the first storm and wind-driven rain from the second before the first repairs had begun.
Surge water is salt water carrying sand, sewage and debris, and flood cleanup treats it as contaminated. Sand is removed first, then submerged drywall, insulation, cabinet bases and flooring, after which the slab and framing are cleaned and disinfected while air scrubbers run. If you still have water in the house, stay out of it, do not touch wet electrical equipment, and call. Our flood restoration service page covers large losses, and the first 24 hours after a flood guide covers the immediate steps.
Repair on the keys after surge usually means new drywall from the water line down, new baseboards and doors, replacement cabinet bases and flooring, and the rebuild of lower enclosures and garages in elevated homes. On the mainland after Milton it often meant ceiling and wall repair beneath a damaged roof, which we schedule only once the roof is weather-tight. In bungalow districts we save original floors and trim where the drying began early, and in condo towers we rebuild to the building's finish standard and coordinate with the association on which elements belong to the unit.
The repair scope is written from the mitigation record so it lines up with what your adjuster has already reviewed, and storm damage is separated from anything pre-existing. For homes on the keys and the bayfront, elevation and flood-zone permitting questions can shape the rebuild, and we raise them early.
Bay humidity and a large seasonal population make Sarasota a place where mold often gets a head start. After the 2024 storms we found it in keys homes that were mucked out but never dried behind the walls, in condo units where a leak from above sat unnoticed for a season, behind the tile in mid-century bathrooms, in air handler closets, and in the crawl spaces of older bungalows.
Mold removal begins with correcting the moisture source. We contain the area, remove and bag affected porous materials, HEPA-vacuum and clean the remaining surfaces, and confirm with readings that the cavity is dry before closing it. Painting over growth or fogging a room is not a fix. Our mold remediation page and our guide to hidden mold after water damage explain the approach in more depth.
A city that is half water, with barrier islands, a high-rise downtown and a large seasonal population, sees losses from all of these:
From a surge-flooded Lido Key ground floor to a supply line failure in a downtown tower, every loss follows the same documented sequence.
We respond throughout the City of Sarasota, from the downtown towers and the bayfront to the barrier islands and the mainland neighborhoods, and to the surrounding communities of Sarasota County.
Our Sarasota crews also serve the neighboring keys and communities up and down the coast. Several have their own pages:
These actions are safe for most homeowners and condo residents and will limit the loss while the crew is on the way.
After a named storm, our hurricane water damage recovery guide covers the longer recovery from mitigation to rebuild.
Sand comes out first, along with the standing water. Then the submerged porous materials are removed, the slab and framing are cleaned and disinfected, and drying begins. Salt water residue is cleaned from hard surfaces before anything is rebuilt.
That depends on the association's documents and the policies involved. We dry all affected units, document each separately, and give the owners and the association the records they need to sort it out.
Yes. We remove wet insulation and ceiling material, dry the framing and walls beneath a tarped roof, and hold the interior rebuild until the roof is permanently sealed.
Frequently, if the water was clean and drying begins within a day or two. Wood floors can be dried with mat systems and dehumidification. Floors soaked in surge or left wet for a week are much harder to save, and we will tell you what the readings show.
It may have. Salt water wicks into drywall and insulation above the visible line. A moisture inspection with meters and thermal imaging will show whether the walls are wet, and it is far cheaper than opening finished walls later.
A clean-water leak caught the same day often dries in a few days. Losses that reached several floors or ran unnoticed take longer. We remove equipment when the daily readings show the materials are dry, not on a fixed schedule.
Water Damage Florida restores Sarasota homes, condos and businesses after surge, wind-driven rain and plumbing failures, on the keys, the bayfront and the mainland, with crews available 24 hours a day. Call (888) 435-4769 or email info@waterdamagefl.org, or reach us through the contact page. Our flood restoration service page explains more about surge cleanup.