Method
How we read a Pierce County house before the equipment comes in
Pierce County covers 6 cities, from older walkable cores to new construction on the outer edges. Two houses on the same block can be built thirty years apart, and that changes the entire drying plan: one has plaster over rock lath that holds water quietly for days, the other has a vapour-sealed wall that traps it on the cold side of the insulation.
The calls we run here most often are century-old galvanised supply lines, sewer line collapse, basement seepage. None of those look dramatic on day one, which is exactly why they get expensive: a fitting dripping a cup an hour stays invisible until the ceiling below it starts to sag.
Grade the water first
Clean supply water, grey appliance water and contaminated ground water take different equipment, different PPE and different disposal. The category is set before a single air mover is placed.
Map, do not guess
Every affected room gets a thermal scan and pin-meter readings, plus a control reading from an unaffected room, so the dry standard is a number rather than a feeling.
Protect what stays
Furniture goes up on blocks, textiles are sorted for cleaning or pack-out, and every item we move is photographed before it leaves the room.
Half the houses we open here have a leak that started months before anyone called. Opening the wall is the cheapest part of that discovery.
