Six things the crew does in a wet Hays County house, and why each one matters to you
| What happens |
What it means for you |
| Meter readings on the floor and bottom foot of every wall, including rooms that look fine |
Water that ran under the slab-edge flooring into the hallway gets found before the laminate buckles |
| Attic checked above any ceiling stain before the drywall is touched |
A failed drain pan or a split line is found and stopped instead of painted over |
| Slab lines traced by sound and pressure before any concrete is cut |
One opening where the leak is, not three where it is not |
| Dehumidifiers sized for a Central Texas summer |
Drywall and cabinet bases reach their dry target instead of stalling at damp for a week |
| Floodwater from the Blanco or a creek treated as contaminated |
Carpet, pad, and lower drywall that soaked up silt come out instead of being dried and hidden |
| Photos and readings dated from the first visit |
Your adjuster, or your landlord, gets a record instead of your memory |
Things to do before the truck pulls into the driveway
Get belongings off the wet floor and open every cabinet door under a wet counter. Lift the corner of the carpet if you can, so air reaches the pad. Photograph each wet room and the ceiling before anything leaves the house. If this is a rental, text the photos to the owner or the manager now, with the time.
Then make the call. Whether this turns out to be extraction, drying, or a hunt for a slab leak is the provider's call, not yours. Say what you see and let the provider sort out the rest.
Why San Marcos houses get wet the way they do
San Marcos sits right on the Balcones Fault. West of I-35 the ground is Edwards limestone and the Hill Country starts in the back yard. East of the interstate it is Blackland Prairie clay that swells in a wet May and shrinks hard in August. The same fault that opened Wonder World Cave also feeds the springs at Spring Lake, and the clay side works the supply lines under the slab with every season.
This is the heart of Flash Flood Alley. On May 24, 2015, the Blanco River went from under 15 feet to a crest of 43.08 feet at San Marcos in a matter of hours and put water through Blanco Gardens, while the Wimberley gauge upstream estimated 44.9 feet. On October 30, 2015, the All Saints flood did it again and closed the I-35 bridge over the Blanco. The city counted 1,558 housing units damaged across the two floods. Then came February 2021, when a week below freezing split attic and exterior-wall lines across every neighborhood in town.
Repairs that touch plumbing, electrical, or framing inside the city go through the City of San Marcos permit desk, and the provider should tell you which parts of the job need one.
Does a Texas homeowners policy pay for any of this?
A tank that let go overnight or a pipe that split in a freeze is the kind of sudden loss many Texas policies respond to. A slab leak that ran for months is often treated as gradual, and some policies pay for the tear-out but not the pipe. River flooding is almost never covered by a homeowners policy at all; that is a separate flood policy. What your policy pays is a question for someone who has read it, and that is not us. The provider documents every room, logs readings from the first hour, and gives you a written scope. Your adjuster reads that and decides.
The Hays County communities we cover
We serve San Marcos from Blanco Gardens and Dunbar to La Cima and Kissing Tree, plus Kyle, Buda, Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Woodcreek, Mountain City, Uhland, Niederwald, and Martindale. We also cover Driftwood, Maxwell, Redwood, Plum Creek, Sunfield, Belterra, and Blanco Vista. Every one of them has a page of its own under nearby communities.
Call (737) 283-4979 and tell us what the water did to your house. We hand the call to an independent local water damage provider serving San Marcos and Hays County.
Standing by