Water, Smoke and Mold Damage Restoration in Hidden Hills

A. E. Hanson began laying out Hidden Hills in 1950 under a sign promising 1000 Acres of Elbow Room, selling full-acre lots, and the first two model homes went up on Long Valley Road that year. Residents voted for cityhood 358 to 71, and the city incorporated on October 19, 1961. It is still small, with 1,725 residents at the 2020 census, and still arranged around horses: corrals, barns, riding trails and the three-rail fences along every road.

The roads inside the gates belong to the Hidden Hills Community Association, not the city, and that shapes the first hour of any job. When you call, tell us how the gate will clear our crew and our truck, especially at night, and where on the lot we can stage equipment. A load of dehumidifiers and air movers needs somewhere to park, and a long driveway changes how we run hoses and power to the house.

On November 8, 2018, the Woolsey Fire started in the Simi Hills, and Hidden Hills was under a mandatory evacuation order that same day. The order was lifted around November 13. On open lots that back onto brush, what a fire like that leaves behind is smoke and fine ash pulled into attics, wall cavities and barns, and an odor that settles into hay, saddle blankets and stored furniture. Photograph each building before anyone cleans, and have it assessed first, so its condition is part of the record.

On a Hidden Hills property the main house is seldom the only building that takes water. Barns, tack rooms, guest quarters, detached garages and pool equipment rooms all have plumbing or sit where runoff collects, and some are opened only now and then. A float-valve waterer or a hose bib that fails in a barn can run for hours before anyone walks by. We take moisture readings in every structure on the lot and log each building on its own sheet, so nothing gets folded into the main house record.

The lots are wide and the ground slopes, so storm water crosses a lot of property before it reaches a drain. Water that runs off a riding arena or a paddock carries soil and manure, and when it reaches a garage or a lower room it is contaminated water. We extract it, take out the silt, clean and disinfect every surface it reached, and only then begin drying.

Hidden Hills is served by about 16 miles of sanitary sewer and two pump stations operated by the county's Consolidated Sewer Maintenance District. A backup from the main line or from a home's own lateral is sewage, and we handle it as a health hazard: containment, extraction, disposal of porous materials that cannot be disinfected, then cleaning and disinfection before drying. If you suspect the main line, report it to the city or the district as well, so the source is dealt with.

Homes here were built across seven decades, from the ranch houses of the 1950s to much larger houses put up since. A single house may join an original section to later additions, and where those meet, pipe runs change and floor heights shift, and water follows the seams. We trace it with moisture meters and thermal imaging and photograph each floor, wall and built-in before any equipment goes in.

Contents on these properties can be worth as much attention as the structure: saddles and tack, ribbons and trophies, art, rugs, wine. We inventory and photograph them, pack out what has to leave, clean it off site and return it once the rooms read dry. Mold starts in materials that stay wet more than a day or two, and on a large lot a slow leak in a building that is not used every day can go much longer than that. We remediate under containment with HEPA filtration and put what we found in writing.

Before we arrive, shut the water off at the main, keep power off in wet rooms and wet stalls, move horses and pets away from any area where sewage or runoff came in, and photograph everything. We document the loss, estimate our own scope of work, and can bill your carrier directly for our services; coverage decisions belong to your carrier, your agent or a public adjuster you hire. We respond anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside around the clock, our technicians hold IICRC certifications, and the first inspection is free.