Water, Flood and Mold Damage Restoration in Malibu

When Tropical Storm Rachel's swell reached Southern California, the National Weather Service singled out Malibu and Long Beach as especially vulnerable to damaging seawater flooding, and by Sunday, October 11, 2026, damage was visible along the Malibu coastline. Rachel's remnants brought heavy rain over the hills the same weekend. In Malibu those two threats arrive together: surf on the beach side, runoff from the slopes on the other.

The slopes are part of the story. The 2018 Woolsey Fire burned through Malibu over thirteen days, and Malibu Park, on the hillside above Zuma Beach, lost 157 homes. In January 2025 the Palisades Fire destroyed more than three hundred beachfront properties along Pacific Coast Highway. Burned slopes shed water and sediment instead of absorbing it, so a heavy rain can send mud and debris toward homes that were never near the creek before.

Much of Malibu runs on septic systems rather than a sewer, and the city has estimated a sewer system for the beachfront could take five to seven years to build. That matters in a flood. When the ground saturates or a system is damaged, wastewater can back up into a house, and water that mixes with it is a health hazard from the first minute. We treat it that way: containment, extraction, cleaning and disinfection, then drying, with protective equipment the whole time.

Beachfront homes take seawater through decks, lower levels and garages when the surf runs high. That water has crossed sand and, often, a road, so it is grossly contaminated too. Carpet, pad, insulation and upholstered furniture that soaked in it usually cannot be saved, and the salt it leaves in walls keeps pulling moisture back after the surface looks dry. We log moisture readings every day and leave the equipment until the numbers hold.

A Malibu home is also often a long way from anyone who can check on it. Second homes and rentals can sit with a wet lower floor for days. If you own here and are not on site, have someone walk every lower room, including closets and the garage, and photograph what they find before anything moves.

Getting to a Malibu house can be its own problem after a storm. Pacific Coast Highway and the canyon roads close for slides, flooding and debris, and some beachfront homes are reached only through a gate or a narrow private road. Tell us on the call how the property is reached, whether there is a gate code or a caretaker, and where equipment can be staged. We plan the route and the equipment around that, so the first visit is spent working, not finding the way in. Hillside homes with long driveways or steep steps change what equipment we bring, and we would rather know that before we leave than at your door.

On coverage, FEMA states that standard homeowner policies do not cover flood, so seawater damage normally falls to a separate flood policy, while a septic or sewage backup is handled differently again depending on the policy. Those questions belong to your carrier, your agent or a public adjuster you hire. We are not adjusters. We document the loss, estimate our own scope of work, and can bill your carrier directly for our services.

If you are on site before we arrive, keep the power off in any room where water reached outlets or appliances, and stay out of any area where wastewater came up. Do not run a septic system that backed up until it has been inspected. Photograph every lower room, the garage and the outside of the house, including any mud line on the walls, before anything is moved or thrown out, and keep receipts for anything you buy or any night you stay elsewhere.

We respond anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside around the clock, including the length of Pacific Coast Highway. Our technicians hold IICRC certifications in water damage restoration and applied microbial remediation, we work in English and Spanish, and the first inspection is free.