Upstairs Neighbor Flooded a Condo, Mold Hit the Kitchen Wall
When the unit above you floods, the damage almost never stops in the room the water landed in. On this Las Vegas condo the water came down through the balcony water heater closet, and by the time the walls were open the mold had traveled into the kitchen wall on the other side of that framing.
This is one of the most common calls we take from condo and townhome owners in the valley, and it is also one of the most misunderstood, because the room that looks wet is almost never the edge of the problem.
What the owner said
“We live in a condominium on the first floor. We were flooded by neighbors on the second floor. The entire room from the ceiling, walls and floor were wet in the room on the balcony where the water heater is. We contacted a company to eliminate mold that had formed in the walls, ceiling and even in the wall in the kitchen, which was one wall with the room on the balcony. The company immediately responded to our request and sent three specialists such as Javier, Shan and Wayne, who worked for several days 8 hours a day without a break. The work was done perfectly. Absolute professionals.”
Gabby R., Google review
Ceiling, walls and floor wet in the balcony room housing the water heater. Mold in the wall cavities and in the kitchen wall that shared framing with that room. Three technicians on site over several days.
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What we would do if this is happening to you
The order matters more than the equipment. This is how we work a flood that originated in someone else’s unit.
What else comes up on a condo job like this
The shared wall is the surprise. Here the water crossed into the kitchen. It can just as easily cross into the neighboring unit, which changes who has to be notified before anyone opens a wall, and turns a one owner job into a building matter.
The water heater closet is a recurring valley problem. On a lot of Las Vegas condos the heater sits on a balcony or in an exterior closet, with a drain pan and a pan line nobody has looked at since the building went up. When that unit fails, the water has a clear path into the living space and often into the unit below.
Access can stall the job for days. If the source is upstairs and that owner is slow to respond, or the HOA controls the shutoff and the common elements, we can be ready to work and still be waiting. Getting written permission moving early is worth more than an extra air mover.
Three policies can be in play at once. Your policy, the neighbor’s liability coverage and the HOA master policy each cover a different slice, and the split depends on your CC and Rs as much as on the damage. What sits where is explained on our page about HOA and condo water damage responsibility, and it is worth reading before you agree to anything.
Drying an occupied unit is genuinely disruptive. Multi day drying means equipment running, noise, and a room you cannot use. We would rather tell you that up front and schedule around you than pretend a condo dries out quietly.
Concrete between floors changes the timeline. In stacked construction, water sits in the assembly between units rather than draining away, and that slows drying compared with a single family home.
The services this job used
A flood from above is two pieces of work in sequence, not one. The first is water damage restoration, which is the extraction, containment and structural drying. The second is mold remediation, which is only needed once mold has actually established, as it had here in the wall cavities and the kitchen wall.
If you are still in the first hours of this and the water is fresh, the drying is the urgent part. Mold takes time to establish, and a fast, correct dry out is what prevents the second job from ever being necessary.
Water coming in from the unit above?
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