Water Damage Restoration in Jamaica Plain, MA

Jamaica Plain is built around water. Jamaica Pond, the largest natural body of water in the city, sits at its center, and Stony Brook once ran the length of the neighborhood before it was buried in a culvert under the streets near Washington Street and the Southwest Corridor. The housing is Victorians and triple-deckers from 1870 through 1920 on the hills of Sumner Hill, Moss Hill, and Pondside, and denser triple-deckers and two-families along the flats where the brook used to be.

That buried brook is the neighborhood's water problem. In a hard rain, the culvert and the combined sewers around it fill, and the cellars on the low streets between Egleston Square and Forest Hills take water up the floor drain. The October 1996 storm overwhelmed the Stony Brook and Muddy River systems and flooded basements across the neighborhood. Winter brings the rest: the February 2023 freeze split pipes in cold bay windows, and the snow of 2015 left ice dams on the porch roofs of every Victorian on the hill.

Jamaica Plain water damage, pond to brook

A cellar on the flats that took water up the drain is sewage cleanup. A Victorian where a radiator line froze in a turret wall is frozen pipe cleanup. A condo conversion with a stained plaster ceiling under the unit above is ceiling water damage repair, and the condo documents decide who pays.

Jamaica Plain has more condo conversions of old Victorians and triple-deckers than almost any neighborhood in the city, and a leak crosses ownership lines on the way down. Photograph every unit that got wet, notify the association in writing the same day, and keep the plumber's note about what failed. In the Victorians on the hill, original plaster cornices and medallions are worth telling the crew about before the first cut, because sound plaster that is metered dry can often stay while the soft section comes down.

Where Stony Brook still runs under Jamaica Plain

Water and sewer service comes from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, and rebuild permits go through the city's Inspectional Services Department. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society keeps the maps that show where Stony Brook ran before it went underground, which is the first thing to check if your basement floods on a street that looks nowhere near water.

Call (857) 524-9927 now and tell us what you see. A local water damage provider serving Jamaica Plain takes it from there.