Water damage restoration in Cherry Creek and across Denver
Confluence Water Recovery is a water damage restoration company based in Cherry Creek, with 24/7 emergency response. When Class 4 catastrophic flooding hits a Cherry Creek home, condo or storefront, the water gets into hardwood, plaster and concrete that don't dry on their own. We map where it went, dry it in place where that's possible, and document every reading for your insurer.
What We Do
We specialize in the losses where getting the drying wrong costs the most: Class 4 flooding, finished basements, hardwood and plaster, condominium buildings with water moving between units, and commercial spaces that need to reopen. Flood damage restoration in Denver starts with finding the water, not with setting fans. Water that came through a ceiling gets Class 3 structural drying inside the wall cavities, so less has to be torn out.
Service Region
We're based on East 2nd Avenue in Cherry Creek and work across central and southeast Denver, from Cherry Creek North, Hilltop, Belcaro, Country Club and Congress Park to Glendale, Cherry Hills Village, Greenwood Village and Aurora.
Why Confluence exists
Robert Lindqvist spent eight years as a property adjuster for national insurers. He was in the field for the September 2013 Front Range floods, walking losses that had sat wet for days, and he watched crew after crew put out fans and dehumidifiers without checking what was still wet inside the walls, floors and slabs. Months later, some of those buildings grew mold. He rebuilt his own basement after the 2013 flooding and learned firsthand where standard restoration misses structural recovery.
In 2014 he founded Confluence Water Recovery to handle the losses where that gap costs the most. Since then the company has completed 380 projects. Robert holds IICRC Water Damage Restoration (WRT) and Applied Structural Drying (ASD) certifications and personally reviews moisture verification on every large loss.
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We manage a 38-unit building near Cherry Creek and a roof drain backed up during a summer storm. Confluence handled every affected unit, coordinated with residents on access and temporary housing, and sent the adjuster clean daily moisture logs. The drying finished on the schedule they gave us, and they showed us how to fix the drain so it wouldn't happen again.
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A slow leak behind the finished basement wall in our Hilltop home went unnoticed for weeks. Sarah checked moisture readings every couple of days, explained every piece of equipment she placed, and caught a damp spot in the slab edge before it turned into mold. It wasn't the cheapest quote we got, but it was the only one that came with a real drying plan.
What makes a flood Class 4
Water damage is described two ways, and both matter. The category says how dirty the water is. The class says how hard the building will be to dry. Class 4 is the hardest.
Under the IICRC S500, the industry standard for water damage restoration, class describes the evaporation load: how much water the materials absorbed and how hard they'll be to dry. Classes 1 to 3 rise with how much of the space is wet. Smaller losses in drywall, carpet and pad often dry in days with airflow and dehumidification; Class 3, the greatest load, has most of a room's ceilings, walls, insulation and flooring wet.
Class 4 means water is held deep in dense materials, such as hardwood floors, plaster, concrete slabs, brick and stone, that hold moisture deep inside and release it slowly. Those need specialty drying: low-grain refrigerant or desiccant dehumidifiers, drying mats and injection systems that push dry air into wall cavities and under floors, and a lot more time.
Category runs alongside it and describes contamination. Category 1 comes from a clean source, like a supply line. Category 2 carries significant contamination, like appliance discharge. Category 3 is grossly contaminated, like sewage or floodwater from outside. A Class 4, Category 3 loss, like a basement flooded from outside with a finished slab and hardwood, is where decisions about what to dry and what to remove matter most.
What Class 4 drying actually involves
Our founder's opinion, and the reason the company exists: Class 4 losses need moisture mapping and verification, not just dehumidifiers. Hidden moisture in slabs and wall cavities is what turns into mold later. So the work runs in a specific order.
- Stop and extract. Stop the source, then extract standing water. Water extraction removes far more water than any dehumidifier can.
- Map the moisture. Moisture meters, thermal imaging and readings inside walls and slabs show where the water went, which is rarely only where it's visible.
- Decide what to save. Hardwood, plaster and cabinetry can often be dried in place; contaminated or delaminated materials come out.
- Set up structural drying. Air movers, LGR or desiccant dehumidifiers, drying mats on hardwood and injection systems for wall cavities, placed where moisture is slowest to leave.
- Verify, daily. Readings in the materials themselves, logged every day, until they reach dry standard.
- Rebuild. Reconstruction only after the structure is documented dry, so mold doesn't grow behind new drywall.
Sarah Okafor, who runs our drying operations, puts it simply: a structure isn't dry because the air feels dry; you dry to documented readings in the material itself.
A supply line failed in the unit above ours on a Friday night and the water came through two floors of our Cherry Creek North condo, including the white oak floors and plaster ceilings. Two other companies told us to plan on tearing it all out. Robert was on site within the hour, mapped the moisture behind the walls, and dried the hardwood in place. We kept the floors and the ceiling medallions. He was straight with us about what could and couldn't be saved.
Why Cherry Creek buildings are different
Cherry Creek has a long flood history. The failure of the 1890s-built Castlewood Dam caused one of the worst floods ever reported on Cherry Creek in Denver, and today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages Cherry Creek Dam together with Chatfield and Bear Creek Dams to reduce flood risk across the metro. NOAA's river gauge for Cherry Creek in Denver describes a stage of 12.1 feet as floodwaters more than halfway up the creek's channel walls, a flood with a 2-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any year.
Most of the water damage we see, though, doesn't come from the creek. It comes from inside: supply lines, water heaters, roof drains and fire sprinklers. Denver notes that several neighborhoods also flood during rainstorms or after very wet winters when the ground is saturated. And the buildings here make those losses expensive fast: finished basements, white oak floors, plaster ceilings, stone finishes, and condominium buildings where water from one unit travels down through two or three more.
Permits and the floodplain
The City and County of Denver says permits are required for most construction, alteration or repair work on private property, which includes much of the reconstruction after a flood. In the floodplain there's an extra step: Denver's regulatory floodplain is the same as FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area, and all construction there, including interior remodels, needs a Sewer Use and Drainage Permit for floodplain use. We check whether your address is in it before reconstruction is scoped.
Choosing who to call
When water is on the floor, most people search emergency water cleanup near me and call the first number that answers. That's understandable, and for a small clean-water spill most water restoration companies will do fine. Emergency flood damage restoration in a building with hardwood, plaster or several units is different. Before anyone sets up equipment, ask three questions. How will you find water I can't see? How will you decide what to remove? What readings will you dry to? Flood damage restoration services that can't answer those are guessing. We answer them in writing on every job.
Water damage questions
What is a class 3 water damage?
In the IICRC S500, class describes the evaporation load: how much water the wet materials absorbed and how hard the space will be to dry. Classes 1 to 3 rise with that amount, and Class 3 is the greatest: most of the walls, ceilings, insulation and flooring in the space are wet, which is common when water comes from above. Class 4 is different in kind: water has soaked into materials that give it up slowly, like hardwood, plaster, concrete slabs and masonry, which need specialty drying.
What is the difference between category 2 and category 3 water damage?
Categories describe how contaminated the water is, judged by where it came from and what it has touched since. Category 1 starts from a clean source, such as a broken supply line. Category 2 carries significant contamination, such as washing machine discharge or a toilet overflow without feces. Category 3 is grossly contaminated: sewage, rising floodwater from outside, or water that sat long enough to go bad. Category changes what can be saved; class changes how long it takes to dry.
How fast does mold start after water damage?
Restoration guidance commonly says mold can start growing within a day or two on wet, organic materials like drywall paper, wood and carpet backing. That's why the first hours matter: extraction and drying equipment set up quickly keep wet materials from reaching that point, and moisture readings tell you whether they did.
How long does restoration take after water damage?
Drying alone can take a few days for a clean-water loss in drywall and much longer for Class 4 materials like slabs, plaster and hardwood, which release moisture slowly. Reconstruction comes after, and depends on how much was removed. We give a timeline after mapping the moisture, and we report against it daily.
Can you live in a house with water damage?
Sometimes, if the damage is contained, the water was clean, the electrical system is safe, and the drying equipment can run around you. With Category 3 water, mold, or damage that takes out a kitchen or the home's one bathroom, plan to stay elsewhere; many policies include additional living expenses for that.
Does insurance pay for water restoration?
Usually for sudden, accidental water, like a burst supply line or a failed water heater. Flooding from outside often isn't covered by a standard homeowners policy and needs flood insurance, and slow leaks that went on for months may be treated as maintenance. The documentation matters: moisture maps, photos and daily readings make a claim easier to approve.
What not to say to insurance adjuster water damage?
Don't guess. Don't say how long a leak has been going on unless you know, don't describe the cause until it's been found, and don't agree to a scope before the moisture has been mapped. Stick to what you saw, and let the documentation carry the rest. Our founder spent eight years as a property adjuster, and that's the advice he gives.
How to choose a water damage restoration company?
Ask how they'll prove the building is dry: will they take readings in the materials and document them daily, or just set fans and leave? Ask who reviews the moisture data, how they handle hardwood and plaster, and whether they'll give you a drying plan in writing. IICRC certification, such as Water Damage Restoration (WRT) or Applied Structural Drying (ASD), is a good sign.