Water damage in a Hollywood, FL home: what to do, what it costs, and how drying really works

Water on the floor is not a wait-and-see problem in South Florida. This hub pulls together the practical side of a water loss in one place: how to stop the water, how standing water comes out, how CBS block walls and concrete slabs actually dry, what published cost guides say a job runs, and how long each step takes. It is published by Water Damage Hollywood Florida, a locally owned restoration company based at 1950 Grant St, Hollywood, FL 33020. If water is standing in your home right now, call (954) 872-0362 — the line is answered around the clock — and then read the first-72-hours page while help is on the way.

Start with the emergency pages

The first hours decide how much of a home can be saved. A ceiling stains slowly; drywall wicks water up the wall in the meantime, and carpet pad holds water against the slab long after the surface feels dry. These three pages cover the emergency end of a job.

Drying, the part most people get wrong

Pulling the visible water out is the easy half. Hollywood homes sit on concrete slabs, many of them built with CBS (concrete block) walls, and both hold moisture deep inside long after the surface feels dry to the touch. Opening the windows does not fix it either: South Florida outdoor air is humid most mornings, so a wet house dried with open windows is often a house being fed more moisture. Real drying is closed rooms, dehumidifiers and air movers, and moisture readings taken at marked points every day until each material reaches its dry standard.

What it costs — published numbers, not guesses

Price depends on how much area is wet, the category of water, and how much material has to come out. Nobody honest quotes a water job over the phone, but published guides give you a working range before anyone measures your home. HomeAdvisor's 2025 data puts the national average for water damage restoration at about $3,833, with most jobs between $1,364 and $6,301, and South Florida guides price clean water at roughly $3 to $4 per square foot, up to $7 to $10 for sewage. Those are published benchmarks, not our prices — the cost estimator page runs your square footage through them so you can see a range for yourself.

The neighborhoods this hub covers

Water behaves differently in a 1920s Hollywood Lakes house with plaster walls and cast iron drains than it does in a twentieth-floor Hollywood Beach condo or a block home in Hollywood Hills with terrazzo over the slab. This hub is written for the five Hollywood neighborhoods the company works in every week: Hollywood Beach (33019) and its condo towers, Hollywood Lakes and its older homes near the Intracoastal, Emerald Hills (33021) with its larger homes and hardwood, Hollywood Hills and its mid-century block homes, and West Hollywood (33024) with its canal-side townhomes and low streets.

How this company works, in short

• IICRC-certified technicians trained to the IICRC S500 water damage standard and S520 mold standard.
• Thermal imaging and moisture mapping on every job — infrared cameras plus pin and pinless meters find water behind tile, baseboards and cabinet toe-kicks before anything is opened.
• Daily moisture logs and dated photos on every visit, so an insurance adjuster can see what was wet, what came out, and the day each room reached dry.
• One team from extraction to rebuild — the same company that dries the home puts back the drywall, trim, flooring and paint, under one scope of work.
• Answered 24/7 by a person — call (954) 872-0362 at any hour and a technician can talk you through closing the main valve while the crew is on the way.

Standards and public sources behind these pages — the IICRC, the EPA, NOAA and FEMA — are listed on our about and sources page, along with how this hub is maintained.