Nor'easter Water Damage in Massachusetts

A nor'easter can blow for a day or more, and in Massachusetts it often brings rain, then snow, then a hard freeze. Water that gets into a wall cavity behind siding or into the attic during the rain can freeze in place and start leaking again each time the roof warms up. Massachusetts has the highest share of pre-1940 homes of any state, and many of those houses have plaster walls, older window frames and little insulation, so water can run from the attic down to the first floor inside a wall before anyone sees it. The faster openings are covered and wet materials are dried, the less spreads.

In the first hour, water is still close to where it entered: a window sill, a ceiling stain, a wet attic board. By 24 hours it has spread along ceiling joists, soaked the insulation and wicked into the bottom of walls. By 48 hours mold can start on wet drywall, wood framing and attic sheathing, and stained ceilings begin to sag. After a week, wet insulation is useless, ceiling drywall may need replacing, window trim and sills start to rot, and a small leak has become a large repair.

Nor'easter leaks are usually rainwater, clean or slightly dirty, so a good share of the house can be dried in place if the crew starts early. Plaster walls on wood lath often dry well with dehumidifiers and directed air, though they dry slower than drywall. Hardwood floors near a leaking window can be dried with mat systems that pull water up through the boards. Wood framing, attic sheathing and subfloor are dried and checked with pin meters. Carpet wet from a window leak can often be dried in place once the soaked pad under it is replaced.

Some materials do not come back. Wet fiberglass or cellulose insulation in an attic or wall loses its loft and holds water, so it is removed and replaced. Ceiling drywall that sagged or stayed soaked for more than a day or two is usually cut out because it can fall and is slow to dry. Swollen MDF window trim and baseboards, stained ceiling tiles and particleboard shelving are replaced. If wind-driven rain mixed with surf or ground flooding, that water is category 3, and soaked porous materials are removed rather than dried.

Nor'easters reach every corner of Massachusetts, but the damage changes by region. In Greater Boston, the January 4, 2018 storm set the Boston Harbor tide record at 15.16 ft, and nearly half of Boston homes were built before 1940, so older roofs, windows and plaster take the brunt of wind-driven rain. In the North Shore and Merrimack Valley, snow piles up more than in Boston, with Newburyport averaging 61.9 in a year, so a storm that starts as rain and turns to snow can load roofs fast and feed ice and meltwater leaks for days.

On the South Shore, Scituate, Marshfield and Hull saw heavy coastal flooding in the March 2, 2018 nor'easter, part of a string of March storms that led to a state of emergency. In Central Massachusetts, Worcester averages 72.9 in of snow a year, so a winter nor'easter there often means heavy roof loads and leaks after the melt. Wherever the storm hits, the call is simple: tell us where water is coming in and what is wet, and we connect you with a local crew.