Water Extraction and Cleanup in Kingston, GA

Kingston is where two railroads met. The Western and Atlantic ran north from Atlanta, and a second line headed west to Rome, so for a stretch of the 1800s the village was a place people changed trains. That junction is why Sherman's army made a headquarters here in May 1864, and why a Confederate general surrendered here a year later. It is also why the village has old buildings and old plumbing.

The population today is 722. It is small enough that most people know which house flooded last time, and which basement has never been dry since.

Water Damage Services in Kingston, GA

• Frozen & burst pipe cleanupOld houses with uninsulated lines in exterior walls and cold crawl spaces.
• Flooded basement water removalRed-clay lots that hold water against the foundation after a long wet week.
• Crawl space water removalLow crawl spaces under older houses, pumped out and dried.
• Structural drying & dehumidificationPlaster and lath walls dried slowly, with readings from floor to ceiling.
• Mold removalMold behind old plaster and under bathrooms where a slow leak ran.
• Commercial water damage restorationSmall shops, churches and landlords' buildings, with one person authorizing the work.

Memorial Day, the marker and the argument

A state marker on Railroad Street, put up in 1956, says the first Decoration Day, now called Memorial Day, was observed in Kingston in late April of 1865. Historians have challenged that claim, and the dates and the commanders' locations do not line up well. We are not here to settle it. We mention it because the town cemetery and its yearly service are real, and so are the people who keep the grounds.

Limestone valley, red clay, and what it does to a basement

Kingston sits on the Etowah River in a valley cut through limestone. Rock like that dissolves in groundwater, and a red, stony clay sits on top of it. For a similar soil, the official description reads: a few inches of surface layer, then 50 to more than 75 inches of red clay with chert gravel, then bedrock more than 60 inches down.

What matters to a homeowner is how the clay behaves. It takes water slowly and gives it up slowly. After a long wet week, a house with a basement or a low crawl space is sitting in saturated ground, and any weakness in the wall, the slab edge or the floor drain becomes a leak. The fix is almost always outside the house first: grading, gutters, and a drain that takes water away from the foundation.

The river near Kingston

The Etowah River runs near town, and the weather service keeps a gauge on it. The table gives its flood stages and its biggest flood. Houses near the river are the ones this table is about, and most of the rest of the town sits above it.

Source: NOAA National Water Prediction Service, gauge KGTG1.

The big floods listed there are all old, but old does not mean it cannot happen again. Heavy rain farther upstream moves down the Etowah over a day or two, and river water that reaches a house is dirty water that has to be treated that way.

Who supplies your water?

Kingston has a city Water Department that sits under Public Works and says it tests the supply regularly. It does not publish where the water comes from, and we have not found out. Houses outside the village may be on county water or a well. Check the monthly bill.

Old houses by the depot and the rail line

Hargis House, Price House, the Methodist church that was rebuilt in 1854 and the museum are all in the village. A town where the buildings go back that far has pipes and floor structure of every age. In an old house, you can find supply lines run through exterior walls with no insulation, cast iron drains that have rusted from the inside, and floors laid on joists that have been wet before.

Whenever we see an old house with a new bathroom, we check where the old plumbing was joined to the new. Joints are where leaks start. Our burst pipe cleanup page shows what the first day looks like after one fails.

Finding water in an old plaster wall

Plaster over lath hides a leak well. The surface can look fine while the lath behind it is soaked, and the first sign is often a brown ring or a flake of paint on the other side of the room. A meter reads through plaster better than a hand does. We check a wall from the floor to the ceiling, and from the stain outward, because water travels. If the plaster has gone soft or the lath is dark, that section comes out, and the cavity gets air before anything is patched.

The Saltpeter Cave and the ground under town

Kingston Saltpeter Cave, now closed, supplied material for Confederate gunpowder. Caves mean limestone, and limestone means the ground drains in odd ways. A yard that takes water slowly one year may take it fast the next if a channel opens underneath. Most houses never have a problem. A few do, and a dip that deepens after storms is worth showing to somebody who can look at it.

How we work on an older Kingston house

1. CallTell us how old the house is and where the water showed up.
2. Safety checkPower first, then any ceiling that is bulging.
3. Remove the waterPumps and extractors take out what is standing.
4. Read the plasterWe read plaster and lath from the stain outward and open only what is wet.
5. DryAir movers and dehumidifiers run, and old wood gets extra time.
6. Final readingsNumbers, photos and a list of what came out.

Old walls get opened carefully, and we show you what we find before we cut.

What Does Water Damage Cleanup Cost in Kingston, GA?

Plaster is the expensive material, at up to $18.75 a square foot to restore. After that the bill is mostly people and hours. Labor typically runs $70 to $200 an hour, and an emergency call can add a fee on top. An old house with hidden damage can take longer than a new one. Read all of it as planning ranges, not a quote, then call for an on-site assessment.

Questions from Kingston homeowners

Can an old plaster wall be dried, or does it have to come out?

Often it can be dried if it has not gone soft. We read it first, and plaster that crumbles or lath that has gone black is removed.

I rent out a house here. Who authorizes the work?

Whoever holds the lease or the policy. Give us the owner's name and number up front so a pump-out does not wait on a callback.

How high does the Etowah have to get to matter?

The weather service gauge near Kingston lists action stage at 18 feet and minor flooding at 20. Houses next to the river care about the lower number.

Is Kingston on city water?

Kingston has a city Water Department under Public Works. Houses outside the village may be on a well, so check your bill.

More on the work: frozen and burst pipe cleanup, commercial restoration and mold removal. The mold calculator prices the damp that follows a leak. Euharlee is down the river and Adairsville is up the line. Start again at the home page.

Sources for town facts: Kingston, Georgia, Wikipedia; Georgia Historical Society marker, Confederate Memorial Day (Bartow County); City of Kingston, Water Department; NOAA NWPS gauge KGTG1.