Condo leak and mold cleanup in Brickell, 33131

The original mansions along Brickell Avenue gave way to high-rise towers from the 1970s on, and many of today's buildings went up in the 2000s condo boom. Offices cluster north of SW 15th Road (Broadway), and residential towers mostly sit south of it. Brickell Key, a man-made island, adds more condo towers and a hotel.

Stacked units share slabs, walls and plumbing chases, so a leak rarely stays where it starts. Under Florida condo law, the association generally covers the building as originally installed, while floor, wall and ceiling coverings, appliances, water heaters and built-in cabinets inside a unit fall to the owner's policy.

Inside, the common sources are AC condensate lines in air handler closets, water heaters, washer hoses and supply lines under sinks. IBHS findings put half of washing machine water losses on burst supply lines. In a tower, gravity carries that water down through ceilings, light fixtures and wall cavities.

Outside, Brickell sits low on the bay. During Hurricane Irma on September 10, 2017, Brickell Avenue became a river about three feet deep, and surge topped 6 feet in isolated spots. King tides covered Brickell streets in October 2017, and at high tide rainwater has nowhere to drain, which puts parking levels and ground-floor spaces at risk.

Before the crew arrives, we contact management to reserve the service elevator and loading dock and to confirm the building's work hours and paperwork. We protect hallways and elevator walls, and we check the units above and below for moisture, because the source and the damage are often on different floors.

Drying a condo means keeping noise and heat reasonable for neighbors, so we size air movers and dehumidifiers to the space and log readings every day. If mold has started, we build containment so spores stay out of shared corridors, and any testing goes through an independent assessor.

From Brickell our crews work every week in Downtown Miami across the river, The Roads just west, Coconut Grove to the south and Little Havana past I-95. Key Biscayne, over the Rickenbacker Causeway, is on our list too.

Each of those places has its own page on this site with the problems we see most there. Wherever the water is, the number stays the same: (786) 947-0034.