Restaurant Water Damage in Southlake, TX

The Challenge

Twenty minutes after close, a kitchen manager stepped into an inch of standing water behind the line. An ice machine drain had backed up and a compression fitting on its supply line let go behind the line cooler, running unnoticed through most of dinner service. The entire cook line, dry storage, the dish pit, and about 1,200 sq ft of the dining room were affected.

The Approach

The whole job was built backward from one deadline: doors open for Monday lunch at 11 AM. A crew of 8 was on site by 1:05 AM. An FRP wall panel was removed in full sheets in the kitchen so it could be reinstalled rather than refabricated. Dry storage product was inventoried and relocated, with compromised stock separated and disposed of per health code. Dining room LVT was dried in place with a negative-pressure sub-floor drying system instead of being torn out, the difference between reopening Monday and reopening Thursday. Equipment ran continuously for 34 hours with readings logged every 6 hours instead of the usual 24. The health department coordinated a re-inspection that passed Monday at 9 AM.

The Results

Doors opened for Monday lunch at 11:00 AM, 35 hours from the call, with zero lost service days beyond the restaurant's normal Sunday closure.