Half the water damage out here starts under the floor, not on it. These are some of the few St. Pete houses built up off the ground, so a supply line dripping behind a wall becomes soft subfloor and rotted pier framing long before anyone sees a stain. We go under with a meter before pulling anything up.
The Perry Snell originals along Brightwaters Blvd NE still run galvanized supply and cast iron drain, and that's the steady non-storm call — pinholes, slow under-slab failures in the 1950s ranches, joints that gave up after ninety-odd years. Storm work is its own animal. The Coffee Pot Bayou seawall and the low points at Brightwaters take bay water on surge and, honestly, on a bad king tide too.
Drying a house with plaster, hardwood and custom millwork
Do you have to tear out my plaster walls?
Usually not. Plaster and old hardwood dry differently than drywall, so we dry in place where the readings allow and cut only what won't recover.
My crawl space stayed wet after the last storm. Does that matter?
It does. Trapped moisture under a raised house rots subfloor and piers and pushes humidity up into the finished rooms. It needs real drying and documented moisture readings, not time.