Water, fire, mold & storm damage restorationCambridge & Middlesex County since 2017

Emergency calls answered around the clock: (857) 754-6108

Cambridge & Middlesex CountySince 2017

Water, Fire, Mold & Storm Damage Restoration in Cambridge, Massachusetts

When water or smoke is spreading through a house, every hour matters. We answer emergency calls around the clock and handle everything from emergency water extraction to full fire damage reconstruction.

Spencer Burton founded Avon Hill Restoration in 2017 to respond fast when disasters happen, and he still runs the work day to day, with a small, experienced crew instead of subcontractors. We serve homeowners and businesses across Cambridge and the surrounding Middlesex County area.

We work directly with your insurance company, explain the plan and the timeline before work starts, and keep you posted while it is under way. A job is not finished until the moisture readings say the structure is dry and the work meets code.

Avon Hill Restoration pickup truck, steel blue with white door and bed panels and a charcoal lower band, the company logo and name on the rear door and 857-754-6108 on the bed, parked on a driveway beside an open garage with clapboard houses and autumn trees behind
Our truck, lettered with the logo and the number to call.

24-Hour Emergency Line

(857) 754-6108

Water spreading through a ceiling, smoke in the house, a basement filling up: call now, day or night. We will tell you what to shut off and what to leave alone until we get there.

Request Service How a Job Works

Our Services

  • Water Damage Restoration

    Burst pipes, overflowing appliances and leaks from the unit upstairs: water extraction, drying with professional dehumidifiers and moisture checks until the structure is dry.

  • Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration

    Soot cleanup, odor removal and the repairs after a kitchen fire or a bigger loss, including the water left behind by firefighting.

  • Mold Remediation

    Inspection, containment and removal of mold in damp basements, bathrooms and wall cavities, and a fix for the moisture that let it grow.

  • Storm & Wind Damage Restoration

    Emergency tarping and board-up after a nor’easter or a summer storm, then drying out and repairing what the wind and rain got into.

Not sure which of these you need? Call (857) 754-6108 and tell us what you see, or compare the services side by side.

Signs You Need Restoration

Water damage rarely announces itself all at once. In older Cambridge houses it tends to show up a little at a time, often a floor or two away from where the water got in. These are the signs worth a call:

  • A ceiling stain that keeps growing, or plaster that sags or feels soft
  • Paint bubbling or peeling near the floor, a window or the bathroom
  • A musty smell in the basement or a closet that airing out does not fix
  • Floorboards that cup, buckle or feel spongy underfoot
  • Water around the water heater, the washer or the sump pit
  • Soot on the walls, or a smoke smell that comes back after cleaning
  • Mold on walls, ceilings or boxes stored in the basement
  • Wet insulation or daylight in the attic after a storm

Any one of them is worth having looked at. Two or more together usually means water has been getting somewhere for a while.

Flooded Basement in Cambridge

Seepage, sewer backups and failed sump pumps in older foundations near the Charles River and Alewife.

Frozen & Burst Pipes Before Winter

Pipes along cold outside walls, ice dams and attic leaks in under-insulated triple-deckers, and how to prevent them.

A Musty Smell That Will Not Go Away

Mold behind plaster, under carpet pad and in damp basement corners, and when it needs professional removal.

What You Can Count On

  • IICRC certified

    Spencer is IICRC certified in water restoration and applied microbial remediation, and keeps that training current.

  • Insurance, handled directly

    We work directly with your insurance company. Estimates and paperwork come from Spencer, not a call center.

  • Emergency calls, day or night

    Water and smoke do not keep business hours, so we answer emergency calls around the clock.

  • Local since 2017

    A Cambridge company whose owner is usually on site for the bigger jobs, checking the moisture readings himself.

Triple-Decker Basements and New England Winters

Much of Cambridge was built a century or more ago: triple-deckers, two-families and Victorian houses on fieldstone, brick or early concrete foundations, with plaster on wood lath and balloon framing that lets water, and smoke, travel inside the walls from one floor to the next. Parts of the city sit low near the Charles River and Alewife Brook, and in some neighborhoods storm water and sewage still share the same old pipes, so a hard rain can push water up through a basement floor drain.

Then there is the weather. Nor'easters drive rain into siding and window frames. January cold snaps freeze pipes in uninsulated basements and along outside walls, and snow on a poorly insulated roof melts into ice dams that back water up under the shingles. Humid summers keep basements damp long after a leak is fixed, which is when mold takes hold. We plan the work around that: how old plaster dries, where water hides in a balloon-framed wall, and what the unit downstairs needs when the leak started upstairs.

Read more on flooded basements in Cambridge and on frozen and burst pipes before winter.

Damage We Get Called Out For

Photos from water and mold jobs: what water does to basements, drywall and old plaster when it is left to sit. Swipe or use the buttons.

Muddy standing water across a concrete basement floor between poured concrete walls, dark staining along the bottom of the walls and a green broom handle lying in the water
Standing water across a concrete basement floor.
A finished basement under standing water, pine board paneling darkened along the bottom, two open doorways and daylight reflecting off the water
A finished basement under standing water.
A plaster ceiling broken away in large patches, exposing the wooden lath above it, with water stains on the remaining plaster and a white ceiling fan at the left
Plaster broken away from the wood lath of an old ceiling.
The bottom edge of a painted drywall wall crumbling and peeling where water soaked into it, above a wet, discolored carpet
Drywall that soaked up water from a wet carpet.
Dark mold growing in a band along the bottom of a light blue wall, just above a water-stained white baseboard on laminate flooring
Mold along the bottom of a wall, above a water-stained baseboard.
Heavy black mold spreading up both walls of a room corner above a white baseboard, with beige carpet on the floor
Heavy mold growth in a wall corner.

Getting Started

How fast can you get here?

We answer emergency calls around the clock, and we are based in Cambridge, so Cambridge and the towns next to it are quick for us to reach. When you call, we give you a realistic arrival time for where we are that day, and we tell you what to do while you wait, such as where to shut the water off and what to move out of the way.

Do you work with my insurance company?

Yes. We work directly with insurance companies, and Spencer handles the estimates and the insurance paperwork himself, so you are not passed between departments. We photograph the damage, record moisture readings and send your adjuster what they need.

Whether a loss is covered depends on your policy. Sudden events such as a burst pipe or a kitchen fire usually are. Slow leaks, flooding from outside and sewer backups often fall under separate rules or need an extra endorsement, so it is worth reading that part of the policy before the adjuster visits.

Which towns do you cover?

Cambridge and the surrounding Middlesex County area: Somerville, Arlington, Belmont, Watertown, Medford, Lexington, Waltham and nearby towns. The service area page lists the neighborhoods and ZIP codes.

Should I start cleaning up before you arrive?

Do the things that stop the damage from growing: shut off the water, keep people out of rooms with a sagging ceiling or wet wiring, and take photos of everything before it is moved. Leave the rest. A household vacuum on standing water is a shock hazard, wiping soot smears it deeper into paint and plaster, and scrubbing mold spreads spores. Our process page explains what happens from the first call to the final walkthrough.

Spencer Burton, manager of Avon Hill Restoration, smiling in a navy polo shirt with the company logo, standing beside the company pickup truck in a residential driveway
Spencer Burton, Manager. He handles scheduling, estimates and insurance paperwork himself.

Request Service

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Call or Email

(857) 754-6108

Email: manager@avonhillrestoration.com

Working hours
Monday – Friday 7:00 am – 11:00 pm
Saturday – Sunday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm

Emergency calls are answered around the clock. For anything else, the form or an email works well.

Need to include the address, the type of property or your insurance details? Use the full request form.