Middlesex County
Mold Removal in Somerville Two and Three Family Homes
More than half of Somerville's homes sit in two, three and four family buildings, so a damp cellar is rarely one household's problem and rarely one household's repair. We find the water source first and tell you which part of the building it belongs to.
Request a quote in Somerville
Tell us what you can see, where the water came from, and whether anything is still wet. That is usually enough for us to say which trade you need, and whether the job is small enough to handle yourself, before anyone comes out.
Would you rather talk it through? Call (315) 640-3590, answered 24/7.
$100 off your first job
Credited by us on your first booked job.
- One credit per customer per property, on your first booked job.
- Valid through December 31, 2026.
Mention this offer when you book. Full terms.
Who owns the repair in a Somerville three-decker
Most of Somerville is served by one pipe carrying both sewage and stormwater, which is why a hard rain pushes water up through a cellar floor drain rather than in through the wall, and why the answer is often a backwater valve instead of a bigger pump. The building type then decides the paperwork. On a two or three family the do-it-yourself asbestos exemption is gone, because 310 CMR 7.15 defines owner-occupied single family to exclude rental and multiple-family buildings, so a written survey by an asbestos inspector has to come before anyone opens a wall cavity or lifts layered flooring. The same building type removes the Residential Contractor's Guaranty Fund where the owner does not live there, so on a rented three-decker the written scope, the moisture readings and the photographs are the only protection either side has. Where the cellar is shared, one assessment covering the whole building settles the argument faster than three separate opinions.
Areas within Somerville: Davis Square, Union Square, Porter Square, Ball Square, Magoun Square, Teele Square, Winter Hill, East Somerville, Spring Hill, Ten Hills
Water up the floor drain is a different job
Tell us where it appears first and we will say whether the sewer or the ground is the source.
What we arrange from Davis Square to East Somerville
Mold Inspection and Testing
Find out whether you have a real mold problem, how far it reaches and what water is feeding it, before anyone quotes you to take a wall apart.
Mold Testing in Somerville →Mold Removal and Remediation
Get the mold and the material it grew into out of the building under containment, with the pre-demolition gates cleared first and the room put back afterwards.
Mold Removal in Somerville →Water Damage Drying and Moisture Control
Get the building dry inside the window where mold never gets started, and fix the humidity or condensation that keeps making it wet.
Water Damage Drying in Somerville →Why Somerville's water problem never shows up in flood insurance
The City of Somerville states that the majority of Somerville is served by a combined sewer system, that it owns two combined sewer overflow outfalls, SOM-001A discharging to the Alewife Brook and SOM-007A/MWRA205A discharging to the Mystic River, and that overflow structures exist to release excess flow to a water body and prevent it backing up into buildings or out of manholes.
Source: City of Somerville, Massachusetts, accessed 2026-09-14
FEMA's NFIP claims dataset records only six flood insurance claims for the City of Somerville, with loss years from 1995 to 2021 and about $86,000 in net payments. All six were rated in flood zone X and all six were on properties with an unfinished basement or enclosure.
Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v2, accessed 2026-09-14
Somerville has 59.0 percent of its housing units built in 1939 or earlier and a median year of construction of 1938, with 79.8 percent built before 1980. 55.2 percent of its units sit in two, three and four unit structures, the highest share in this coverage area.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, accessed 2026-09-14
The April 2025 Alewife Brook joint press release records six remaining combined sewer overflow outfalls along the Alewife Brook permitted to the MWRA and the Cities of Cambridge and Somerville, and states that water quality in the Alewife Brook during both wet and dry weather generally fails to meet state bacteria standards for fishing and swimming.
Source: City of Cambridge, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and City of Somerville, accessed 2026-09-14
310 CMR 7.15(1) defines owner-occupied single-family residence to exclude rental property, multiple-family buildings and mixed use commercial and residential buildings, so the do-it-yourself asbestos exemption in 310 CMR 7.15(6)(f)3 is not available on a two-family, a three-family or a rented single-family.
Source: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, via Cornell Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-09-14
Describe the smell and which floor it is worst on
That one detail usually tells us where in the building the water starts.