Published on Sep 10, 2026
Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from y'all on the internet.
Today's question is:
Kolten explains that whether homeowners can remain in their home during a restoration depends entirely on the scope of the damage. He gives a current example: a three-story home where the downstairs and mid-level flooded but the upstairs was untouched. Because the family's bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs, and a laundry-room sink can temporarily serve as a kitchen sink while some existing cabinets and counters remain usable, they have enough function to stay put. He's candid that it isn't ideal, but it works for their situation. The deciding factor, he says, is how much of the home remains usable. If everything has been torn out and nothing is functional, the homeowner will need to relocate. Ultimately it's a case-by-case judgment based on what each household can and cannot live with during the project.
It would depend on how major we're talking. Right now, a prime example: we have a customer with a three-story home where the downstairs got flooded and the mid-level got flooded, but the upstairs did not. Their bedrooms, bathrooms, and most of their stuff are upstairs. The mid-level is where the kitchen is, where the flood actually happened, but they have a separate sink in the laundry room that functions as a kitchen sink for the time being. With some of the existing cabinets and counters still there, they have enough space to make it work. It's not ideal, but they can make it work. So I would say it really depends on the situation. If you have everything ripped out of your house and you can't use anything, then you're going to have to go somewhere. It really is just case by case, it depends on what you can live with and what you can't live with.