Open 24 hours, every day
Petaluma Flood Damage Restoration, Based on Lakeville Street
Our main office is at 450 Lakeville St, about a mile from City Hall. We clean up after river floods, burst pipes and sewer backups, from the west side’s Victorians to newer homes east of the freeway, and then handle the rebuild.
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Tell us what happened and we'll call you back. In a hurry? Call (844) 623-3946.
- Open 24 hours
Petaluma, CA
Where is RestoreX's Petaluma office?
At 450 Lakeville St, Suite D. It’s our main office, about 1.1 road miles from City Hall on English Street, and the base for all of our North Bay work. From here we handle river and creek flooding, broken pipes, sewer lateral backups and mold, then the permitted repairs, for Petaluma homeowners, renters, landlords and businesses.
Petaluma came through the 1906 earthquake relatively unharmed, so pre-1906 buildings and Victorian, Queen Anne and Eastlake houses survive on the west side of the river. Once Highway 101 became a freeway in 1955, new home building shifted east of downtown. Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 count about 25,100 housing units, 11% of them built before 1940 and 52% before 1980, with a median build year of 1979. A pre-1906 house and a newer home east of the freeway rarely dry out the same way, so each water damage restoration job here starts with how the building was put together.
Housing: U.S. Census ACS 5-year estimates. Distance is approximate.
About Petaluma
What makes the Petaluma River overflow?
Heavy rain meeting a high tide. The river is a tidal estuary, fully tidal for 11 miles from its mouth on San Pablo Bay, and Lichau, Lynch, Washington and Adobe creeks carry Sonoma Mountain runoff into it. When both peak at once, water spreads into low ground like the Payran neighborhood, Denman Flats and north Petaluma’s mobile home parks.
The flood record goes back decades. A 1982 storm swept over 50 blocks of the Payran district and into 500 homes, about $28 million in damage, and a smaller 1986 storm added $1 million more. In March 1995 nearly 200 Payran-area houses and 130 Leisure Lake mobile homes were evacuated, and in February 1998 high tide and heavy rain put the river into homes on Jess Avenue and Cordelia Drive. On New Year’s Eve 2005, up to 5 feet of water reached homes and businesses in northern Petaluma, and the USGS gauge at the Copeland pumping station hit its record, 9,620 cubic feet per second (USGS peak flows). In February 2019 flooding closed Stony Point Road and Petaluma Boulevard North, and Leisure Lake Village residents couldn’t drive out.
Two projects changed the picture. The Army Corps of Engineers and the city began Payran Reach in 1988, adding floodwalls, two emergency pumping stations, new Payran and Lakeville Street bridges, a new rail bridge and a reshaped channel along 3,600 feet of river. During the 2005 flood, the fire captain said Payran got nothing but rain, and the $41.5 million project was declared complete in February 2016, after its last 100-foot section waited ten years on an adjacent rail bridge. At Denman Reach, the city bought riverside parcels along Industrial Avenue, terraced the channel, created wetlands and built two detention basins, and its modeling shows the four phases lowering the 100-year flood level by up to a foot near Industrial Avenue and Corona Road (City of Petaluma).
The National Weather Service now tracks the river at the D Street Bridge. Minor flooding begins at 8.4 feet, when water leaves the bank at the foot of C Street, and by 8.6 feet streets flood down to C Street and the C Street sewer pump station gets sandbagged (NWS river gauge). A high-tide surge pushed the river past that 8.4-foot mark on November 5, 2025. In 2023 the city updated its flood models with sea-level-rise scenarios for the General Plan’s Flood Resilience Element, and in 2025 it started yearly creek maintenance at Corona Creek near Riesling Road.
Permits & rebuilding
What does Petaluma require a building permit for?
More repair work than most owners expect. The city’s exempt list stops at painting, flooring, tile, interior cleanup, small sheetrock patches and fixture swaps that leave plumbing unchanged. Its 2024 handout requires permits for demolition, new walls, dry rot and shower wall repair, water piping, sewer line replacement, sump pumps and water heaters, plus window replacement in historic districts.
Rebuilding in Petaluma: rules to know
- Start with the Building Division at City Hall, 11 English Street, (707) 778-4301. Its counter is open 9 to 4, Monday through Thursday (closed Fridays), and inspection requests made by 2:00 PM are scheduled for the next day.
- Inside the FP-C or FW flood zones, a floodplain development permit comes first. A substantially damaged home must be rebuilt with its lowest floor and all heating, electrical, plumbing, ductwork and A/C at least 12 inches above base flood elevation.
- Zoning Ordinance 6.030 treats a repair as substantial when it costs more than 50% of the structure’s market value before the damage, land not included.
- In the zero-net-fill area along the river west of the freeway upstream of the Payran Street Bridge, and in Redwood Business Park II, floors go at least 2 feet above the 100-year flood level and any fill must be offset.
- Lateral work in the street needs a Public Works encroachment permit, (707) 778-4303 option 6, and the city’s Sewer Lateral Replacement Grant pays half of an approved replacement, up to $2,000.
Services in Petaluma
What can RestoreX do once water is inside a Petaluma building?
River water carries whatever it crossed on the way, so flood cleanup here means extraction, cleaning and drying together. We also clear sewage backups, remove mold from wall cavities, run pack-outs when belongings must leave, and handle the rebuild under our B General Building license.
FAQ
Petaluma Questions
Is my Petaluma home still in a flood zone after the floodwall?
Maybe. Finishing Payran Reach let dozens of homes and businesses come out of the high-risk designation, but FEMA’s map, effective October 2, 2015, still shows Zone AE with a regulatory floodway, plus A99 and shaded Zone X areas, so check your address. Petaluma’s Class 6 rating in FEMA’s Community Rating System is worth a 20% flood insurance discount inside the high-risk area and 10% outside it.
Who pays to fix a Petaluma sewer lateral?
You do. Under Municipal Code 15.40.060, the lateral belongs to the owner from the building to and including the connection at the city main, and it usually starts at a cleanout about 2 feet from the foundation. The city’s grant covers 50% of an approved replacement or leak-stopping repair, up to $2,000, first come, first served each fiscal year. Apply at the Water Field Office, 202 N McDowell Blvd.
Where does Petaluma's water come from, and where does its sewage go?
The city runs its own water utility, but most of the supply is Russian River water from Sonoma Water, delivered through the 18-mile Petaluma Aqueduct, with city wells for shortages and summer peaks. Sewage from Petaluma and Penngrove moves through more than 195 miles of pipe and nine pump stations to the Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, where it’s recycled for irrigation or released to the river.
Do Petaluma's historic districts affect water damage repairs?
They can. There are three: the downtown Historic Commercial District, on the National Register since 1995 with 96 contributing buildings; Oakhill-Brewster, with styles running from the 1850s to the 1980s; and the ‘A’ Street district, built almost entirely between 1860 and 1925. Replacing windows on a structure in a historic district needs a building permit, so talk to the city before original parts come out.
Nearby
Which other cities does the Petaluma office cover?
Every North Bay city we serve is handled from Lakeville Street. Up US 101 are Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County seat. South over the Marin line is San Rafael, and Napa has a page as well. Each one covers its own floods and permit rules, or call (844) 623-3946 about an address.
Talk to RestoreX
River, pipe or sewer water in your Petaluma building?
Call (844) 623-3946. We’re based right here on Lakeville Street.