If water is running right now, this is not something we can help you with
We are a commercial cleaning company. We do not do water damage restoration, and we are not an emergency service. What you need is a restoration contractor, and you need them now rather than after an enquiry form reaches somebody here.
This page is about what comes after that. Once the water has stopped, we can point you toward a restoration contractor — and the clean-up once they have finished is genuinely our work.
Commercial water damage restoration in Toronto and the GTA is specialist work, and Zusashi does not do it. We clean commercial buildings, and we get asked about water constantly — usually by clients whose buildings we are already in, on the Monday after something let go over the weekend.
How this works
Zusashi has been cleaning commercial buildings across the Greater Toronto Area since 2007. Spend that long in one trade in one region and you come to know the businesses around you — who has been doing restoration properly for years, whose name keeps coming up for the right reasons, and who you would steer a client away from. Reputation travels in this business. We have been here long enough to hear it.
So when you have water damage in your building, we can point you toward an established contractor instead of leaving you to pick a name out of a search result while the clock runs. Here is exactly what that is:
- We don’t do restoration. Extraction, structural drying, dehumidification, moisture testing and clearance are a specialist trade with their own equipment and training. Not what our crews do, and we would rather say so in the first line.
- We’ll give you a name worth calling. A firm that has been doing this work for years and has the reputation to show for it, rather than a name pulled off a directory at eight in the morning.
- You deal with them directly. The site visit, the quote, the contract and the work are between you and them.
- We can shorten your list. The last check is yours — and it is a short one. We have written down exactly what to ask them, so it takes about five minutes.
No cost to you, no obligation. And if what you are looking at is a mop-and-dry rather than a restoration job, we’ll tell you that too.
The 48-hour clock is the whole thing
There is a published figure and it is worth knowing. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety says to clean up floods and spills immediately, within 24 to 48 hours, and that rapid drying is what prevents mould growth.
That is not a comfort margin. It is the line between one problem and two:
| Time since it got wet | What you are dealing with |
|---|
| 0–24 hours | A water problem. Most materials are still savable if drying starts now. This is the cheapest it will ever be. |
| 24–48 hours | Still a water problem, but the margin is gone. Drying needs to be underway, not scheduled. |
| Past 48 hours | A water problem and a mould problem. Porous materials that have been wet this long generally cannot be saved. Second contractor, second bill. |
Which is why the useful question on the Monday morning is not “how bad does it look” but “how long has it been wet” — and why a roof leak that has been quietly wetting insulation for a month is a worse problem than a dramatic burst pipe found the same day.
What gets dried and what gets thrown away
This is the part of a quote worth actually reading, because it is where the money is and where a weak contractor gives themselves away.
- Hard, non-porous surfaces — sealed concrete, tile, metal, glass, coated floors. Cleaned, dried, kept.
- Porous materials wet for 48 hours or more — CCOHS is direct that flooring soaked by flood water should be removed and discarded, and the same reasoning applies to soaked drywall, insulation, ceiling tiles and carpet underlay. Things that hold water inside themselves do not reliably dry, and what stays inside them feeds mould.
- Anything touched by contaminated water — porous material generally goes regardless of how long it has been wet.
If a proposal offers to dry everything in place several days after the event, either the contractor is seeing something you are not, or you are being sold a cheap job that leaves a problem in the wall.
Not all of it is clean water
CCOHS advises to always assume flood water is contaminated with sewage and chemicals. In practice there are three situations and they are handled very differently:
| What it is | What it changes |
|---|
| Clean supply water — a burst pipe, a supply line, a sprinkler head | The best case. Most materials savable if drying starts inside the window. |
| Water that picked something up — through a ceiling, across a floor, from a dishwasher or washing machine | Porous materials become questionable. Treat it as contaminated until somebody qualified says otherwise. |
| Sewage or drain backup | A different job entirely. Not somewhere to put ordinary staff, and not something we handle. Porous material goes. |
CCOHS also puts the minimum respiratory protection for flood cleanup at an N95 or better, and warns about carbon monoxide building up from fuel-powered equipment run indoors — which is a real risk once pumps and generators appear in a basement.
Insurance changes who does the work
Worth knowing before you call anybody. On an insured loss your insurer will often direct you to a vendor from their own panel. That is their prerogative and it is sometimes the fastest route, so speak to your broker early — before drying equipment is running, not after.
Where an independent referral is genuinely useful is everything else: losses under your deductible, damage that is not covered, buildings where you would rather use your own contractor than the adjuster’s, and the many smaller events nobody claims for at all. Those are most of them, in our experience.
What to ask them before you sign
The five-minute check, and the same one we would run ourselves. Worth having in front of you on the call — whether the name came from us or from anywhere else.
- How soon can equipment be on site? Given the 48-hour window, this is the first question, not the fifth.
- How will you decide what is saved and what is removed? You want moisture readings, not opinions.
- Ask for proof of certification and insurance. Ask to see the certificate, plus a current liability policy and WSIB clearance — the same two documents you should ask any contractor for, us included.
- Where is the water coming from, and who is fixing that? Drying a space while the source still runs is money set on fire.
- What monitoring do I get? Daily moisture readings and a written record of when each area was confirmed dry.
- Is there asbestos in this building? If materials are being cut out of a building with any age to it, this matters — and unlike mould, asbestos is regulated in Ontario.
- Get the scope in writing before anyone starts, including what happens if more damage is found behind a wall.
What Zusashi does handle
- The clean after restoration. Once the contractor has dried the space and released it, the building has to go back into service — residual dust and debris on every surface and ledge, floors, carpets, washrooms, corridors, common areas. Ordinary commercial cleaning, and exactly what we do. It is the arrangement already described on our property management cleaning page.
- The ordinary end of the spectrum on the day. A spill, an overflowing washroom, standing water from a burst pipe in a small area — cleaned up properly and dried, not left damp.
- The cleaning that stops it becoming mould. Surfaces dried rather than left wet, carpets extracted and properly dried rather than over-wetted, drains and condensate trays clear.
- Telling you which one you have. Describe what you are looking at and we will give you a straight answer about whether it needs a specialist, including when it doesn’t.
Tell us what you’ve found
Where the building is, what happened, roughly how much area is affected, and — the question that matters most — how long it has been wet. A photograph helps more than anything else. We will pass it to a restoration contractor so they can contact you, and that is the extent of it: you deal with them directly, and checking their certification, insurance and references is yours to do.
Send us the details
By getting in touch you agree we may pass your details to a restoration contractor so they can contact you about this enquiry. We do not carry out water damage restoration ourselves and we are not a party to any work you agree with them. See how referrals work.
Commercial water damage restoration — frequently asked questions
Do you do water damage restoration?
No. Extraction, structural drying, dehumidification, moisture testing and clearance are a licensed specialty with their own equipment and certification, and we do not do them. We have said so on our
property management cleaning page for some time. What we can do is put you in front of a restoration contractor with an established reputation, at no cost to you — and handle the clean afterwards, which is genuinely our work.
Can you help if water is running right now?
No — not while it is still running. We are a commercial cleaning company, not a restoration firm and not an emergency service, and an enquiry form is the wrong route for something happening right now. That is a restoration contractor’s job, and if the loss is insured your insurer or broker may direct you to one of theirs in any case. Come back to us once the water has stopped: we can point you toward a restoration contractor, and the clean-up once they have finished is work we actually do.
How quickly does this actually need dealing with?
Faster than most people expect, and there is a published figure. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety says to clean up floods and spills
immediately, within 24 to 48 hours, and that rapid drying is what prevents mould growth. That window is the whole reason urgency matters here: past roughly 48 hours you stop having a water problem and start having a
mould problem as well, which is a second contractor and a second bill.
What gets dried out and what gets thrown away?
Hard, non-porous surfaces can usually be cleaned and kept. Porous materials that have been wet for 48 hours or more generally cannot — CCOHS is direct that flooring soaked by flood water should be removed and discarded, and the same logic applies to soaked drywall, insulation, ceiling tiles, carpet underlay and anything similar that holds water inside itself. This is the part of a quote worth reading carefully: a contractor proposing to dry everything in place after several days is either seeing something you are not, or is about to leave you with a problem.
Is the water dangerous?
Assume yes until somebody who knows tells you otherwise. CCOHS advises to always assume flood water is contaminated with sewage and chemicals. In practice the distinction that matters is clean water from a supply pipe, water that has picked up contamination on its way (through a ceiling, off a floor, from a dishwasher or a washing machine), and sewage or drain backup — which is a different job entirely and not something to put ordinary staff near. It also decides what can be saved: contaminated porous material generally goes, whatever its age.
Will insurance cover it, and does that affect who does the work?
Often, and yes it can. On an insured loss the insurer will frequently direct you to a vendor from their own panel, which is their prerogative and is sometimes the fastest route. Where a referral from us is genuinely useful is the rest: losses under your deductible, damage that is not covered, buildings where you would rather use your own contractor than the adjuster's, and the many smaller events nobody claims for. Ask your broker early — before the drying equipment is running, not after.
What happens after I send the form?
We read it and pass your name, your contact details and what you have described to a restoration contractor so they can get in touch. That is the whole mechanism. From there you deal with them directly — the site visit, the quote, the contract and the work are between you and them, and we are not a party to any of it. No cost to you, no obligation.
How do you know who to refer me to, if you do not do the work yourselves?
We have been cleaning commercial buildings across the GTA since 2007. Spend that long in one trade in one region and you come to know the businesses around you — who has been doing restoration properly for years, whose name keeps coming up for the right reasons, and who you would steer a client away from. To be straight about what that is and is not: we are going on reputation and time in the industry, not on having supervised their jobs. We can shorten your list. We cannot do your due diligence for you.
What do you actually do, then?
The clean afterwards, and it is a real job. Once the restoration contractor has dried the space and released it, the building has to go back into service — residual dust and debris across every surface, floors,
carpets, washrooms, corridors and common areas. That is ordinary commercial cleaning and it is exactly what we do. We also handle the ordinary end of the spectrum on the day: a spill, an overflowing washroom, standing water from a burst pipe in a small area. What we do not do is the extraction and drying of a serious loss.
Do you take these enquiries from outside the GTA?
Our own cleaning work is Greater Toronto Area. For a restoration referral, tell us where you are anyway — if it is somewhere we cannot help you find anyone, we will say so plainly rather than sit on your enquiry.
Related pages
Where to read things yourself
- Flood cleanup (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety) — assume flood water is contaminated, what to discard, protective equipment, and the carbon monoxide warning.
- Mould in the workplace (CCOHS) — the 24 to 48 hour figure and the link between rapid drying and mould prevention.
- Asbestos in the workplace (Ontario Ministry of Labour) — relevant the moment materials are cut out of an older building.
General information for people running commercial buildings, not advice about a specific building or a specific insurance claim. Zusashi Maintenance does not perform water damage restoration, does not carry out moisture testing or clearance, and does not certify, endorse or accept responsibility for the work of any contractor we refer you to.
