Water Heater Garage Flood — Fruit Heights, UT

Loss Type: Category 1 Water / Water Heater Tank Failure
Location: Fruit Heights, UT near Shepard Lane
Response Time: 64 minutes
Job Duration: 4 days
Insurance: Yes – Farmers

The Situation

A homeowner near Shepard Lane in Fruit Heights, UT discovered their garage flooded on a weekday morning before leaving for work. A 9-year-old 40-gallon water heater in the garage utility corner had developed a tank seam failure overnight and released its full volume across the garage slab. Water had flowed toward the low side of the garage, pooled against the shared drywall between the garage and the home interior, and migrated under the door threshold into the mudroom and laundry area inside.

The homeowner shut off the water supply to the tank and called Upkeep for water damage restoration before leaving. Our crew was on-site within 64 minutes.

The Problem

The garage-to-home shared wall in this Fruit Heights property was a fire-rated assembly — standard for Utah residential construction — which limited how we could approach drying the wall cavity. The mudroom and laundry area inside had LVP flooring that had absorbed water at the seams and showed elevated subfloor readings beneath.

Thermal imaging of the shared wall from the interior mudroom side revealed moisture had tracked upward inside the wall cavity to approximately 22 inches above the floor line — higher than expected given the loss timeline, suggesting the wall had a bottom plate gap that allowed water to wick upward more aggressively than usual. The Farmers claim was filed that morning and the adjuster was on-site by early afternoon.

What We Did

A plumber was coordinated to remove the failed water heater and cap the supply line before drying work began. We extracted standing water from the garage slab and performed a full moisture boundary map across the mudroom, laundry area, and shared wall using both thermal imaging and a pin meter.

To address the wall cavity without compromising the fire-rated assembly we drilled 1.5-inch access holes at two heights on the mudroom side — at floor level and at 24 inches — and deployed injectidry wall drying panels to introduce directed airflow into the full height of the affected cavity. The LVP was lifted in the highest-reading zone to allow direct subfloor drying.

The drying system included:

• Injectidry wall drying panels at two heights covering 4 wall cavity bays
• 3 air movers directed at exposed mudroom subfloor, laundry area floor, and garage slab
• 2 LGR dehumidifiers running continuously — one in the garage, one in the mudroom
• Twice-daily moisture readings on wall cavity framing, subfloor, and LVP

Wall cavity readings reached target on day 3. Subfloor and LVP readings confirmed target on day 4. Access holes were plugged and patched on closeout.

The Outcome

The fire-rated wall assembly was maintained intact with no interior drywall removal required. The mudroom LVP was partially salvaged — the laundry area section required replacement while the mudroom entry section was saved. Farmers covered the full scope. The homeowner arranged for a new water heater installation with a drain pan and floor drain connection routed to the exterior — a recurrence prevention measure we documented in our report.

“They were at my house before I even got to work and had a full plan ready by the time I checked in at lunch. No drywall torn out, everything documented for Farmers, and the garage was completely dry four days later. Exactly what you want when something like this happens.”

— W. Hadley, Fruit Heights UT

We’ve handled similar interior water losses nearby, including a kitchen sink leak and subfloor damage in Fruit Heights and a sprinkler line rupture in Fruit Heights. View more case studies from our Davis County service area.