Insurance companies could save millions with one change

For years I have been talking about how insurance companies could save a lot of money.  Usually they try to do this at the cost of contractors out there trying to make a living but there are other fundamental shifts in thinking that could save them a lot of money.  Today I want to talk about one of them, mitigation company vs. reconstruction company.

In the restoration industry there are a lot of people in the industry that own companies that do water restoration and reconstruction.  In my opinion, this is a huge problem and the cause of many needless cost overruns.  Here's two scenarios to illustrate my point.

#1 fresh water leak occurs and the insured calls a general contractor they know who also does water restoration. The contractor comes in and convinces the insured that everything that is wet needs to be removed.  So they proceed to remove drywall 2 feet high, baseboards, carpet and pad, cabinets, door jambs, etc.  So when they start to dry all they have left to dry is studs.

#2 fresh water leak occurs and the insured calls a company that specializes in mitigation only.  They come in and see solid wood baseboards, plywood cabinets, carpet and pad that has only been wet a few hours and they tell the insured that while they may have to remove some toe kicks under the kitchen cabinets that they will be able to dry the rest of the structure in tact. This can be done through the use of quality water extraction tools, axial air movers, and highly advanced low-grain refrigerant dehumidifiers.

Which scenario is going to cost less to get back to pre-loss condition?  Of course #2 is, however there are so many construction companies that can not make a decent living without getting water restoration jobs to fuel their construction company that drying is becoming a dying art.  There is no incentive to dry an item in a home if you make money off of pulling it out and replacing it.  Most of these companies have crews they need to keep busy and drying a whole house intact doesn't help keep the crews busy.

What I think needs to happen is the industry needs to have only mitigation companies and only reconstruction companies.  Both are needed, the problem comes in when one company does both.  It's a conflict of interest and should not be allowed to occur.  Implementing this would be difficult and hard to police and enforce but if it did occur it would save insurance companies millions which would lower all our premiums.  I also understand that this is America and you shouldn't be able to tell companies that you can or can not do stuff like that so it will probably never happen.

However, with today's advancements in drying equipment, training, and industry standards drying structures completely intact has been possible for over 10 years now and we still have a large portion of the restoration industry that refuses to do it.  Change will continue to be slow until more insurance companies start looking for companies that can dry an entire structure intact rather than reconstruct it.

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Floating Carpet When It Is Wet

When do you float carpet and why do you need to float carpet?

· If leaving the carpet in a structure, how do you dry it?

Floating carpet can cause it to delaminate or to fray at the edges. If carpet is allowed to bounce up and down on the tack strip, the edges will fray and you just bought carpet. What if your restoration company could dry carpet and pad in place and reduce the cost of your claims. Reducing the cost of your claims is our goal. Since carpet and pad is the majority of the cost on many claims, by drying the carpet and pad in place along with the rest of the structure, we can drastically reduce the cost of your claims.

Floating the carpet is a thing of the past and should never be done. It will actually slow down the drying time by floating the carpet.

Most of the time, delaminated carpet is the result of the way it is handled while wet. Carpet is 70 - 80% weaker when it is wet and thus it can delaminate very quickly in a water damage situation. If the carpet and pad are left down to dry and not disturbed, the chances of delamination are almost none. There have been tests done by the carpet mills that show after a carpet has been wet and dried, in a reasonable amount of time, the carpet is actually stronger than before it ever got wet.

www.pearsoncarpetcare.com

www.prodrying.com

Be a Restorer, Not a Reconstructor

In the water restoration industry there are many companies with many different ideas about how things should be done. I would like to propose to you that being a restorer rather than a reconstructor has many benefits that most companies overlook.

First being a restorer is often harder work and requires that someone have skills in drying and knowledge of drying a home or office. For example in the photo on the right, the column was completely saturated from the top of it down to the floor. We were able to completely dry it in 3 days by wrapping it in plastic and forcing dry air in the plastic. Where this differs from someone that is mainly a reconstructor is they would have tore into the column and then it would have been a costly rebuild. The paint on the column and in the two rooms it was located in was a faux finish. So you would have had to re-faux paint two rooms plus sheetrock and trim work on the column. Since we restored it without tearing into it these reconstruction cost were eliminated. This said the insurance company money and saved the insured the hassle of going through the reconstruction process.

Second if you can dry and restore a home or office with little or no damage then insurance companies will love you. This helps keep the cost of claims down and when you can do that adjusters, insurance companies, and most of all your customers will refer you and want to use you. Another benefit would be to the water restoration company owner. If you are drying and restoring rather than reconstructing you don't need as many employees. This helps keep your overhead down as well as your liability down.

With all this said the reason a lot of restoration companies still remove things that can be dried is because they do not take the time to go to water restoration schools and learn the latest techniques. Then when and if they do go to a water restoration school they don't implement what they are taught. It cost a lot of money to buy the necessary equipment to be able to dry and restore things in a home or office without having to replace them. One of the most popular dehumidifiers still manufactured today is a standard dehumidifier, not a low grain dehumidifier. When insurance companies stop paying for the use of standard dehumidifiers on water restoration jobs then companies will be forced to buy low grain refrigerant dehumidifiers and almost by default will become better at drying. This will push the industry to learn how to dry and restore when possible.

www.prodrying.com
www.pearsoncarpetcare.com

Drying a house after another company

So I got a call from an adjuster to meet him at a house that had a water loss 6 days ago. The loss started in the second floor bathroom. The toilet tank cracked in a 9 year old 3400 sf house and affected 3/4 of the house. The insured called someone they knew to dry it. The company brought out two dehumidifiers (only one was an LGR) and two fans. They cut out some plywood decking on the second floor, drilled holes in the plywood other places and had no moisture meters, even though it says water restoration on their van. They also had a yellow fan that had nails in the handle and one poked me pretty good is the only reason I noticed it. I am now drying the house with my equipment (4 dehus. and 19 fans) and so the other company came to pick up their equipment today. I asked the guy about why there were nails in the fans, he said so they could tack down the carpet when they put the fan under it. I still can't believe people dry (or attempt to dry) this way. Also he had a standard refrigerant on the job and the grains in the house were 42 so it wasn't working but he didn't know that. It was so low grains inside today because outside it is 15 grains today in Houston but to cold to dry with the windows open. Here is a slide show of the job. The red phoenix fans and phoenix dehus. are mine. The other equipment belonged to the other company.

http://www.pearsoncarpetcare.com
http://www.prodrying.com