Inspection-The most critical part of job

[Desk Jockey]

Inspection The most critical part of job

Water Damage Restoration should always begin with a thorough

inspection of the affected area. Use your Moisture Detector to determine scope of damage. Be sure to examine and test adjoining rooms and closets.


Water travels along wall perimeters and can be easily to missed. Most homeowners call because they see their carpet is wet, however your job is to dry their home so you are going to be held responsible for finding what is wet even when it's beyond the scope of what they think it is.

Be sure to check ceilings, drywall, behind cabinets and built-in's above ceiling tile.


Confirm source of water, water intrusion from ground water is Never or rarely going to be a covered loss. This means difficulty in payment, something that should be addressed before proceeding with the job.


If you were to miss a wet area during inspection, such as a closet or an adjoining room that was wet from the migration of water that seeks its own level. It shows a lack of knowledge on our part of how water travels. It also shows lack of professionalism in that we weren’t thorough enough to check every

reasonable possibility.



You must do everything you can to avoid this from happening. Take your time, be a good investigator, don’t be fooled by what the homeowner thinks is wet, they only go by what they see.


You're the one that has the thermal camera, probes and meters, use them. Check in adjoining rooms, water follows the perimeter of rooms along baseboards, it could appear dry in an area, but actually wet when checked with a moisture detector.

What else did I miss?

 

[Steve Toburen]

What else did I miss?

That is pretty good, Richard.

I would suggest you put your points above in a check-off list for your techs. And also list out the questions they need to ask the insured. (A form just makes it wasier.)

Here's a few Insured questions from our SFS Water Damage Customer Interview form:

Customer interview:
1. “Have you identified where the water came from?”__________________________________________
2. “Are there any unsafe conditions that you know of?”_________________________________________
a. Electrical items/plugs wet? Where are the breakers? ______________________________________
b. Sagging ceilings due to water? _______________________________________________________
3. “Can you show me the source of the water?” _______________________________________________
4. “Has the in-flow been stopped?” _________________________________________________________
5. “Does anyone in the family have any unusual health issues?” __________________________________
6. “Do you have any special concerns?”

Keep up the good work, Richard. I'm coming to believe you are more than just a pretty face.

Steve

PS Richard, if you (or anyone else) want the entire W/D form just drop me a line at stoburen@StrategiesForSuccess.com and I'll email it to you in a PDF.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Also be careful as to what you say. Making claims can only get you into trouble.

Be careful of how you answer questions like

“How long will it take to dry?”

“How much will this cost?”

“Won’t the insurance company buy me new now that it’s been damaged?”

Some Examples of questions you may be asked:

"How long will this take to dry?"
There are too many variables to make an accurate estimate of time without first seeing what is affected and beginning extraction.
How much water is there from the loss?
What materials are affected?
Are the a lot of contents to move and be manipulated that will slow down drying?
How much equipment will be needed and do you have the power available to do so?

“How much is this going to cost? That sounds like a lot of money, shouldn’t I just replace it?”

If you were thinking of replacing it, this is probably a good time. However there is sill a lot of work that will still need to be done. We will still need to extract the carpet and pad, remove it and do some limited drying. We should also check the drywall to ensure it did not get affected. Often homeowners replace the wet carpet and pad only to have latent odor problems because they only looked at the obvious and didn't inspect areas when moisture becomes trapped and doesn't dry well on its own.


“Can’t you just say it’s ruined? Then the Insurance company will give me new.“
We can only call it as it is, if we were to make claims that were not true we could be accused of insurance fraud. We dry carpet like this everyday your insurance representative knows we are capable of drying these materials. If you're wanting replacement we can begin the emergency mitigation and you can speak with your adjuster about replacement when he arrives.

 

[Steve Toburen]

“How much is this going to cost? That sounds like a lot of money, shouldn’t I just replace it?”

If you were thinking of replacing it, this is probably a good time. However there is sill a lot of work that will still need to be done. We will still need to extract the carpet and pad, remove it and do some limited drying. We should also check the drywall to ensure it did not get affected. Often homeowners replace the wet carpet and pad only to have latent odor problems because they only looked at the obvious and didn't inspect areas when moisture becomes trapped and doesn't dry well on its own.


“Can’t you just say it’s ruined? Then the Insurance company will give me new.“
We can only call it as it is, if we were to make claims that were not true we could be accused of insurance fraud. We dry carpet like this everyday your insurance representative knows we are capable of drying these materials. If you're wanting replacement we can begin the emergency mitigation and you can speak with your adjuster about replacement when he arrives.

Richard, are you feeling OK? You are being uncharacteristically productive?

The two questions you mention above were a dangerous minefield for our techs and especially at 3 AM. So we trained our employees to explain to the homeowner:

"Mrs. Jones, right now I'm starting the "Damage Containment Phase" which needs to be done whether you and your adjuster decide to replace or restore the carpet. In within the next few days after we monitor the drying and disinfection of your home you'll be able to talk with your adjuster and my boss, Steve Toburen, and the three of you can decide what to do. right now we need to get Lake Erie out of your home and get this damage contained!"

This strategy moved the awkward questions off the shoulders of my techs and down the road into a more rational time where the adjuster could be the bad guy instead of me. (Look in your SFS Ops Manual, Richard, under Water Damage for the form.)

Steve

PS After all, the adjuster doesn't need to get Mrs. Jones to sign off on his paycheck. You do!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Richard, are you feeling OK? You are being uncharacteristically productive?

Shhhh I just copied and pasted it from our training manuals. It's the illusion of work.....don't tell anyone......they think I'm working hard.