Flooding in Bama

[hogjowl]

Man, I am whooped! (As we say in down here in Alabama.)

It was raining really hard when I got to the office this morning and I called my first job and asked her to let me wait until after it stopped raining so hard before I came to clean her carpets. I waited and waited and it just never stopped! After about an hour, my phone started ringing with customers of mine who's houses were flooding. I don't even DO flood extraction work, normally, but what can you say to a regular customer?

So, I have just spent somewhere around 12 hours of sucking water, spraying Microban and placing fans. None of it was covered by insurance.

I hope somebody pays me.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Well I guess you missed the afternoon nap.

We have been getting pounded up/over here as well. No flood calls though, was actually sunny today.

 

[The Preacher]

Man, I am whooped! (As we say in down here in Alabama.)

It was raining really hard when I got to the office this morning and I called my first job and asked her to let me wait until after it stopped raining so hard before I came to clean her carpets. I waited and waited and it just never stopped! After about an hour, my phone started ringing with customers of mine who's houses were flooding. I don't even DO flood extraction work, normally, but what can you say to a regular customer?

So, I have just spent somewhere around 12 hours of sucking water, spraying Microban and placing fans. None of it was covered by insurance.

I hope somebody pays me.

if you git stiffed i'm sure ChuckY and TerrY will send a few $$$ to off set yore losses!!!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Rain water jobs suck, so much risk of not getting paid, but what are you going to do? Especially when it your regular customers.

We try to always give a ball park so everyone has some idea of what to expect cost wise (we lose have of them there), keeping them abreast of any changes in the scope.

We also try to always collect something to help with cash flow, $125.00-$250.00 day, $250.00-$500.00 after hours. If there don't have any money now when it's an emergency, you can imagine how difficult it would be to collect after it's all dry.

Inform them they can save themselves money by moving eveything they can, the longer we are in the home, the more they can expect the bill to be higher.

Lastly if it's ground water from foundation seepage, there is not point me me sending crews until it stops coming in!
:x

 

[kmdineen]

If someone has no education in water damage restoration but feels obligated to "help out" a regular customer when a flood occurs, they are using poor judgment. If I had no knowledge of cleaning high end oriental rugs or stripping and sealing natural stone but took the job anyway to help a customer out I would also be using poor judgment. I would likely end up costing my customer more money, I may cause some damage and I end up looking bad and losing that customer.
Extracting water is an important part of the drying process. Are you trying to save the carpet, carpet and pad, dry everything in place? There are different extraction methods and different costs for each procedure. I have gotten calls to dry out basements and have the customer say they already paid several hundred dollars to have the water sucked out, only to discover that it was not extracted properly and has to be redone. Or as Richard said, pay to have a company extract water while the water table is still high and have the water come right back in. Or pay for emergency water removal but not dry the structure quickly and have to tear everything out anyway.
In business we are not only charging for our equipment, but also for the knowledge of how to use it.

 

[hogjowl]

Sorry dude. You weren't available.

 

[Desk Jockey]

You're right Kevin, if you don't know what you're doing you have a good chance getting in over your head fast.

Porkchop on the other hand has been in the restoration business before. So I'm sure he's a capable little piglet, restoration is just not his regular gig.