Interview with Al Bradham 11-19-08

[kmdineen]

When drying wood floors, Ernie Storer said to use heat only at the beginning of the job. Why not keep heat on the wet material until it is dry? Will the wood floor crack if it dries too fast?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

The longest time we have been away from home was four months. That was the year that hurricanes just kept hitting Florida. We would finish up from one storm, and another would move in...more work! There was a lot of eating out of tin cans that year.

Four months? :shock:

Do you leave staff and equipment at home for local work then?

Most of the time, when we travel, we team up with other companies so that we can leave a small of crew at home to take care of the regular customers. When we travel, we ask for help from people like Bryan and Wise from this board to help back us up.

Any good stories about Motel life?

Talk in length about this off-line. But, while in Texas, we did not have a Motel. None available. We slept in trucks and trailers.

 

[Larry B]

What kinds of special insurance do you need to carry for this line of work? (if any)


Is equipment theft mush of a problem when working large jobs like that? How do you control theft of equipment when working large jobs or more than 1 location?

 

[Mikey P]

If someone wanted to get into the water damage restoration business what would you
suggest they have.

Extractor TM or Flood Pumper?

Drying Equipment?

Meters?

Software?

Training?

Insurance?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Offering a services that people don’t have an immediate need for, must create some
difficulty in marketing. How do you do it?

We get this question all the time. This is one of the reasons why we maintain a three to five truck carpet cleaning business every day. Each truck usually has two technicians. When a large job comes in, or preparing for a storm, we cut back on our carpet cleaning and/or just run one tech per truck.

I have seen two growing businesses that started out cleaning carpets and went into water damage. As the water damage grew, they cut back on carpet cleaning. What happens when the phone doesn't ring for days for the water damage part? This has been a good balance for us. It also allows us to grow our customer data base to market our water restorations to.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

If someone wanted to get into the water damage restoration business what would you
suggest they have.

Extractor TM or Flood Pumper? Flood Pumper

Drying Equipment? 8 high quality fans, 1 dehu, Phoenix 200 or Driease 2000

Meters? Most of the franchises don't even have these (tells you what they can do)

Software? This should be last

Training? This should be first, and foremost. Get all that you can find. Plus, find a good friend that can check behind you to make sure you didn't miss anything.

Insurance?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

When drying wood floors, Ernie Storer said to use heat only at the beginning of the job. Why not keep heat on the wet material until it is dry? Will the wood floor crack if it dries too fast?

As some of you know, I work with Ernie Storer at the the trade shows. We talk almost every week. Ernie is 'the man' for wood drying. Ernie has a new testing facility and he has shown that drying wood floors, that have had a chance to soak, will crack if dried too fast. More to come on this from Ernie...soon.

 

[alazo1]

Who do you use to do your marketing pieces?.

Albert

 

[Mikey P]

What have you found to be the best way to compensate your On Call technicians?

Hourly plus bonus?

Commission?

Percent of profit?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

What kinds of special insurance do you need to carry for this line of work? (if any)

We carry five million dollars of business liability and also the mold coverage. You really don't need the mold coverage if you make sure that it is dry......


Is equipment theft mush of a problem when working large jobs like that? How do you control theft of equipment when working large jobs or more than 1 location?

I am not sure if we have ever had any equipment stolen from a job. BUT, there have been times that we would not leave equipment in an area, or we have hired security to watch the building at night. Actually, in New Orleans, the National Guard was guarding our equipment.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Who do you use to do your marketing pieces?.

Albert

The best investment that I ever made for the growth of my business was hiring a full time marketing person. We do all of ours in-house.

 

[Mikey P]

Owning several thousand pieces of drying equipment sounds like it would be a difficult task not leaving a few behind on jobsites. How do you manage not to loose them?

 

[Mikey P]

Does your company do fire damage work?

 

[Larry B]

Actually, in New Orleans, the National Guard was guarding our equipment.

You dont say.. LOL


I was just asking because I see alot of WD guys around here that pack all their equipment up everynight. I thought doing large jobs that would be a problem.



AL

Good luck to you in your future and thanks for taking the time tonight to answer questions and putting up with Mikey.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

What have you found to be the best way to compensate your On Call technicians?

Hourly plus bonus?

Commission?

Percent of profit?

My guys are always on call, and so am I. They know that when they are hired. When the 2:00a.m. call comes in, I do not just call someone to go do the work. I call them to come work with me. They work on overtime, if they work over 40 hours...which is every week. We do share the wealth in many ways. I tell you, I still love this job.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Does your company do fire damage work?

Yes, we do. But we now pick and chose. Fire damage requires a lot of man power, and the profit margins are much lower. And, it isn't that much fun.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Owning several thousand pieces of drying equipment sounds like it would be a difficult task not leaving a few behind on jobsites. How do you manage not to loose them?

On the larger jobs, we have an assigned person to maintain inventory for everything that comes and goes. This person has no other task but to keep numbers.

 

[Mikey P]

Are there sleazebag storm chasing companies. Do you run into them time and time again?







speaking of which, have you seen Dustin Murry lately?

 

[Mikey P]

How did you grow relatively fast in a short time. What are your marketing secrets.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Are there sleazebag storm chasing companies. Do you run into them time and time again?


These types of companies come and go. This type of work is actually like a small family. We know who the bad guys are.






speaking of which, have you seen Dustin Murry lately?

I see you have met/heard of Dustin.

 

[kmdineen]

Do you do Cat 3 losses and what health precautions do you and your technicians take?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

How did you grow relatively fast in a short time. What are your marketing secrets.

First, and foremost, I love my job. I do good, and honest, work.....and the word of mouth is invaluable. As Steve T. says, make cheerleaders.

 

[Mikey P]

Sure, he chased the Iowa storms and conned Waldo into letting him stay with him and drumming up 250k worth of work from his client base then ran off w/o paying him a red cent.



Hit on his wife every night too.

 

[Mikey P]

Did you have to cash in any 401k's to finance your Vortexs?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Do you do Cat 3 losses and what health precautions do you and your technicians take?

Yes. Monday morning we received a call. The entire first floor of a home was flooded from a sewer line backup.

We have specially equipped trucks, with PPEs and all necessary equipment. Each technician receives many shots to cover illnesses and has their own bag of special equipment for these losses.

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Did you have to cash in any 401k's to finance your Vortexs?

Mr York gave me my first truck. The rest of them we leased.

 

[Mikey P]

Do you ever run into any drying jobs that overwhelm you at first and have you asking "how are we going to do this"?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Mikey......

Thank you for the opportunity. Guess what! The phone just rang, and I am going out to do what I enjoy the most. My cell phone is always on, and that is why I list it on this board. I am always here to help. Have a great evening.

 

[Mikey P]

What has been your highest invoiced drying job? Did you ever get paid for it?

 

["The" Al Bradham]

Do you ever run into any drying jobs that overwhelm you at first and have you asking "how are we going to do this"?

Not any more! The first one that did, I called Chuck Dewalt and asked him what to do. In the normal Chuck way, he asked...'don't you know how to dry a room'? Just take on one room at a time.