WDR FLEET & EQUIP OWNERS

[tmdry]

I also do WDR we only have 2 express vans, was looking into a box since as you know it can be overwhelming with the calls and not having enough equipment to get to the losses.

When you get major flooding in your area where you have to send many trucks out and teams, are you relying more on portables to do extractions on cat 2-4(easier to carry pads) and water left on the ground? The reason i ask is because since cat 2-3 esp require us to yank carpet/pad, wouldn't be more cost effecient for us business owners to not have a ton of TM's rather just dropping off portables/extractors/equip and the crew, than going to the next emergency call?

I know that some of you on here have at least 1 TES, while others have the E-TES as well...i know the benefits of both, however if your company say gets 10 calls in a 2 day period, how do you know where to take your #1 TES to. Do you inspect all your jobs, leave the initial equip there, than come back and decide to which job you'd drop off the TES?

I'm speaking in terms of cost effectiveness for us business owners that want to have more than just 1 or 2 flood jobs per day/week. The money savings on having portables/extractors and not TM's would be more cost effective for WDR i'd assume.

 

[kmdineen]

There is no mandatory requirement to remove carpet or pad on a category II or III loss according to the IICRC S-500, third edition. Instead use common sense and consult you local health department for guidance.

 

[tmdry]

Agreed.

Seems like it is very easy to be impulsive when you receive emergency calls. I've always believe in having a structured business plan for when catastrophes come up, implementing these structures seem to sometimes go out the window every once in a while.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We have 4-WDR box trucks, they have TM's and around 30-pieces of equipment in them.

Once the 4-trucks are out we will send out all our carpet trucks and run equipment to them with equipment mover. (LCF Ford)

It's loaded with 60-air movers and 10-large dehumidifiers. We've thought of adding the Extreme Extractor with vac pac so it could be used as an extraction unit also but have not done so yet..


We use flood pumper portables for water when needed, they do a good job. The short fall is when you have no power operate or you need to pressure wash the concrete.

Other than that I wouldn't see a problem with using them as you mentioned.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Good point on "jobs that sound like monsters on the phone many time turn out to be bunnies."

We had a guaranteed one hour response time- 24-7. BUT that did NOT mean we would necessarily have a TM there sucking water. We would have a physical presence on the job doing some hand holding and at least appearing busy till we could get the big guns there- IF needed.

I personally usually drove a station wagon with the back seats laid flat doing my normal carpet pre-inspections. I'd always have an extractor, a tool box, at least one DH and several air movers on board. The office would call me and I could usually swing by right away. Many times (even on the jobs that supposedly had 3" of water!) I could extract a little water, pull a little pad, set up the equipment and leave the job drying and with less than an hour's work invested. MUCH better than sending a separate crew out.

Ahhh, nostalgia!

Steve Toburen
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS Speaking of carpet cleaning pre-inspections totally by coincidence next Wednesday at Connections at 3:15 I will be presenting a one hour session called "Getting the Job: Carpet Cleaning Pre-Inspections that Sell! (OK, "estimate" if you must) Everyone who attends will receive a step-by-step outline of what to say and how to act as you pre-inspect the carpets. Our SFS members who follow these steps report a 98% plus closing rate. (Or you can go listen to that slacker Yeadon on marketing.)

I'm glad that this session is BEFORE the MB party and not the day after!