Contents Solutions Network

Can you imagine how a property manager feels like when he has to explain to the owner that during a fire, thirty computers were soaked by fire hoses and “gummed up” by soot? And then he says, “Don’t worry boss, the insurance company says they will replace the computers.”

But, there is a decided “sinking feeling” in the pit of his stomach when the boss growls at him through the telephone, “I don’t care about the computers! I need the data that was on them!”

Most traditional restoration companies won’t even attempt to restore wet electronics – but contents specialists certainly do. Many times they rush the computers to their ultrasonics tanks. But when it is called for, they contact their associates who have an expertise data recovery. And these experts often adhere to the motto, “No data = no charge.”

So there you are. You are faced with a library of expensive and very wet, books. If you have ever tried to dry out a wet book by placing it in the sunlight, an oven or microwave, you probably already know that the results are, to say the least, unsatisfactory. But contents restoration specialists have a few “tricks up their sleeves,” that might just save the day.

A while back Yale University had over 300 boxes of rare documents which had been saturated by a broken steam pipe. The contents specialists who dried them out, used a remarkable freeze-drying process (much like freeze-drying coffee) and removed the water without further damage.

And for those books that might be out of print, but hardly worthy of the freeze-drying process, believe it or not, the contents specialists will actually go online to places like Amazon Books or Ebay in order to find inexpensive replacements. Contents pros always prefer to restore rather than replace. But when replacement is the cheapest option, they go the extra mile to find the least expensive way to do it!

If you’re in search of a contents pro that is equipped and capable of restoring your water damaged computers, visit our Find a Specialist page, take a few seconds to submit the short online form, and we will have a contents pros in your area contact you asap.

In years gone by contents processing professionals despaired over homeowners who wanted to spray black mold with Clorox ® bleach  and thought they had killed it – bleach, as any pro knows, does not kill mold, it bleaches it so you don’t see it, but mold loves the water in the bleach and keeps right on growing.

Now Clorox® has brought out its “big guns.” Their researchers have produced a new substance called, “Ultra Clorox® Germicidal Bleach,” and according to a recent press release it has proven to be the only commercially available product that can kill the bacteria known as, “Clostridium diffi cile” – also known as, “C. diff,” among researchers who have been looking for an answer as to how to reduce its devastating effects.

Clostridium diffi cile has been the scourge of hospitals for many years. A study by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) found that C. diff infection rates are 6.5 to 20 times higher than previous estimates. The study concluded that C. diff infections cost American healthcare institutions $17.6 to $51.5 million each day!

The press release added, “After completing a rigorous review process, Clorox® Commercial Solutions Ultra Clorox® Germicidal Bleach is the fi rst and only EPA registered product shown to be effective against spores of C. diff. This disinfectant is registered for use in all 50 states.”

Contents processing companies are discovering that C. diff in its “vegetative state,” is easy to kill with standard antimicrobials, but in its spore state “Ultra Clorox Germicidal Bleach®,” seems to be the answer for hospital, prison and sewage clean-ups and is rapidly becoming one of their “go to” tools for bacterial remediation.

One relatively new aspect of property claim management is fabric restoration. Historically, when there has been a property loss associated with fi re or water damage, the insurance company would either write off the insured’s fabric contents, pay the insured to clean his own fabric contents, or give the insured the option to take the items to their favorite retail dry cleaning establishment. In some cases, these options are still exercised, however the new trend is to use a company that specializes in restoring fire and water damaged fabric items.

So, what are the new motivators for insurance companies to use a professional fabric restoration vendor, as opposed to writing these contents off, or paying the insured or a retail dry cleaning establishment to clean the items?

The niche industry of fabric restoration exists primarily because the alternatives are both expensive and time consuming. At a time when the markets are tumultuous at best, businesses and consumers alike are looking for ways to save. Using a professional vendor to restore the fabric contents on a claim rather than replacement averages a savings of 84% for the insurance company. As the clothing and fabric items on a typical residential property claim comprise 20% of the claim, reducing your payout by 84% on the soft contents by using a professional fabric restoration vendor can save you as much as 16.5% off the overall cost of the claim. Some restoration processing fi rms are averaging a salvage rate of between 90 and 98% dependant upon type and extent of damage.

A similar savings scenario exists when comparing the use of a professional fabric restoration vendor against paying the insured or the retail dry cleaning establishment for the cleaning of the items. The reason there is a recognizable savings benefi t to the insurance company to use the professional fabric restoration vendor, rather than these two alternatives, centers on the salvage rate that each scenario will produce. In terms of a medium smoke damage claim, an insured who cleans his fabric items himself will recognize a salvage rate of around 70%.

Taking the items to a local retail dry cleaning establishment will usually get a salvage rate of around 80%. These percentage rates go down if there is signifi cant smoke odor associated with the fire/smoke damage claim. Smoke odor is extremely difficult to remove with the available cleaning products found in the consumer markets and within the retail dry cleaning product lines. Specialized equipment, such as ozone generators, and specialized cleaning products are needed to thoroughly clean and restore smoke damaged fabric contents, and without them, the all important salvage rate continues to dwindle.

A Utah based contents restoration company was faced with a photo album that had been wet for an extended time and was so badly  degraded that the photographs had actually fused and had begin to disintegrate. It looked like a total write-off. But, after putting the ruined album through a high tech freeze-drying process, they were able to take the pieces of the “puzzle,” lay them out and scan them into a computer so that even though the celluloid on which they were created was gone, the images were restored! Now a digital album has taken the place of the sodden mass with which they were originally presented.

As part of their “greening,” ecologically friendly program, many contents restoration companies are turning to enzymatic cleaners and “biologicals.” A Canadian based company was quick to point out that although most of us think of bacteria as unhealthy and pathogenic,” that in actuality only a very small number of them are harmful to humans.

These cutting-edge contents companies have discovered that “tame” biological liquids can actually “digest” odor causing proteins cluding urine and fecal matter.

An American based company added that in more than one incidence regular cleaning agents left unseen particles of protein-based matter that later resulted in the odor and bacteria to returning – but these new biologically enhanced cleaners, “…keep eating until there is no decaying organic matter left.” Thus the noxious materials are not merely masked by a pleasant fragrance or drenched in potentially dangerous chemicals, they are simply consumed.

Best of all, the “biologicals” break down into the naturally occurring compound of carbon dioxide and water – they are totally biodegradable! They are non-toxic, non-caustic, nonacidic and won’t, “…damage or erode any surface when cleaning.”

Think of the difference between a house painter and a portrait painter. Both use paint, both use brushes and they both need a “canvas” on which to practice their craft. But one uses much more delicate strokes than the other and one has considerably more training and skill sets from which to draw.

In the restoration industry, the restoration companies which do not have a contents processing division are largely concerned with remediating water and sewage damaged structure, repairing floors and ceilings, remediating mold and making the property “livable” again.

The contents processing specialist focuses on the contents of the building or home (clothing, electronics, furniture, antiques, jewelry, etc.) and is mainly concerned with making those items usable and presentable. Thus a traditional restoration professional would be most useful for removing the water from a carpet, but might have no idea how to correctly restore a 150 year old Oriental rug. He (she) would have the equipment and training to remove large mold and mildew infestations inside a wall, but would be hard pressed to restore a wet computer hard drive, or soot and water encrusted big screen T.V.

All restoration professionals would know the importance of getting wet books and documents to higher ground and that paper is remarkably prone to discoloration, fast growing mold and disintegration under disaster conditions. A contents specialist would be able to quickly decide which books were worth the time and effort required to restore them (which ones could be replaced for a fraction of the cost) and which procedure would be best utilized to restore the books, files and papers to a usable, valuable  state. As an example, freeze-drying, while meticulous and time consuming, can save the insured and the insurer massive amounts of money when compared to the cost of “writing off,” damaged books, documents and leather goods (especially genuine antiques).

In many instances, building managers, property managers, insurance companies and other interested parties are most pleased to discover a full-service restoration company which specializes in contents restoration. As more restoration contractors are encountering the value of having a content restoration division within their corporate structure – they are truly becoming the “one stop” company so highly prized in the restoration community.

Ozone was used over 100 years ago to deodorize sewer gases and in the early 1900’s, it was employed as a bactericidal agent by the French to disinfect water. Today it is more popular than chlorine for treating drinking water in Europe and has been found to kill many more types of bacteria. Ozone is considered by many to be the ultimate, environmentally friendly, cleaner and disinfectant of the 21st century. Time tested, field tested with repeatedly excellent results.

Barb Jackson, perhaps the best known contents restoration professional in the northern hemisphere, adds, “Ozone has been a popular way to deodorize contents, but in some circumstances, it may cause accelerated aging on some types of surfaces. It should be considered an aggressive method that, in its concentrated form, can bleach certain types of wet fabrics and cause brittleness in rubber and vinyl.” And that is why top contents restoration professionals use it with care and discretion
when dealing with an office or home’s contents.

Contents restoration pros often construct chambers where ozone’s remarkable capability can be controlled, focused, and kept away from sensitive items. These compartments have monitors, exhausts and regulators that can actually produce a steady, controlled flow of ozone.

Today ozone generators are being used in hospitals, cruise ships, theme parks, and of course, in the contents restoration industry. And even at the highest levels of concentration, by the time the insured’s possessions are returned, there is no residual trace at all from the ozone treatment, unlike many pesticides, germicides, antimicrobials, etc. (and yes, ozone is being used to kill mites and insects too!)

Ozone will neutralize virtually all organic odors, as well as smoke, decay, and cooking odors. Smoke odor will penetrate all porous and semi-porous surfaces such as clothing, carpets, fabrics, wall paper, etc. but it can be permanently removed by ozone. And the most powerful of odors associated with human, animal and food decay (anything with proteins) often respond to ozone even when other techniques fail. Crime scenes, freezer and meat locker failures – all of the most difficult to remove smells surrender to this invisible partner virtually every time.

{This article was contributed to Contents Solutions Network by Patrick J. Moffett, CHMM, REA.}

The advice I’m providing in this brief article is based on 25 years of experience including expert witness testimony in numerous arbitration, mediation and court cases. The information below is based on sound information from regulations and industry guidelines. Each water and fire damage and mold remediation situation is different and so are the complications for cleaning them up followed by sanitizing and drying the structure and repairing the building. Apartment owners and managers should seek professional advice from licensed plumbers and water damage restoration contractors and certified or registered indoor environmental experts.

1. Emergency Action Plan

a. Have an emergency action plan in place for dealing with building-related catastrophes including earthquakes, fires and floods. The plan should be reviewed and updated yearly or as often as necessary.

b. Ensure property managers are familiar with the emergency action plan and how to implement it.

c. Ensure tenants have a copy of the building’s emergency action plan. Tenants should be told about situations that cause the plan to be implemented; who is the building owner’s representative in charge when a disaster strikes; what tenants are required to do until emergency help arrives.

d. In some communities and buildings, it may a code requirement to publically post the emergency action plan in a conspicuous place.

2. Sound Advice

a. Property managers located off-site should have an emergency 24-hour phone contact system in place with tenants.

b. Advise tenants to report signs of gas and smoke smell and fire immediately to the 911 phone dispatcher.

c. Most small and all major building floods from broken pipes and leaky roofs and especially sewage backflows should immediately be reported to property management and if necessary to the fire department.

d. Advise tenants, they should stay out of water damaged rooms. Water and electricity is a dangerous combination and any contact with electrically charged water can result in serious injury or death.

e. From an upper floor leak or flood, water can become trapped in ceilings resulting in hundreds of pounds of water-soaked materials. Stay away from ceilings that can fall.

f. Water on floors becomes a slip, trip and fall hazard.

g. Contact with unsanitary water overflowing from toilet bowls, showers and tubs can cause occupants to experience illness and disease. Do not touch sewage contaminated surfaces.

Want to read more? Download the entire article, Apartment Owners and Managers: Water and Mold Cleanup and Remediation Issues.

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About the author:  Patrick J. Moffett, CHMM, REA is a California registered environmental assessor, licensed general contractor, and a senior environmental/industrial hygienist with Environmental Management & Engineering, Inc. located in Huntington Beach, CA. Patrick has published 5 books and over 50 technical articles dealing with water, mold, sewage and fire damaged structures.

Dealing with a disaster is no light task by any means. And, when it’s involving your family’s home, it can be even more difficult. During these times, the last thing you need is to add to your stress level by hiring the wrong restoration contractor or company to restore your personal belongings and valuables.

When it’s time to restore your property following a disaster, you basically have two options: choose a general contractor or a restoration contractor. Here are 3 things to consider when making your decision:

1.  Level and Nature of Experience

A property restoration contractor, unlike a general contractor, specializes in restoring personal property. Not only do they have the expertise, restoration specialists tend to have the equipment and facilities necessary to get the job done right. An experienced general contractor rarely possesses the level and nature of experience restoration contractors have.

2.  Familiarity with the Insurance Claim Process

Restoration specialists have experience dealing with the insurance companies. You will benefit from their knowledge of the ins and outs of the claims process. They understand how insurance companies evaluate claims, and what they require in order to remit payment for restoration services. In most instances, their knowledge of the claims process can prevent unnecessary delays.

3. Broad Range of Personal Property Restoration Services

Most restoration companies offer a broad range of personal property restoration services to its clients. Instead of hiring one general contractor for emergency board up, another to pack out your personal belongings, and third to attempt restoration of your property, you can hire one team of restoration specialists to handle it all for you.

When it comes to restoring your personal property, it’s probably best to choose a contractor or company that specializes in providing personal property restoration services to homeowners recovering from disasters. There are various factors you should consider when making your decision including the level and nature of their property restoration experience, their familiarity with the insurance claim process, and the broad range of expertise offered by most restoration companies.

Because we realize making a decision in your time of need is a daunting task, the Contents Solutions Network is here to help. Contact us and we will help you locate a qualified restoration specialist in your area.

Residents on the west coast are no strangers to earthquakes and the devastation that often comes along with them. But one must ask, “Am I prepared?”

According to scientists, we can expect to experience a catastrophic earthquake approximately every 150 years. The last large earthquake took place in 1857, a little more than 150 years ago, on the San Andreas Fault. Is it time for another?

Emergency responders on the west coast are nervously embracing for the next catastrophic earthquake. Take a moment and make sure you are prepared too.

Here are a couple of tips that can help you prepare for the next big earthquake:

• Keep the personal items you need most close to your bed. This includes your shoes, purse, contacts and eyeglasses. It may even be a good idea to have an emergency set of clothing stashed away for a disaster day.
• Keep a flashlight or two nearby, along with a few packs of back up batteries.

And, here are a couple more tips you can use now to help limit the damage to your personal property:

• Secure your kitchen cabinets with latches, the kind of latches parents use for baby-proofing. This will help prevent damage to your glasses and dishes, as well as other breakable items in your kitchen cabinets.
• Anchor your furniture to the walls or floor. During an earthquake, it is common for unsecured furniture to shift and/or fall over. However, if it’s anchored property this probably won’t happen, which can prevent you from replacing most, if not all, of your furniture.

You have no control over when and how an earthquake hits, or the damage it causes. However, you can be proactive and take measures that can limit the damage to you and your personal belongings. The tips provided in this article will help you get started.