There are three key questions for us to ask when getting to a job site; “Has the issue been fixed?”, “When was the loss identified”, “What is the source of the loss?”. These will help us determine the science behind our drying process.
Has the issue been fixed? - this is common knowledge that if you have a broken pipe or leak still on going, having us go into your home first is not ideal. In a recent job, we did an emergency call in which the homeowner had mentioned that the issue was identified and fixed already. So we went to the home, removed the water, just to notice that the area was being re-affected. After noticing that the issue had not been fixed, we stopped and did not remove any affected materials. If those materials had been removed this would’ve allowed water to go beyond the affected area and after the issue had been fixed, there would’ve been a lot more affected areas that we would’ve needed to address. The next day, we had to go back and re-extract the additional water loss, but leaving the materials in place helped control the flow of water from affecting additional areas. Please note that normally insurance will not cover fixing the problem or the need for a second water extraction, which makes this question a very important and relevant question.
. When was the loss identified? – this helps us determine how big of an area we need to look for affected material and the type of damage. If the answer is unknown given that the homeowner was not in the house when it happened, or on vacation, this will be a bigger undertaking since we would need to know when was the last time that the homeowner was in the house and assume that it happened right after that. A home has a lot of materials that absorb or repel water, any organic material will absorb water (i.e., wood, drywall, some flooring, cabinets, baseboards, doors, insulation), and other material will repel more water (i.e., tile, concrete, glass, metal, stone). This means that if a loss happened for a longer period of time, water had a higher chance of travelling and affecting more materials, hence making the drying process longer since there is a higher amount of water in the affected materials. If there is less porous, non-organic material, that means the water loss will affect a bigger area since water will keep flowing and affecting more spaces in the home. In this day and age of home renovation, having open floor plans, lead to more areas being affected given that there is no material to direct the water or hold the water “in place”. Also having open plans means that the science of drying an open area, will require more equipment or creating a smaller room to reduce the amount of equipment needed. This understanding of the affected area and moisture map will help us with the science of understanding the rooms affected, the amount of moisture in the area and the amount of drying equipment needed.
By answering all these three questions, what could be seen as a simple job could turn into a more complicated, and longer job due to the nature of the loss, the type of loss, the affected area and materials, and the need for addressing the structure, drying and treating of the structure.
Understanding the reason for these questions and the reason why pricing is not as clear cut as buying a car with a couple of options, or a range of pricing, is one of the reasons why we do not know the cost of a water loss from the get go. Not to include, difficulty in the drying process, amount of electricity available in the home, ability to dry with people living in the home (noisy equipment), and other factors make the cost higher or lower. Our company uses industry pricing for an equipment, for example a fan will cost the homeowner/insurance company between $30-$40 per day per equipment, so in a regular 10 x 10 x 8 square room that flooded no more than an inch from the floor, there would be a minimum of 4-6 fans in that room per day, in addition to a dehumidifier ($75-$100 per day per equipment). If you take that room into account, the less equipment you are able to install, the homeowner is looking at around $200 per day just for the equipment (and with the minimum amount of equipment it could take additional days for drying), that does not include technician labor, water extraction, and any removal of material (furniture or building material). This is how a water loss estimate is an unknown, but the science behind the drying process works.
What is the source of the loss? – this helps us determine the type of equipment and when can the equipment be put in the home. The water restoration industry follows and determines water based on the source of the loss, category 1 is defined as clean source water, category 2 is defined as grey water, meaning water that has touched another organic material during the loss. A high number of losses are identified more as category 2. Category 3 water is usually identified as black water, or sewage. This is any water that has been exposed to any body fluid, sewage, or water coming from any drain. This is also a topic of discussion as any water category could turn to this type, if the water is left untouched for a long period of time. Think about drinking water from a bottle right after opening it and then drinking the same water after pouring it in a cup and leaving it outside for a couple of days. It is the same water source, the clean water bottle, the one in the cup left outside has been exposed to temperature fluctuation, air and other elements and now it is considered undrinkable. So, the water that came from a clean source, now could be considered category 3 since there is additional biological matter in it. This understanding of the source of the loss and the time it has been in the area will help us in determining how the drying process should be handled in regards to equipment, disposal of material and treatment of the area.
