What Is the Difference between Commercial Reconstruction and Restoration?
Reconstruction and restoration are two closely related processes, and getting your business running again after a disaster might involve both.
Reconstruction is the process of rebuilding the structure, either in part or in whole. Restoration is the process of restoring an existing structure to its pre-disaster state. You might consider them as opposite ends of a continuum of responses to a disaster. On the one side, you might have a little bit of water damage that requires nothing more than simple cleaning and drying. That is definitely restoration. On the other side, you might have a situation where a tornado completely destroyed your building, and it must be rebuilt from the ground up. That is definitely reconstruction. In between, there are many situations where the disaster response includes a little of each.
Sometimes, the experts at FLEET Response’s local companies may recommend tearing down parts of a structure but retaining other parts, typically because this is most efficient, either in time or cost.
Reconstruction Whenever You Need It
FLEET Response’s local companies are experts in restoration and reconstruction, and they’re prepared to undertake the job after any major disaster. This includes reconstruction following:
Flood Damage Reconstruction
When a flood occurs suddenly, such as one related to a burst or overtopped dam, the waters can sweep away buildings. If this happened to your property, of course you will need to reconstruct the entire building.
More common, though, are floodwaters that rise slowly and stay in place over a long period of time. Days, weeks, even months can elapse with your property soaking in water. It takes only hours for mold and other microorganisms to start growing in drywall and wood. This rot can weaken the building’s structure until it is no longer stable. Although metal structures are more resistant, a few days’ exposure to water can start corroding steel supports, which can weaken them, too.
If your commercial property was inundated for weeks, it will likely need reconstruction.
Storm Damage Reconstruction
Many storms come and go without significant damage to your commercial property. However, in some cases a disastrous storm can cause significant damage that requires reconstruction. Tornadoes can blow a building down or even lift it up and drop it elsewhere. Or it can pick up cars and trees and throw them into your building.
Hurricanes can also bring destructive winds that result in structural damage to buildings. In addition, these storms can cause storm surge: rising waters that can flood coastal areas, sometimes washing away structures.
Fire Damage Reconstruction
Fire is one of the most destructive disasters that can affect your commercial property. It’s also becoming increasingly common across the Western United States in the form of wildfires that can engulf entire towns.
Large fires frequently require reconstruction. A fire can consume any wooden construction, and even when it doesn’t burn up wood structures, the heat can weaken wooden studs and joists. Metal structures won’t burn in a fire, but they can soften and deform, even melt. The heat from a fire can also change the properties of structural supports, making them weaker.
Even when substantial parts of a building aren’t burned, water used to extinguish the fire can finish the work of weakening the structure, which means that the building will require reconstruction.
Earthquake Reconstruction
Earthquakes aren’t common across the country – but when they occur, they can be highly destructive. If your building wasn’t designed to withstand earthquakes, it is likely to be destroyed or badly damaged to the point where it will need to be rebuilt.
Making the Hard Decision to Rebuild
When is the right time to tear down your building and rebuild, rather than trying to restore it after a disaster? This is not an easy decision, but fortunately it’s not one you have to make alone, either. When you work with one of FLEET Response’s local companies, you can consult with their restoration experts about the decision.
When considering whether to rebuild or restore the property, consider what’s best in terms of:
- Safety
- Cost
- Speed
- Code upgrades
- Legal restrictions
- Preference
Safety
When making the decision about restoration or reconstruction, you have to make safety your top priority. A restoration expert can advise you on the extent to which the damaged structure either is safe or can be made safe. Sometimes a structure will need to be rebuilt because of:
- Poor structural integrity
- Compromised electrical systems
- Chemical and biological contamination
- High risk of other dangers
When your building might collapse, it’s best to tear it down and rebuild. The same is true if there is likely damage to electrical systems that can cause fires. Complete rewiring is often too expensive and difficult to be justified.
Specialty cleaning can sometimes eliminate dangerous contamination in your building, but other times you can’t be certain that you will eliminate the hazard unless you tear down and rebuild.
Other times, there are just too many unknowns to start on restoration. There may be so many potential dangers hidden within the walls that you would have to tear them down anyway to reveal the truth.
Cost
Once you’ve taken safety into account, most people’s priority is whether it will cost more to perform restoration or reconstruction services. Often, restoration is a bargain. Even badly damaged structures can often be restored for a fraction of the cost that reconstruction requires. When a structure is badly damaged, though, rebuilding can be cost effective.
Your insurance company will have a big say here. Depending on the terms of your coverage, your insurance may pay for restoration, but not reconstruction. The experts at our local companies deal with insurance all the time, and they can help interpret your policy so you will understand what is covered and what isn’t.
Speed
In commercial restoration, time is often of the essence. The market waits for no-one, and when your business is shut down because of a disaster, you want to get up and running as soon as possible. You might not have time to wait for what might be an intricate, time-consuming restoration process. Even if restoration might cost less overall, the additional downtime might result in greater costs to your business. In these situations, it might be worth it to your business to pay more for reconstruction and get back to business as usual faster.
Code Upgrades
When restoring your building after a disaster, you may be required to bring it up to modern building codes. Depending on the nature of the building and the codes, this can prove either very expensive or very time-consuming. In these cases, it might make more sense to tear down and rebuild with something designed from the beginning to meet building codes.
Legal Restrictions
Sometimes, the choice between restoration and reconstruction might be determined by legal restrictions. If your business is based in a historic structure, for example, you might not be allowed to tear it down and rebuild.
Another situation that is increasingly common is a rebuilding restriction in areas that are prone to certain risks. Flood plains, barrier islands, and wildfire areas are all examples of places where rebuilding might be disallowed or discouraged.
However, in these restricted areas, it’s a good idea to make sure you will be able to get insurance for your structure. If you can’t, relocation might be the necessary third option.
Preference
Taking everything into account, as the property owner, you still have the ability to make the decision whether to restore or rebuild, as long as you’re not violating the law. At FLEET Response, our local companies are ready to help with whatever decision you ultimately make.
Commercial Reconstruction Services We Offer
FLEET Response’s local companies are prepared to handle the entire reconstruction process, from beginning to end. This includes all aspects of reconstruction including:
- Inspection and assessment
- Board-up services
- Demolition
- Debris removal
- Design and planning
- New construction
- Interior and finishing work
- Cleaning, restoration, and storage of contents
To learn more about these services in detail, read about the reconstruction process below.
The Commercial Reconstruction Process
FLEET Response’s local companies know how to quickly and efficiently reconstruct commercial properties. They understand the importance of rapid progress to getting your business up and running again, so they often use multiple teams working in tandem to speed the process.
This means that although we represent the commercial reconstruction process as a sequence, these steps are often taking place alongside each other, and not all processes will have each step.
Inspection and Assessment
You can’t decide whether it’s the best decision to reconstruct the property without inspecting it and assessing its condition. Even if a property seems to be a total loss on the surface, you might want to evaluate whether the new construction should use the surviving foundation or slab.
Board-Up and Content Salvage
Even if the building is a total loss, there may be items inside worth salvaging. You can work with the restoration experts at our local companies to locate and extract anything of value (or perceived value) from within the damaged structure. Our local companies have restoration experts that can often restore items from a destroyed structure.
A board-up is required to secure the property against further damage, animals, and thieves. Even if you plan to completely demolish the building, local codes might require that you secure the property so it won’t be an attractive nuisance for vagrants and children. Failure to board up a damaged property can expose your business to liability, so it’s a good step to take unless the plan is immediate demolition.
Design and Planning
Our local companies will work with you on designing the new construction. You can make requests for design changes to help make the new building more suitable for your business. The reconstruction professionals at our local companies can also update the design to comply with modern building codes. You will have the final say over the design before reconstruction begins.
Our local teams will pull any and all necessary permits for reconstruction, ensuring this important step is completed properly.
Demolition and Debris Removal
Once our local companies know what, if anything, of the old structure will be preserved, they can complete the demolition of the property. Then they will clear debris from the property. Debris removal from the initial disaster may already be in progress during the design stage.
Structural Work
The main structure of the property goes up first. If the old foundation or slab isn’t being preserved, a new one will be poured. The studs, joists, rafters, and other structural members provide the skeleton for the new building, unless it’s a concrete construction.
Interior Work
As the main structure is going up, interior work will start. As the walls are in place, functional systems need to thread through them, including the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC components. You can also add built-in local networks to improve data speeds and minimize demand on wi-fi. Insulation, drywall, and flooring will go in after the functional systems are installed.
Finishing Work
Finishing work makes your new building pleasant and suitable for occupation. It includes not just decorative aspects like painting or other wall covering, but also installed aspects of the building like the cabinetry, countertops, and any built-in appliances or machinery.
Inspections and Approvals
Inspections happen at every stage of the process. For example, wiring has to be approved in place before drywall goes up, but a final inspection is required before you can move into your new partially or fully reconstructed property. The reconstruction experts at FLEET Response’s local companies know how to manage inspection schedules to ensure that code approvals never delay the reconstruction timetable.
Move-in
Once the reconstructed property is completed and approved for occupancy, you can move back in. Our local companies will help move in any items they are storing, either from the beginning or after completion of restoration work.
You can have new furnishings delivered directly to the reconstructed building.
