Emergency Water Damage Restoration Services for Businesses
Water can be incredibly destructive to your business. When water enters the building because of a flood, storm, or plumbing problem, it can cause immediate damage. However, the damage can continue and worsen over time, too. Water will soak into the structure of the building, and it can trigger the growth of mold and other microorganisms, and it may attract other pests.
Left untreated or treated improperly, water damage can lead to health issues at your business or structural problems in the building. That’s why it’s important to work with a skilled water damage restoration company that will make sure all the water is extracted and all the repairs are completed to prevent future risks to people and the property.
FLEET Response has a network of local restoration companies who are ready to answer your call, no matter the day, time, or weather. With 24/7 emergency response services, they will send local experts to your business shortly after receiving your call. Once onsite, they will begin work immediately, minimizing the time your business stays closed.
We understand that a flood, storm, or plumbing disaster can feel like the end of your dream of making your business work. Small businesses, especially, can look at the standing water in their store or workshop and feel overwhelmed. At FLEET Response, we know that your business is also personal, and we understand how important it is not just to get the business running again, but to restore the vision that made the work worthwhile. Our local companies will work quickly to get you back to business as usual as quickly as possible.
All our local companies are fully certified in their communities, with all the necessary licenses and insurance. They offer comprehensive water damage restoration services. This means that they can handle every aspect of the process from the initial damage inspection through all repairs and reconstruction to the ultimate finishing and move-in for your business.
You’ll have just one point of contact: you won’t have to juggle different contractors during the restoration process. Not only that, but our local companies will make it even easier by coordinating with your insurance company. This can be one less worry for you, and it also eliminates miscommunication that can delay or reduce your insurance payment. That way, you can focus on managing all the business-side challenges related to the disaster.
Water Damage Restoration Services
FLEET Response’s local companies have the tools and training to offer a wide range of water damage restoration services, including:
- Water extraction from walls, carpet, and flooring
- Pump outs
- Structural drying
- Moisture monitoring and drying verification
- Humidity control
- Debris removal
- Pack-ups and storage
- Content restoration
- Shoring, tarping, and board-ups
- Odor control and deodorization
- Disinfection
- Complete reconstruction
Common Causes of Water Damage
There are many potential sources of water damage to your business. Among the most common sources include:
- Flash floods – Sudden increases in water level because of heavy rain, burst dams, or meltwater can lead to large amounts of water flowing into your property through the doors, windows, and vents.
- Storm damage – Storms can drive significant amounts of water into your property. This water might accumulate into rainwater flowing down the street that floods the property, or it might enter less directly: seeping through the foundation or leaking through the roof. Storms can also blow down branches or trees that break through your roof, increasing the amount of water that enters.
- Storm surge – If your business is located at a waterfront area, it can be flooded when a hurricane causes the local water level to rise dramatically.
- Overflowing basins and appliances – If there are clogs in your pipes, it can cause overflows in sinks, toilets, and other water basins. Faulty float valves can also lead to overflows from appliances.
- Leaks in pipes and supply lines – All pipes and connections degrade over time, in part because of the water. Unless tended carefully, these pipes and connections can start to leak, causing subtle water damage over time, or burst, causing a sudden flood.
- Frozen pipes – Very cold weather can freeze pipes if they’re not properly insulated or if the temperature drops in the building due to a power outage or other problem. Water expands when it freezes, which can break the pipes apart. When the pipes thaw, this can lead to extensive flooding.
Why Choose Professional Water Damage Restoration
If your business has suffered extensive water damage, you should seek out the help of a professional water damage restoration company. FLEET Response’s local companies are experts with the proper equipment and training to handle any amount of water damage to your business. Here’s how their expertise will help your business.
Prevent Additional Damage
Any flooding due to storms or plumbing can cause a significant amount of damage immediately, but the damage from water doesn’t stop there. Nor does it stop when a janitor mops up all the visible water. Even setting up a few fans to dry the area is probably not enough to control the effects of major flooding in your building. Hidden water left behind can lead to visible mold as well as structural weakening of the building.
If you really want to stop the water from damaging your building and its contents, you need the help of someone who has the equipment and skills to remove water from under carpets, in the walls, and other spaces. Our local companies can extract this hidden water. They have precise tools to measure moisture levels. They don’t stop drying when it feels dry or looks dry, they stop when they know it is dry.
Receive an Accurate Assessment of Damage
Along with the training to find hidden water, our local companies know how to look at water damage and accurately assess how extensive the damage really is. Along with this, they can give you an accurate estimate of the cost to repair the damage, and an accurate estimate of the time required for repairs, so you can keep all stakeholders – investors, suppliers, customers, vendors, etc. – informed about your operational timeline.
Preserve Your Building’s Contents
One major difference with a water damage restoration company is that they can not only repair damage to the building, but they can also preserve the building’s contents. With merchandise, it might make sense to write it off, but supplies and equipment might be expensive to replace. Restoration of equipment typically costs a fraction of replacement, and your insurance might not cover the full cost of replacement when restoration is an option.
Get Accurate and Thorough Repairs
When you work with a skilled water damage restoration company, they know how to properly repair water damaged structures. A company that doesn’t specialize in restoration might perform superficial repairs that look good, but leave hidden damage unaddressed. This may lead to the growth of mold and/or weakening of the structure in the future.
Have Help Dealing with Your Insurance Company
Your insurance policy is a promise that your insurer makes to your business, but no insurance company is ever eager to fulfill that promise. If you want to get the full compensation promised in your policy, you have to go through all the complicated steps that the company demands of you, which can be additional stress that you don’t need as you’re trying to keep your business going during restoration.
FLEET Response’s local companies deal with insurance every day, and when they restore your business after water damage, they will coordinate with your insurer. Proper documentation of the damage and the repairs will help ensure fast compensation to the full extent covered by your policy.
Resume Business Operations Faster
Water damage restoration can be time-consuming for firms that don’t know what they’re facing. The job may seem simple at first, but they will likely discover new problems as they go, continually delaying the job. Or, worse, you may discover problems when you start to move back in, which can set the entire process back to the beginning.
Training, experience and the proper tools make restoring water damage much faster. FLEET Response’s local companies have all three, and they use them to efficiently restore your water-damaged property so you can get back to business more quickly.
Our Water Damage Restoration Process
When your business suffers serious water damage, you don’t want to remain closed any longer than necessary, nor do you want to rush reopening when hurried repairs could lead to more trouble down the line. At FLEET Response, we’ve worked with our local companies to establish a restoration process that efficiently achieves all the goals of water restoration in a minimum amount of time so you can get back to business as usual as quickly as possible.
Here’s how it works:
- Initial inspection – The experts at our local company will inspect your property to determine the extent of water damage. They will draw on their training, skill, and experience to assess the damage and give you an accurate estimate of the cost and timeline of restoration.
- Identify the source of water – Before we start trying to remove water or dry the area, we have to identify where water is coming from. If plumbing is the source of the problem, we might have to shut off your water at least temporarily.
- Water extraction – Our local company will use some of their specialized equipment to get as much of the water out as possible. In addition to pumping out any standing water, teams from our local companies can suck water from deep in a carpet, under flooring, and behind walls when necessary. Depending on the status of the space, we may remove wet building materials as well.
- Pack out – The contents of your building may make it harder to restore the building itself. If that’s the case, we will pack out as much of it as possible. We can separate contents to be restored from those to be disposed of or allowed to dry naturally. Our local company will send materials to be restored to special facilities where they can be treated according to the best restoration practices.
- Drying – Once our local company’s teams have removed all the visible water and, if necessary, the building contents and wet building materials, they will set up the optimal drying conditions for your building, which will include controlling the temperature and humidity to remove water while avoiding the growth of mold. Humidity monitors will allow the experts to determine when the building is truly dry.
- Clean/Deodorize/Disinfect – Using industrial-grade cleaning products, specialized techniques, and state-of-the-art equipment, our local companies will make sure the space and all its contents – those kept in the space and those removed for special attention – are fully cleaned, deodorized, and disinfected. Your building will feel pristine when you re-enter it.
- Reconstruction and finishing – After cleaning, our local companies will reconstruct any materials that were either damaged by the water or had to be removed to allow more thorough cleaning of the space. After the structure is back in place, they will also finish the space to match the old location as much as possible. In most cases, you won’t be able to tell the restored areas from the original ones.
Mold Remediation After Water Damage
Whenever there are damp conditions in your building, mold is likely to grow. The microscopic mold spores are in dust everywhere, and when they find the proper moist environments, they can start spreading throughout the property within 72 hours of moisture exposure.
There are many types of mold and microorganisms that will sprout in wet areas. Some of these can cause health problems. Mold is most dangerous to people with respiratory conditions or mold allergies. Other microorganisms will attack the wood that supports many buildings.
Our local companies will inspect your business property for mold. They will look for any visible mold, but sophisticated air sampling techniques help identify the presence of mold in hidden parts of the building. If they detect any mold, they will eliminate the mold using mold remediation techniques. This will not only remove the current mold growth, but also prevent the return of mold.
Coordination with Your Insurance company
Depending on the terms of your insurance policy, insurance may cover water damage restoration services. The biggest limiting factor is whether the source of water was considered a flood. Floods are treated differently than many other types of disasters, and often you are only covered if your insurance policy explicitly includes flood insurance.
FLEET Response’s local companies understand the language of insurance policies. They can read your insurance and give you a good idea of what might be covered so you can know whether your restoration might be fully or partially paid for by insurance. They will also communicate directly with your insurance company to find out what documentation they require to meet the terms of your policy coverage. Then our local companies will properly document all the damage and all the repairs. This will ensure that you get the full amount of compensation you are owed without unnecessary delays.