3 Places Mold Can Hide in Your Facility

8/23/2022 (Permalink)

Regular inspections along with prompt attention to excess moisture can help your mold prevention plan and keep your facility in good condition.

Here Are Three Places To Look For Mold

Mold can appear in your facility in Three Arch Bay, CA, when and where you least expect it. Mold requires four conditions for growth: darkness, moisture, organic material, and a surface to grow on. Unfortunately, most facilities have spaces that meet all of these requirements. Therefore, it's not unusual for facility managers to need a plan for remediation and mold prevention. Here are three places to look for mold.

1. Carpet

Carpet catches organic materials and hangs onto them. It can also capture moisture through:

• Leaks
• Spills
• Floods
• Moist room air

To minimize mold growth in the carpet, check room humidity levels, and adjust accordingly. If a flood has introduced moisture, use fans, dehumidifiers, and wet/dry vacuums to dry the carpet as quickly as possible. You can call a mold remediation specialist to help with the cleanup.

2. Ductwork

During the cooling season, the air supplied to the facility has a high moisture level, causing water to condense and accumulate inside duct linings. Damaged insulation can also cause moisture accumulation on duct exteriors, and leaky ductwork can allow moisture to escape into spaces with unconditioned air.

Consider having ductwork inspected regularly as part of a mold prevention plan. Also, ensure that air-flow rates are within the design range of your system. Rates that are too high can draw moisture from the face of the cooling coil and into the ductwork system.

3. Ceiling Tiles

Many ceiling tiles are made from porous materials that readily absorb dirt and moisture. Tiles near the HVAC system vents are particularly susceptible to mold growth as these areas are high in humidity and dirt.

Mechanical piping is often located above suspended ceilings, and leaks can cause moisture to accumulate inside the ceiling. Roof leaks can also lead to water damage and wet tiles. To prevent moisture from accumulating in ceilings, inspect plumbing systems regularly and repair roof leaks promptly.

Regular inspections along with prompt attention to excess moisture can help your mold prevention plan and keep your facility in good working condition.

3 Ways a Company Becomes a Preferred Vendor

6/1/2022 (Permalink)

SERVPRO of Laguna Beach / Dana Point is here to make it "Like it never even happened."

Three Ways a Business Can Become a Preferred Vendor

After a crisis at your business in Laguna Beach, CA, you don't want to spend time shopping around for a reliable restoration company. You want to trust that your insurance agent has your best interest in mind when they recommend a company to help you. You can trust you are in good hands when a vendor has achieved preferred vendor status with your insurance company. Here are three things vendors must do to become your insurer's preferred choice.

1. Join the Preferred Vendor Program
There are likely many restoration companies in your area, and some may have been in business forever. But it helps you as the client to have peace of mind when a company has backing from a larger certification entity. A SERVPRO franchise owner must join a national account and agree to a checklist of 21 qualifications before becoming a preferred vendor.

2. Complete All Checklist Items
Of the 21 items on the checklist, a vendor must maintain background checks on their employees, keep equipment up-to-date, and pass all audits to achieve preferred vendor status with an insurance company. Your insurance agent can see all restoration vendors in the area, but preferred vendors have completed the checklist to demonstrate that they are committed to quality service.

3. Maintain Training and Quality Service
As new technologies and research become available, most professions update their practices. A commercial restoration company is no different. To maintain preferred vendor status, franchise owners must provide continuing education opportunities to their employees. The owner also has access to the company metrics that report performance and customer satisfaction. He or she must use that data to improve the company's services to maintain a spot on the preferred vendor list with your insurance company.

Your insurance agent wants to help you recover quickly from a crisis at your business. You can trust that a preferred vendor with your insurance company has undergone rigorous testing and training to achieve that status.
 

What Are Storm Services and How Can They Help Insurance Agents?

5/24/2022 (Permalink)

The team at SERVPRO responded and boarded up the roof after a storm in California.

What Are Storm Services?

When a major storm, such as a hurricane, strikes Dana Hills, CA, insurance agents can have great difficulty in finding any storm restoration available. Not only is this vexing for your clients (as well as you), it leads to greater damage when mitigation efforts aren’t applied immediately to storm damage. You need a top restoration company as soon as possible after a disaster.

What’s First?
As soon as the storm has passed, damaged buildings will be searched by a storm response team. The next step is to secure the property. This is done in three ways:

• Reinforce the structure as necessary.
  
• Remove any floodwater and squeeze out the moisture.
  
• Tarp and board exposed areas.
  
  

That’s the job of the restoration company. They’ll bring in everything needed to reduce further damage.

What’s Next?
SERVPRO has a separate National Accounts Division to provide storm services directly to insurance agents and their clients. As a Preferred Vendor, they’re used to working closely with insurance company professionals to expedite the claim. They know exactly what forms you need and can often begin storm restoration within days – or hours!

What Do Storm Services Include?
As a Preferred Vendor, they can begin to protect the property even before the claim has been formally begun. Their top priority in a storm response is to prevent further damage.
To expedite the claim, all their files are available electronically through the cloud. With a computer or smart device, insurance adjusters and agents can share all the files instantaneously, dramatically increasing response times. It also removes any confusion or lost paperwork – and hard copies are also available, of course.
In a major disaster, SERVPRO can bring in assets from over 1,700 locations to begin the process even faster. Hundreds of local franchises will band together in a crisis to shift trained crews to where they’re needed, even for widespread flood damage.
The close collaboration between a Preferred Vendor and an insurance company ensures the highest quality storm restoration at a pre-arranged cost. It’s the best way to reduce stress for everyone involved.

What Are Storm Services and How Can They Help Insurance Agents?

5/10/2022 (Permalink)

The team at SERVPRO responded and boarded up the roof after a storm in California.

What Are Storm Services?

When a major storm, such as a hurricane, strikes Dana Hills, CA, insurance agents can have great difficulty in finding any storm restoration available. Not only is this vexing for your clients (as well as you), it leads to greater damage when mitigation efforts aren’t applied immediately to storm damage. You need a top restoration company as soon as possible after a disaster.

What’s First?
As soon as the storm has passed, damaged buildings will be searched by a storm response team. The next step is to secure the property. This is done in three ways:

• Reinforce the structure as necessary.
  
• Remove any floodwater and squeeze out the moisture.
  
• Tarp and board exposed areas.
  
  

That’s the job of the restoration company. They’ll bring in everything needed to reduce further damage.

What’s Next?
SERVPRO has a separate National Accounts Division to provide storm services directly to insurance agents and their clients. As a Preferred Vendor, they’re used to working closely with insurance company professionals to expedite the claim. They know exactly what forms you need and can often begin storm restoration within days – or hours!

What Do Storm Services Include?
As a Preferred Vendor, they can begin to protect the property even before the claim has been formally begun. Their top priority in a storm response is to prevent further damage.
To expedite the claim, all their files are available electronically through the cloud. With a computer or smart device, insurance adjusters and agents can share all the files instantaneously, dramatically increasing response times. It also removes any confusion or lost paperwork – and hard copies are also available, of course.
In a major disaster, SERVPRO can bring in assets from over 1,700 locations to begin the process even faster. Hundreds of local franchises will band together in a crisis to shift trained crews to where they’re needed, even for widespread flood damage.
The close collaboration between a Preferred Vendor and an insurance company ensures the highest quality storm restoration at a pre-arranged cost. It’s the best way to reduce stress for everyone involved.

IICRC Sets a High Standard for Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration

2/2/2022 (Permalink)

Inspection, Cleaning, And Restoration Are Held To A High Standard By The IICRC.

Nearly everyone respects certification. It gives businesses and trained professionals credibility in the marketplace. It gives customers confidence in the qualifications of those holding the certification. IICRC is the gold standard for certification in the inspection, cleaning and restoration industry.

The Institution of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification is more than just another credential. People and businesses earn and keep this certification through:

• Education
  
• Initial certification
  
• Continuing education
  
• Membership
  

Comprehensive Certification Offers Clients Peace of Mind

Comprehensive certification is not a single certificate. There are at least thirty different categories of inspection, cleaning and restoration certificates available. The institute provides training and testing for each one. It awards students a mitigation certificate upon successful completion of each category.

An IICRC certified provider employs professionals with one or more mitigation certificate. Each inspection, cleaning or restoration job requires a combination of certified skills. The business assembles a team with the appropriate skills and dispatches them to the job. The mix of professionals on the job changes as the list of required skills changes.

Happy Clients Are the Foundation of a Certified Provider

A provider may survive with an occasional unhappy customer. A provider cannot survive without its certification. A certified provider holds itself and its employees to a high standard. This high standard is what certification is all about. Failing to meet this standard jeopardizes the value of the certification for others. This failure can lead to discipline and, eventually, revocation of the certificate. Without that, the provider is out of business.

The same level of standards applies to individuals and their certifications. Revocation is a real possibility if there are problems. It makes attaining employment in the inspection, cleaning and restoration industry difficult.

Certification Is a Key to Provider Selection

Find an inspection, cleaning and restoration provider with an IICRC, and you are off to a good start. Next, you want one located nearby in the Dana Point, CA, area. Confidence in the provider will give you confidence in the quality of the job once it is complete.