Buyer’s Guide to Restoration Service - How to Choose the Right Contractor
You Get What You Pay For - Have you ever received two or three proposals for work to be done on your home or car? Two are similar, but one is so extremely low, it’s hard to pass up? But do you ever ask yourself, what’s the catch? What am I missing? That should be the first question to ask if there’s a swing too high or too low. I recently spoke with a prospective customer who had received a mold remediation proposal from us and 2 other “vendors.” I had followed up numerous times. When I did get in touch with him he said he had gone with the cheaper of the 3 firms and he is sorry he did. Once they began the work, they “discovered” new tasks which needed to be done. After everything was said and done, the final cost of the work was much higher than the other 2 firms which had quoted the job. My advise, be sure the service provider had access to investigate all the damage. When reviewing all the proposals, be sure all areas and all tasks are included. Too many of us assume its all there, we just look at the bottom line cost. If you are unsure on how to evaluate and understand a proposal, ask as many questions as possible.
Hidden Costs - Have you ever called a carpet cleaning company for a quote. The number sounds great over the phone, then when they show up to do the work it more than doubles? There are hidden costs they don’t tell you over the phone because they aren’t looking at each room of your home when quoting you over the phone and they’re not telling you about costs to move the couch, etc. The same goes for Duct Cleaning, Mold Remediation, Water Damage Mitigation and Smoke Cleanup Services. A site visit and proper measurements are valuable in eliminating hidden costs.
Did I call the right service provider? Are you contacting the right service provider for the work you need done for Indoor Restoration?A carpet cleaning company isn’t necessarily following Industry Standards for Water Damage Mitigation.When it comes to water damage, just because you cannot see the hidden moisture in walls, floors and ceilings doesn’t mean its not there. 
Be sure your mitigation company has moisture meters and relative humidity monitors. Finally, if the service provider is not properly trained for water damage mitigation, I can guarantee they aren’t insured properly either. If they make a mistake and cause further damage due to hidden moisture or secondary damage, you may be unable to collect for this damage. Finally, if you think an area is affected by mold contamination, spraying a “chemical” is not the cure-all for removing the mold and creating a healthy indoor environment. Industry Standards require that all contaminants, including microscopic mold spores and dead mold bodies, be removed in order to achieve a safe indoor environment.
Flood Damage - Flood Damage is not a typical water intrusion. If the damage to your home or business is truly flood water, it should be mitigated and restored following Industry Standards for Category 3 damage. What does this mean? Porous building materials: sheet rock, carpet, soft good furniture and insulation needs to be removed due to very high levels of microbial contaminants and bacteria found in flood water.
Duct Cleaning
- An American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) study concluded that maintaining HVAC system cleanliness in homes & businesses would reduce average operating costs by 10% to 25%.
- According to the EPA, a build-up of .042 inches of dirt on a heating or cooling coil can result in a decrease in an HVAC system efficiency of 21%.
