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Hangout with Jason Knox
Answering questions about what happens after a flood – how noisy is the equipment, how safe is it, and what not to do.

Mark: We’re talking with BC Preferred Restoration today. Mr. Jason Knox, he’s the lead guy there and we’re going to be talking about the process of what happens after you’ve had a flood in your house, in your basement. How’re you doing today Jason?
Jason: Pretty good thanks Mark, how about you?
Mark: Good. So, during the drying process after a flood, I guess there’s a lot of things that have to go on. Can you describe what’s actually going to happen?
Jason: The name of the game is we want to get things dried as quickly and effectively as possible to prevent further damage such as mold from developing. The whole process takes somewhere between three to five days depending on the job and how much water and how much area we’re drying etc. etc.

Basically, we’re going to be using drying equipment; top of the line drying equipment is what we use; air movers, dehumidifiers, sometimes we’ll be using what we call air scrubbers or negative air machines depending on the job, and application. Basically once the drying equipment is set up, it’s meant to be left running.

You don’t want to be unplugging it, and stopping, and starting it. It really slows down the process and I understand that it gets a little bit noisy sometimes, maybe a little bit warm in the house but stopping / starting… this really slows down the process and instead of a nice three to five day dry time we’re talking a week plus sometimes. So really, really important that people let the equipment running. It gets them through it quicker that way.

Mark: Right, so is it safe to have all this equipment running in the basement with all that moist air?
Jason: Yes, it’s totally safe. That’s part of the reason we are using dehumidifiers is to control the humidity. They’re not heaters, they’re not going to pose a fire hazard or any sort of risk that way. We’re basically moving air. We’re creating evaporation. We’re collecting the evaporated moisture by using the dehumidifiers and just getting the place dry, so totally safe to do so. The equipment that we use, again, top of the line equipment.

I’ve visited the testing facility and I see what their technicians and developers put their equipment through before it hits the market and I know that these things have been tested for thousands and thousands and thousands of hours continuous without even a problem. So, no worries that way.

Mark: So, I guess some of these places are pretty hard to get to, like how do you get inside a wall, under floors, that sort of thing.
Jason: We try to preserve as much of the materials as we can, being the least invasive possible but sometimes, we’re going to have to do things like remove baseboards and drill small holes down the base of the walls to inject air into the wall cavities to make sure we get things dried up properly.

Sometimes, we’re going to have to open up the walls, maybe to remove wet insulation, for instance. A wall that’s packed tight with insulation,  isn’t going to dry properly unless you do that, unless you’re able to remove the wet insulation and again, get air inside that wall. All our technicians are trained in these areas and they know how to identify these obstacles and how to overcome them to make sure that we do our job properly.

Mark: Is part of your service, you make sure that’s all closed up after it’s all done,? Say it takes a week to dry or four or five days to dry but then, it might be a few weeks for the final redo of the place basically to be complete. Is that right?
Jason: Yes, exactly, so the first part of the job we call the emergency portion of the job and this is going to be our demolition, our cleaning, our drying. By the time we’re finished the emergency the house is clean and it’s safe.

The next part of the job is the final repairs portion of the job and depending on the size of the job and what needs to be done, yeah sometimes it can take, two to three weeks depending on how quickly the insurance company moving on approving the estimates to do the work and this sort of thing. Sometimes it is open for a little while, but you know, if there’s any hazards with regards to sharp edges or this sort of thing, we take care of that by removing nails and whatnot so that nobody’s going to be exposed. We also encourage people to avoid the area as much as possible while it’s under construction. You don’t want your kids running around bare foot down in your basement if it’s under a full on restoration project that’s for sure.

Mark: So how much, you’re running quite a bit of equipment, I guess if it’s been a full flood and there was a couple feet of water in the basement, so how much is all this going to cost me in electricity?
Jason: Yeah, it’s a good question. There’s a mathematical equation that we use to figure this out and it depends on how much you’re paying per kilowatt hour for your electricity is part of it but generally speaking, ball park, it works out to about a dollar per day, per piece of equipment in use. So if you have, ten pieces of equipment running for four days, let’s say, that’s going to add about forty bucks to your electricity bill. The good news is this will be reimbursed by your insurance company.

We just have to submit this for you and like I say, figure out this mathematical equation and we’re more than happy to do that for our customers, present this to the insurance company for them.

Mark: So I guess one of the last things, something that I’ve wondered about is, how safe is it, if there’s a flood in your basement, how smart is it to actually be going down there checking things out when there’s actual water and maybe your furnace is still running or other electrical equipment is still operating or could be operating, might turn on at some point.
Jason: Right, such a great question. I think our natural instinct as homeowners when we see a situation developing in our basement is to run down and safeguard as much as our personal effects as we can!

I would definitely recommend not doing it! I mean if at all possible to stay out. I mean, use your common sense, if your basement is full, with water, I’m talking three or four feet standing water where it’s gone up past the height of your electrical receptacles and your electrical appliances are still plugged in,  you don’t want to be wading through that water! I mean not only the electrical hazard but also you don’t know what’s in that water.

You don’t know where that waters coming from, you might be wading through three feet of raw sewage and that’s never a good idea! So, bottom line it’s best to avoid these areas until one of us is there to basically walk you through what can be done, what shouldn’t be done. Not everything is going to be a write off. Obviously if your personal belongings are up off the ground and are not directly in the water, let’s say, they’re going to be all right until we get there.

Make things safe, get the water out. Then we’ll be able to deal with those contents for you.

Mark: Great, Jason, this has really been enlightening. I think there’s a lot to know and I think it’s really important to have professionals to look after a flood. It’s not something that you can just do on your own.
Jason: I agree Mark. That’s why we’re here.
Mark: Great. So we’ve been speaking with Jason Knox at BC Preferred Restoration. You can reach them at bcpreferredrestoraton.ca or you can call them if you have a flood at 604-295-8646. They’ll look after you, they’ll look after all the insurance; your house will be back new before you know it! Thanks a lot Jason.
Jason: Thank you Mark. Take care.

Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local Lead Generation here. I’m here with Jason Knox from BC Preferred Restoration. We’re going to be talking about cleanup costs after a flood. How are you doing today Jason?
Jason: I’m doing great Mark, thank you.
Mark: So let’s just jump right in. So a flood happens. How much does it cost?
Jason: Yes, that’s usually top on the list of everybody’s questions, that’s for sure. Every job’s going to be different and therefore every job cost is going to be different. Our costs will be based on the work that we have to do, and we get our costs from our labour, and also the different types of equipment that we use, whether or not this is an insurance claim or a private sale will also depend on what the customer is actually paying towards the cost of the job.

For instance, if this is an insurance claim, the customer is not paying the total cost of the job but rather paying only the deductible that is associated with the customer’s insurance policy. Again if it’s a private sale we would be charging that customer directly and therefore an estimate would be given beforehand, we’d go that route.

Mark: What would be the different parts? I imagine that there would be the cleanup, there’s the drying, if you’ve got to replace product, if you’ve got to replace gyprock, or rugs or all those kinds of things. Is that all part of the cost? Does your service include all of that?
Jason: Yeah exactly. Everything that we do during the emergency portion of the job would be accounted for in the billing. Everything from the tear out, the labour to do it, the disposal of the materials that we have to take out, the equipment that we use to make the house dry, everything is included in the emergency portion. If it’s an insurance claim, all of these costs, everything associated with the restoration project would be billed directly to the insurance company and therefore the customer is never out of pocket, the insurance company pays our company directly.

Mark: So are your rates competitive?
Jason: Absolutely! In fact all of our rates are within the industry standards and we strive to stay within those standards on everything that we do. The industry itself regulates cost, especially emergency costs by setting out how much a dehumidifier should cost, how much your labour rates should be, and therefore every company that’s working within those same parameters per cost during the emergency. Because the emergency is just that, an emergency; insurance companies are generally not looking for you to provide an estimate prior to starting the necessary work.

It’s more a matter of get this looked after as quickly as possible to mitigate further damage therefore costing more. As such its regulated by the industry and, if something that we’re charging you is not in line, an insurance adjuster would be quick to point that out and we would have to revise our invoice in order to get paid.

Now once we get to the second half of the job things change. What we just talked about, the emergency part, getting through that initial cleaning, tear out, drying etc. is one thing. Once the house is considered to be safe – it is clean, it is dry, nobody is going to get sick because there’s sewage sitting on the floor or mold is not going to develop because the walls are left wet – at that point the insurance company says that it’s time to stop  and provide an estimate for what we call final repairs. Replacing the flooring, the drywall, the painting etc. etc. Whatever needs to be done to restore things back to a preloss condition. It needs to be estimated and the insurance company does their due diligence in usually considering two, sometimes three quotes on this portion of the job and then awards the job to the lowest bid.

Mark: So, will there be any hidden costs?
Jason: Never any hidden costs! Again it gets back to this; with the emergency especially being regulated by the industry and our costs within industry standards there’s no wiggle room. If there’s ever an issue with it the adjuster comes back to us, we work this out with the adjuster. We never have to go to the homeowner for things that are covered by insurance.

Mark: This is a bit of an odd ball question, perhaps but if it’s an emergency, if it’s a plumbing caused a flood, say a pipe is broken or the outside drainage has failed, is that included in the emergency remediation?
Jason: A great question and the answer is no. The actual repair to correct whatever has caused the damage, the plumbing repair, is not covered by insurance. The damage that results because of the problem, as long as it’s an insurable loss as in the water has come from something that can be insured, the damages are covered. Plumbing repair not covered, damages caused, covered.
Mark: O.K., so do I pay you direct, then?
Jason: No as far as the restoration goes our customers are never out of pocket. so they do not pay us, again as long as this is an insurance claim. All of our billing goes directly to the insurance company and the insurance company will pay us directly. The only thing the homeowner or the customer will be paying is their portion of their deductible which is set out by the insurance company but made payable to the contractor doing the work, so that would be us in this case.
Mark: Awesome. Thanks a lot Jason. We’ve been talking with Jason Knox at bcpreferredrestoration.ca. You can give them a call 604-295-8646 and they’ll look after you. They’re honest guys who do a great job and they’ll get it done right, the first time. Thanks a lot Jason.
Jason: Thanks Mark.

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Hangout with Jason Knox
– is all of my furniture destroyed?
– who handles the packing and moving of my contents?
– what if I want to get at some of my things during the project?
– are these costs covered by insurance?
– I have a tenant – are their contents covered by insurance?

Mark: Hi, Mark Bossert, Top Local Lead Generation. Were here with Jason Knox from BC Preferred Restoration and we’re going to be talking about “After a Flood … What Happens to all of my Personal Belongings?” How are you doing today Jason?
Jason: I’m doing pretty good thanks, Mark, how about you?
Mark: Good, good. So, I guess if there’s a flood in my basement and it gets up a bit high, is all my furniture destroyed?
Jason: Well, no, not necessarily. But a good portion of it that is sitting on the ground is going to have to be assessed and then dealt with properly. A lot of the furniture will probably have been damaged and made non restorable at that point. But we will assess each piece individually and some of the furniture if it’s – are plastic or metal, even some finished woods, depending on how it’s finished would be able to be saved through cleaning and drying, so yeah, it’s not necessarily a complete write off and you know, we’ll take every measure we can to ensure that we restore what we can, for sure. Those items that we can’t save, we call them non restorable contents, those items basically the insurance company will give you a replacement value for, so we will handle those contents, we will make a list of those items, we will document them with pictures, highlight the damages to these items because of the flood, and like I say the insurance company will then give you a replacement value for those items.
Mark: So, who handles the packing and moving of those items but also anything else I might have had that were in the flood zone?
Jason: Well, on most jobs, your average job or smaller size jobs, BC Preferred Restoration will handle all of your contents, including all the packing, safely packing them, securing them, moving them and storing them while the work’s going on. On larger losses, like if you are talking of an entire house of contents we may enlist the services of a moving company who will come in and help with the pack out and moving of all the contents. Everything, all contents moving charges and handling charges and storage charges when working with us will be covered by the insurance company regardless of who does the actual handling of the contents.
Mark: So, I guess that brings up the next kind of obvious question. What if I want to get at some of my personal stuff while you’re still restoring the basement?
Jason: Yes, it’s a good question, it comes up quite often. You never plan for these things and in the heat of the moment you might pack something away that, you know, a couple days later you need. So, we have a couple different options. We can either pack up your stuff and have it removed to a storage facility where you will have access during business hours, and you can always get your stuff during business hours or another option is to have a safe, a secure, water tight storage container put on your property, or in front of your property, maybe on the street where we can load your things into. Give you a key to it, make sure like I say, it’s locked up, it’s safe, it’s secure and at that point you can get at your stuff any time you need to.
Mark: So, I guess the other big question is, are all these costs covered by insurance?
Jason: Yeah, again if you’re working with BC Preferred Restoration and we’re handling the contents, everything that we do will be covered by your insurance company if this is an insurance claim, like I say if we have to enlist the services of subcontractor, a moving company to do this work, same, their costs go through us and to the insurance company. So yes, short answer is yes, it is covered.
Mark: So if I have a tenant, I have a legal suite in the basement or maybe even not a legal suite, is the tenants contents covered by insurance?
Jason: Yes, it’s a great question and the answer is no. No the tenants contents are not covered by the homeowner’s policy so, this could be in a rental suite or a basement suite within your house or it could be a rental property that you have an apartment or a rental house, their contents are not covered and that pertains to anything to do with their contents including manipulation, storage, replacement of damaged items so the best measure to protect your tenants is to encourage them to purchase their own policy, their renters insurance and this will cover all of their belongings while they’re living in your house.
Mark: Awesome. Short and sweet this week but we’re down to the good stuff, I think. Thanks a lot Jason.
Jason: Thank you Mark.
Mark: Right, so we’ve been talking with Jason Knox at BC Preferred Restoration. You can reach them at 604-295-8646. Take care.