After a Flood – Clean Up Cost and Billing

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.