Posted by Paul Daniele on Mon, Mar 08, 2010
Insurance vendors, should I hire them? When asked this question it makes me reflect back at the numerous water damage situations our company has responded too. When Puritan is called for water damage jobs, we immediately respond and dispatch our emergency technicians to extract the water and set up drying equipment. We then advise our customers that the next step is to inform their insurance company to report the loss.
When reporting their water damage to the insurance companies, some customers have been asked by their insurance representatives who they have hired to help them with the water damage. The insurance representative often offers advice as to whom they "would prefer" you to use. Insurance companies will never insinuate not to hire a v
endor, but they will "imply" that you should hire one of their "preferred vendors". You as a customer, can hire anyone you desire; actually it is your right by law.
Under the law, it's your right to choose the firm that will perform the services in your home. Insurance companies cannot tell you which vendor to use, "they can only recommend". Some of these preferred water damage firms have agreements with the insurance companies to charge certain prices and to handle the water losses in a certain way that might not always be in the customer's best interest.
Therefore it poses the question, any insurance vendor that gets a large percentage of their income from insurance companies, where do their allegiances lie? Is it with their customer or the insurance company? It seems to me that the possibility of conflict of interest is very real with relationships like this. A lot of these insurance vendors are very good and competent, but when you are hiring any vendor to work in your home or business, that vendor's allegiance should be with you, the customer, and not insurance company, so be aware!
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
Who could believe rain in February? Most Bostonians rejoiced that it rained and not snowed like the rest of the rest of the country which had record breaking snowfalls. However there are some Bostonians who wished it had snowed, not because they like skiing but because their basements flooded due to the heavy rains. Inevitably whenever the North East gets a lot of rain in a very short time, basements flood and the most important tool a home owner needs in a basement is a Sump Pump.
The majority of our customers with flooded basements who needed our services to pump out their basements all had Sump Pumps; however those pumps failed to work when they were most needed. A large 
percentage of these flooded basements could have been prevented. How you ask? With preventative maintenance.
Sump pumps are like clothes dryers and dishwashers they both need periodic maintenance to operate efficiently. It is recommended that in the states where rain and flooding is more prevalent, sump pumps should be tested every few months, while other states that only have periodic flooding, they should be tested twice per year.
Sump pump maintenance:
- After a Heavy Rain - Check the inlet screen for any blockage. This is one of the leading causes of pump failure
- Fill the sump pit up with water to make sure the pump is
working. - Once the pump starts to work, go outside to see if the pump is actually pumping water, or place your hand around the pipe to feel if the water is passing thru it. You must check to see if the pump is actually pumping water because sometimes the pump will turn on but not actually pump anything.
- Make sure that the float controlling the pump is not restricted or getting hung up.
- If the pump has a back-up battery, it should be replaced every second or third year.
Finally if your home does flood due to the malfunction of your sump pump, be aware that your home owner's policy almost always excludes sump pump failure. My advice to you would be to call your insurance broker to see if you can add a sump pump clause to onto your policy. The cost for this is very small compared to the thousands of dollars it might cost you if that pump does fail and you end up with two feet of water in your finished basement.
STAY DRY!!!!!!
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Feb 23, 2010
Frozen pipes seem to be almost a daily occurrence during these cold winter spells in New England. For instance, yes
terday I was contacted by a home owner living in all places, Europe. He had relocated there and was planning on renting out his now vacant home in Newton MA. Neighbors had contacted him to say they had seen water gushing out the sliding door at the rear of his house. Upon arrival, I could hear what sounded like a water fall thru the front door. Needless to say when I entered things did not look good.
The culprit..... a frozen pipe!!! A bit of advice, during winter months whether you're moving to Europe, going south or staying at home there are some things you can do to help prevent frozen pipes.
Wrap those exposed pipes in your basement or crawl space with pipe insulation. Pipe insulation is relatively inexpensive and can be 
found at your local hardware store. . It's very easy to do and can be done by anyone.
Drain and turn off your outside water faucets. To do this, turn off the water supply valve inside your home and then go outside and open the water faucet. Once all the remaining water is drained out, shut off the water faucet.
During a Very Cold Spell
Any sink that is on an outside wall, you should open the cabinet doors underneath it to allow the warm air to infiltrate and keep that outside wall and pipes warm.
Open sink faucets on outside walls to a very slow trickle, this will help the pipes from freezing (moving water takes much longer to freeze).
If the worst happens and one of your faucets do freeze, open up all your other faucets to a slow trickle which will help relieve the pressure as the frozen pipe thaws to minimize the chances of that frozen pipe rupturing.
Taking just a little time to prevent a pipe from freezing will in the future reduce the stress of having water damage in your home not to mention the expense and aggravation of it all.
To quote Ben Franklin " an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Feb 02, 2010
A few months ago a high tech firm called on a Monday morning in a panic. Their server room had two inches of water under the computer room floor. Within an hour, our Technicians had removed the water and started the drying 
process using dehumidifiers and air movers.
What we later learned from the IT staff, the water had leaked in to the server room on Saturday evening, although Maintenance Staff had fixed the leaking pipe, they could not gain access to the server room and did not have any contact information for anyone from the company to inform them of the water damage. Not having an emergency contact number the water stayed inside the computer room for a day and half, thus increasing the chance of irreparable damage. Thankfully the firm's computer network stayed operational and no information was lost.
Puritan's advice is: Have a disaster plan in place before the inevitable happens. There is a free service ( Ready Rating Program) offered by the American Red Cross that assists business to prepare for a disaster. This Program is designed to help businesses prepare for any type of emergency, from disease outbreaks to natural disasters. The program is free but membership is required. After joining, you'll take an online assessment to determine your baseline ability to react to disasters. Then it will assist you in developing an emergency plan.
Don't be caught like the our high tech customer mentioned above, Always Be Prepared!
Posted by Paul Daniele on Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Blowers, als
o known as Air Movers, Fans or Carpet Dryers are a tool used as part of a drying process by Water Damage Technicians to dry out homes or businesses after they've been flooded.
These Blowers, or "Air Movers" are a very important part of the drying process (along with water extraction, ample dehumidification and suitable temperature conditions which I will write about in a future blog).
The main purpose of air movers ( blowers ) is to remove the wet air near the surface of the water damaged materials. Th
is area is called "The Boundary Layer".
Removing The Boundary Layer
"Very near a wet surface, especially in stagnant air, the adjoining air is saturated: the humidity near the surface is at 100%Rh (relative humidity). The condition of the air next to the saturated air is layered in degrees of saturation. Next to the saturated air-mass the humidity is 99%, then 98%, and so on until, at in inch or so away the from the wet surface, the humidity is the same as the ambient air" *
What these blowers are designed to do so well is continually remove this wet boundary layer and replace it with warmer drier air therefore allowing evaporation to continue at a much faster pace. Also as a secondary benefit, most fungi won't grow in areas with rapid air flow.
Thus, these Blowers (Air movers) will greatly increase airflow and speed the up drying process and will minimize the likelihood of mildew growth.
*Restorative drying-The Complete Guide to Water Damage Restoration - Claude Blackburn
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Jan 19, 2010
Containment can be critical in reducing drying time. In a recent job at a self insured Boston-area high tech firm, a water pipe burst in an adjacent room causing minor flooding in the main conference facility. The wall and rug were saturated in several areas and our client needed to use the room for a meeting in three days. We had to work smart and dry it out fast. This was a large conference room measuring 75' by 100'. Without a containment system , it would have required much larger and more costly dehumidifiers That's where our use of the ZipWall barrier system made us look like heroes. First, we were able to gain maximum drying efficiency by sectioning-off a smaller area measuring just 25'x 25'
. This meant we needed less equipment and it improved operating efficiency. We were in and out in 2 days. This ZipWall system is based on a telescoping, spring loaded pole. Plastic sheet is secured at the top of the pole between an interlocking head and plate. The telescoping action lets you raise the sheeting without a ladder and the spring loading makes it easy to lift the pole to tuck the sheeting underneath during setup.
ZipWall is just one of the ways Puritan Flood Restoration works smarter to make recovery and restoration as fast as possible.The bottom line, by drying only part of the room, we were able to use a much smaller dehumidifier, saving our customer hundreds of dollars.
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Jan 12, 2010
Today I received a call that a pipe had burst in a Condominium in Newton, Ma. When I arrived, I found that the owners of the Condominium had left for Florida for the winter. I am sure before they left, they had their mail forwarded to Florida, stopped their Boston Herald delivery and told their neighbors to keep an eye on their home. But it was the last thing the
y had done, which had ruined their beautiful home. They had turned down their heat to fifty degrees, and that act was like playing Russian roulette with a very high probability for a pipe break.
We run into scenarios like this over and over again when temperatures plummet. Condominium owners and renters who leave for vacation, turn down (sometimes even turn off) their thermostats. They believe this because they have a Condominium or apartment to their left, right, above and below, so therefore their pipes won't freeze....... right? This mindset sounds logical, but it doesn't work, the pipes will freeze.
When you do leave your home for an extended period of time, you may turn your temperature down, but don't lower it less 55 degrees. Also if you're leaving your home for an extended period of time, think about purchasing a programmable freeze alarm . A freeze alarm is connected to the phone lines, and when the temperature reaches a programmed setting that you set, you will receive a phone call. It will play a pre-recorded message stating that the temperature has reached its alarm setting. You can then call a family member, or friend to go to home and check for the problem. So go on that vacation with the peace of mind that your pipes won't freeze.
Good luck and Stay Dry...!
Freeze Alarm Links:
http://www.heatersplus.com/freeze.htm
http://www.controlselectric.com/
http://www.homesecuritystore.com/c-24-freeze-temperature-alarms.aspx
http://www.freezealert.com/
Posted by Paul Daniele on Fri, Nov 20, 2009
Since my
brother and I started our water damage restoration firm in 1982, we have dried
over three thousand homes. Practically
every job we have had, we would always hear the same question from our
customers “How can you tell my walls are wet, they look fine to me?” I then introduce to them the moisture meter,
and they were all fascinated with it and how it works.
We use two
types of moisture meters - Penetrating and Non-Penetrating
Penetrating
moisture meters use two sharp pins or probes that are inserted into a material
or structural element which you suspect is wet. An electrical current passes
from one pin t
o the other and the resistance is measured and that resistance
determines the amount of moisture within the material. This type of meter is great for determining
the moisture content in wood and for checking carpeting for moisture as well.
Non-Penetrating
moisture meters do not use pins, but rather sensors. The
se types of sensors
work by sending an electronic signal into the material and measures power loss. The benefit of using this type of meter is
that you do not have to put holes into your drywall to determine if it’s wet or not. Also you can check large areas
quickly to determine where the moisture is located.
How we do
it at Puritan
At Puritan
Flood Restoration we always check the drywall after a flood using a non-penetrating
moisture meter. The Technician will find
a known dry area in an undamaged area of the home or business. Then they will
use that reading to establish a “drying standard”. This drying standard is what the technician
will consider dry. They will then use
that reading as their “drying goal”. The Technicians then sets up our drying equipment
to dry those areas until the walls reach our drying goal.
Moisture
meters run from inexpensive to very expensive. For a water damage restoration
firm like ours, a more expensive one is necessary. But for the home owner an inexpensive one will
work just fine. The inexpensive ones
will usually be a penetrating moisture meter that will show you whether something
is wet or dry.....................Good Luck and Stay Dry!
Posted by Paul Daniele on Tue, Nov 10, 2009
Wet concrete, how dry should it be? This is an area that is still a little controversial. After water damage has occurred in a home or building, in addition to the walls and carpeting being effected, wet concrete is sometimes involved. Some water damage firms believe that the correct way to dry the wet concrete is using air movers and a dehumidifier for a few days and then let it naturally. Other firms believe that the home should be restored back to a pre-loss state like the insured had it before th
e water damage occurred. While others will ask what type of floor covering was there before and what the owner plans on putting on the wet concrete once it’s dried.
All three views are correct but the later, in my opinion is the best option to follow. The water damage technician should ask what type of floor covering will be laid over the concrete and then determine how dry that wet concrete floor should be. (what is an acceptable moisture content percentage)
A wet concrete floor in an unfinished basement will definitely need some drying, but only enough to get as much moisture out of it in a couple of days as the Water Damage Technician can. But what if it’s a home with a wet concrete slab and the home owner plans on re-installing vinyl floor covering back on it? How dry then should the concrete be? Will the insurance company pay for all that extra time and expense to dry the concrete? This floor covering scenario will make drying the wet concrete much more of an important issue. Any vapor barrier put over a wet concrete floor will slow down the moisture escaping and greatly increase the potential for mold to develop and thrive. In addition, most of the glues used in public buildings today are water based, so excessive moisture can cause problems with the glue, causing adhesion issues and void many manufacture warranties.
Once a drying plan for the wet concrete is determined, the Insurance Adjuster should be informed of all these issues. The insurance adjuster is the one who is going to be paying for the drying bill so the Technician should justify to the adjuster, the need for spending the extra time and expense to dry that wet concrete flooring to a certain moisture content.
Thus, it is very important for the Water Damage Technician early on to try to determine what the floor covering is going to be, and formulate their drying goals for that wet concrete.
Some great links for drying wet concretehttp://www.cement.org/tech/cct_floors_moisture.asp http://www.itwresintech.com/pdf/library/mea_rem.pdf
Posted by Paul Daniele on Fri, Oct 16, 2009
Walking downstairs into your basement after a long day at work only to see, water flooding that new carpet you had just installed last week, or that ceiling in your living room has water pouring out of the recessed lights. What do you do?
Here are some steps to take immediately.
- Grab a flash light (even during the day if you have had a basement flood).
- Shut off the electricity at the breakers to those areas affected.
- Before you walk into the water damaged area, look for any potential hazards. Is the ceiling about to collapse, is the floor slippery, is that chandelier about to fall, etc?......Be Careful !!!!!!!
- Try to determine what has caused the leak. If it is a leaking pipe, shut the water off to the whole house. This shut off is usually located in the basement or right next to where the water pipe enters your home.
- If you determine the flood in your basement is sewerage, leave the basement immediately and wait for the professionals to arrive. This type of flood damage is hazardous to you and your family’s health. If you have young children or someone who is immune compromised, it would be wise to leave your home and not return until the Restoration Contractors have finished decontaminating the effected area.
- If the water is not deep, put aluminum foil or plastic wrap under furniture legs. This will protect your furniture as well as protecting the carpet from getting stained from the furniture. Sometimes the stain will transfer from the furniture to the carpet, which if it happens, can permanently damage the carpeting.
- Turn the temperature down below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Move anything which might break in the water damaged areas before the Restoration Contractors arrive. By doing this now there is less chance for them to break that family heirloom.
- Remove everything small and light from the floor, for example, shoes, books, magazines, boxes etc. Clean out everything stored in your closets, so when the Restoration Contractors are working, they will have easy access to those areas.
- Any furniture which is light, try to move them to a dry area of the house.
- Tie up any drapery so they are not sitting in the water.
Finally do not throw out anything that’s water damaged until you have spoken with your insurance company. If the flood is caused by a leaking pipe and you have home owners insurance or renters insurance you are probably covered for this type of loss. But to be safe, you should call your insurance agent first to see if you are covered by insurance. If you are covered, wait until the insurance adjuster comes and inspects your home before you throw anything out.
Check out Puritan's Article about drying your flooded basement!