[peter maybury]

I have been doing flood work for about 20 years and started off doing the occassional job and making money from hiring the equipment from hire shops then charging the list price to the customer or insurance companies. Over the years I have invested in my own equipment, True the equipment is expensive and it also needs to be stored for the main part of the year when not in use.
True the majority of insurance companies are in with the franchises, There is still opprotunities around and it is getting your number in front of the customer when the disaster happens. Many people will not be insured, many people will not want to claim on their isurance and to a large percentage of people, ecpecially businesses this will not be an issue or something that will even be considered when the panic caused by the situation hits them.
The trick is to get the customer to phone you so that you have an opportunity to reassurre them that it is an event that you can be of great benefit to them. A lot of the jobs that we start are insurance jobs that have tie ins with franchises but  are instructed by the insured,monce started it is very rare that we are asked to remove our equipment to allow the franchises inIt has happened on a few occasions but rarely. I act on getting the job done and Jill my partner gets the paymert authority from somebody. . The insured can tell their insurance company that they want you to do the work. You can contact the loss adjuster or the claims department and convince them that you have the expertise to complete the job at a more competitive price than the franchises.
There are also a lot of other avenues for regular flood work other than insurance companies.
It is a matter of how you personally apprach the situation, but you will need to demonstrate that you can deliver the goods and you will need the  equipment to do the job. Training is the starting point if only to find out the personal equipment - truckmount, good damp reading equipment, and some of your ovn driers and dehumidifiers ( when floods strike very often the hire companies run out) that you need.


If anybody wants to ask any questions am happy to discuss give me a call 07788621555

Would possibly be interested in a course but did a few last year so think I am fairly up to date.

Peter
www.floodcleaners.co.uk

[derek west]

cheers for that pete.

nice to see theres work out there.

i think if you wanna work hard, better yourself and give yourself  confidence in what you can do, this is a good building block. if i can't get enough people to do it i'll just book on the flood school course. bit more expensive but worth  it in the long run.

[JandS]

Does a TM really pump out places that quickly or would a dedicated pump
be better.
Would have thought pumping straight to a drain or into a field would have
been a better option with a dedicated pump.
Or are we talking small floodings not full cellars?

[John Kelly]

Pumps are used when there is water over a few inches. Truckmounts come into their own when dealing with wet carpets, especially glued down commercial. Also removing water from hard floors such as showrooms, factories etc. You can also use them to wash down silt etc then suck it all up. Remember often the electrics are off so you can't always get away using a porty. We recently did a major flood at a university halls of residence. We had 3 truckmounts there all day on the Tuesday. We had it dry by Friday and open for business the following Monday. 73k's worth of carpet saved plus non of the disruption of having them uplifted, floors prepared for new ones etc. We had to replace one wood door threshold.
Last time it happened one of the multi coloured franchises did it and the place was out of commision for over 3 months.

[derek west]

Does a TM really pump out places that quickly or would a dedicated pump
be better.
Would have thought pumping straight to a drain or into a field would have
been a better option with a dedicated pump.
Or are we talking small floodings not full cellars?

why don't ya come with us john.

[jasonl]

In 2007 I dealt with 0over 600 flood claims , I extracted water from 5 of them ,,  the money is in the stripping out , cleaning, storing furniture , drying and monitoring.

Would be easire just to book the flood school course , then get real world experience.

[Ian Gourlay]

ian
you should change your name to maria carey, make that whitney houston, dya wanna limo to take you down there as well



A Helicopter would be my  preferred option

[derek west]

your wish is my command whitney
A chopper it is

[Nick Attwood]

In 2007 I dealt with 0over 600 flood claims , I extracted water from 5 of them ,,  the money is in the stripping out , cleaning, storing furniture , drying and monitoring.

Would be easire just to book the flood school course , then get real world experience.

Well said Jason, cheers for the welcome.

[peter maybury]

The skill in the flood market is in the restoration many of the franchises just strip out because there is more money and less trouble for them that way. With a little bit of effort it is easy to restore and is often in the insurance companies best interest to do so. In time you can build up a team of carftsmen to do a total reinstatement which is often attractive to the insurance company, loss adjuster and customer. At the end of the day it is how you put yourself accoss to people, if you can gain these people's confidence in your experience and abilities then the job is yours over the franchises. It comes down to getting first to the job. A lot of my sites come up in the national listing and I have given work out to a lot of people, where I do have problems is getting the kickbacks, for giving the work, this would give me the revenue to promote the work more but many have promised a 10% commission but it is not that often we see it. When we do get it it gives us the motivation to seek more work in that area. I got the call for the big brither house flood an about 9.00 pm on the thursday night if I had not had a full day the next to days and had a beer, I would have attended myself. I have accounts with national hire companies that will deliver equipment to any uk location so can take work on anywhere.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[derek west]

spoke to chris netherton today, and he's happy to offer us a discount on the 3 day IICRC WRT course with test (extra cost) certificate(classroom based) or a 1 day teaser course, either class based or hands on. think i fancy the 3 day one, after the 3 day you are then qualified to do the 4 day hands on course which he also said he could do discounted. we need a minimum of 8 for these courses. if anyone is interested and wants to see the full email i got sent from chris then leave your email or email me derek@affordablecleaners.co.uk

still waiting for bill to get back to me. will wait to see what he has to offer and i will contact everyone interested to see what we feel is the best option for us all. thats if we can get enough of us.

cheers guys and remember, knowledge breeds confidence, which leads to higher ticket prices. why? because your worth it.

[Steven Taylor]

knowledge breeds confidence, which leads to higher ticket prices.

Higher ticket prices is based on a number of ecomomic factors & location, not nesseccerily or prodomintly knowledge   

[jasonl]

You wont go wrong Derek at the flood school ,, dont listen to the neg heads ,, you will get a good return on any work you get with some proper training.

The flood school has a supply side , and they have some good kit in at the moment to get you started.

[derek west]

You wont go wrong Derek at the flood school ,, dont listen to the neg heads ,, you will get a good return on any work you get with some proper training.

The flood school has a supply side , and they have some good kit in at the moment to get you started.

i don't J, i'm a man on a mission.

[jasonl]

Stay at the Mulberry if you go there , it has a great , reasonably priced indian restaurant on site , just google Mlberry Farnham .

[derek west]

sounds good, dopiaza, jalfrezi, kahari, but i must ask, in what proximaty does the nearest maccies situate itself from the aforementioned hotel?

[jasonl]

Farnham is a bit too posh for Maccies , prob looking at Aldershot about 5 miles away for that

[derek west]

aldershot it is then

[derek west]

right i'll post the email, hope the mods don't mind the link, big chance to get a discount and learn something invaluable for your business.

Hi Derek,

 

Thanks for your enquiry, I was glad to be able to talk to you too.

 

Essentially the water damage restoration industry costs insurers approx. £3bn per year. Of which approx, £180m p.a. is spent on extraction and emergency drying works. The rule of thumb is that there is 12 water damage events for every 1,000 homes in any given location in the U.K. so it’s quite a large market place which is still in the hands of a relatively small number of companies (Chemdry; Rainbow, Munters, Belfor, Service Master). The average invoice value is £650 for a small Escape of Water such as a dishwasher leak going up to £3500 – 4000 for a full top down flood such as a burst pipe or a river flood.

 

Most water damage technicians start life as carpet cleaners as they get the first call to do the extraction. It’s relatively easy to get the customer to appoint you to do the restorative drying work and the installation of drying equipment is pretty simple and straightforward to do...once you know how.

 

 

1 day introduction to water damage

This is a bespoke course based at the flood school in Farnham, where there is a choice of two types of course. We can do classroom based training discussing the theory of water damage or flood the house and include practical aspects including walking students through the extraction and drying process. A NFS certificate of attendance is issued at the end of the day but no formal examination will be had.

 

Fees

Classroom course only (i.e. no flooding of the house) – minimum of 8 people max of 16 = £800.00 plus VAT for the day to include course booklet; lunch and refreshments.

Flooding of the flood house to include practical aspects of flood damage – minimum of 8 max of 16 = £1500.00 plus VAT for the day to include a course booklet; lunch and refreshments.

 

 

3 day IICRC WRT (Water Restoration Technician)

This is a formal 3 day course, with an examination at the end of the course for those who wish to take it (£40 extra). It includes all the basics for running and performing a Water Damage project and is an internationally recognised course.

 

 

Fees

The fees retail at £325 plus VAT per student but for a course booking of 8 or more students we can offer you a reduced fee of £260.00 plus VAT per student if booked as a whole.

 

After the WRT further enhancements of an Applied Structural Drying  (ASD) course can be had which is a further 4 days tuition – please see www.nationalfloodschool.co.uk. For further details.

 

Derek, Please don’t hesitate to call me if you want to discuss further, essentially, one job and you’ve got the money back so it’s a low investment to a potentially very lucrative career.

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Chris

[derek west]

we now have nine showing good interest (thats not including whitney ) in the course, if we can get the maximum 16, we may just be able to get the course fee down even further.

just to let you know, you don't need a truckmount to do flood work. this is a great opportunity to get a high end course at a discounted price. we might even be able to get a group discount for the chosen hotel.