[Nick Attwood]

Which of the courses do you have in mind derek

[derek west]

looking like this one with the 4 day hands on to follow

3 day IICRC WRT (Water Restoration Technician)

[derek west]

me
kev m
dave l
graeme m
ricky m
neil w
steve b
andrew b
jason l
barry l

looks like its gonna be a runner. room for 6 more unless ricky and kev are plus 1.

[derek west]

me
kev
dave l
graeme m
ricky
neil w
steve b
andrew b
jason l
barry l
richard b,s
paul pj

looks like its gonna be a runner. room for 4 more unless ricky and kev are plus 1.

[derek west]

all 16 places have now been pencilled in. anyone else interested will go on the reserves list if anyone pulls out.

[derek west]

good news, managed to negotiate a further discount, the cost now, providing we can get 14 to go will be £220+vat (+£40 for the exam, optional) for the 3 day WRT IICRC. still not got dates but we are looking at mid to late feb 2011. will know either end of the day or monday.

once i have dates i will contact everyone involved. and hopefully will get the 14 needed.

still taking reserve places so if interested get in touch.

cheers guys

[derek west]

right guys, last chance to beat the vat rise, for those not vat registered you need to ring now and request an invoice. we also have a few extra going including.
simon bailey
will russel
and a guy called keith who rang me today.

so anyone who's pulling out, call me now. 07854690355 so i can fill the gaps.
will be ringing everyone in the new year to give ya a kick up the backside to get paid.   
 http://www.farnhamhousehotel.com/
and also we need to sought out a hotel. the one above has a special on at £180 for the 3 nights, does anyone know what its like or can they reccomend any others?

after a hectic water logged xmas, i'm really looking forward to this course.

ps...don't drink to much tonight and happy new year.

[Paul Heath]

That looks a nice place....have you approached them with your" special northern negotiatin skills"  for an all inclusive block booking??
Recieved invoice and will sort it out next week.
Well done for what you have managed to negotiated.
Happy New Year

[derek west]

they all ready had a special on paul so they wouldn't budge, might try again and speak to the organ grinder this time. could do with knowing if its any good though. was hoping neil or simon  would shed some light as there from round that area. will sort it all in the new year. looking froward to it.

[Neil Williams]

was hoping neil or simon  would shed some light as there from round that area.

Don't go to Farnham very offen so can't offer much advice on the place. One thing for sure it's not really walking distance of the town centre, but as per most things in Farnham I'm quite sure the hotel will be quality.

[Hamilton smith]

The NFU offices now have to appoint Servicemaster or Rainbow, some offices may still be appointing another outfit but the mutual (who pay the bill) will stop this. Rainbow don't have a strangle hold on the insurance companies. There are lots of other companies who deliver the same kind of work - belfors, Munters etc. the rates are generally now low enough not to be able to sub contract work and as has been mentioned you probably could not sub it anyway as the contracts insist that a BDMA tech is on site - we probably are not too far away from a BDMA senior tech being required to be on site.
Good money could be made from sub contracting redecorating work but even that now has to be passed to the insurance companies own building supply network. There still is good money to be made though. Don't think that the loss adjusters are able to pass you work as they often have to pass set amounts of work to different networks who are 'approved'.
There will always be people who find a way round systems or are well connected enough to get work but the trend is going in the direction of single supplier who can do it all.
A builder is able to provide drying equipment, an electrician to check circuits maybe PAT test effected electrical equipment, redecorate, replace kitchens etc. Insurance companies often do not appoint independant loss adjusters as they have staff embedded into the company who can do the same job. A loss adjuster has a cost if by appointing one 'builder' you can stop the loss adjusters cost. Even if that means other parts of the claim increase a little why bother to send them??
The saving carpets bit is not a big part of the claim, they often get binned.
The insurance companies are call centres and often want to process the claim fast.
In short don't spend lots of money on getting trained unless you have a definate route in and are prepared to spend a good chunk of money on drying equipment - it ain't cheap!. If you are using crappy dehumidifiers from B&Q you will come unstuck.
The best place to start is not with big national loss adjusters but small companies but it won't be easy.
In fact take that money and time and do something else. Apart from burst pipes which will be oiling a few bank accounts at the moment take a look at how many franchised businesses are for sale.

[derek west]

i get quite offended when people give advice without even advising us who they are. for all we know you could be a failing rainbow franchisee, trying to put people off!

did 6 flood jobs over xmas, all well paid. in fact the total paid is  2 times more than this course, travel and hotel is costing, so to advise me not to take this course is rediculous, with dehums i would of got even more for my troubles,  its a no brainer mate. theres stacks of work out there and most on here would of done some flood work over the xmas period.

just been informed that the course will accept up to 30 students so looks like we can take a few more if any one else is interested.

we now have 18 booked, more the merrier i say.

[Steve. Taylor]

He who dares rodney he who dares

Derek told ya about the sod met or HP on that sofa

[Hamilton smith]

I think its pretty obvious I do have a franchise! There are good things about them and bad things but on balance good. I would not put anyone off trying to get into insurance work but the fact that you got work recently is not suprising with the volumes of work from burst pipes. I have been turning down work and told the person to get a local carpet cleaning business in and then claim on their insurance if required. The difficulty of making it work is when there is not extreme weather. You need the more mundane slow leaks off washing machines etc and quite a few of them or try and juggle between marketing a cleaning business - pre booked work and quoting for work in person and then drop everything and go and deal with a house fire. What do you do with your valued customer who has already booked you in? Doing a little bit of work in a surge situation is ok but dealing with it all the time is a bit more tricky. 2 hour response times for an emergency jobs might get 5 in 1 hour. I did last week.
And no I don't think its rocket science or that franchises do it better its just difficult to get lots of work all of the time.

[derek west]

but thats it mr smith, your advising from a different perspective, i don't want loads of flood work, in fact it wouldn't bother me if i got none ever again, i make good money from carpet cleaning, i'm doing the course for the knowledge, knowledge that will help me with carpet cleaning and also build my confidence in my chosen "profession", my slowest months are jan and feb, this is when occasionally we get very cold weather. so a chance to do a few floods when i'm not very busy is good for business.

2 of the floods i did over xmas clashed with 2 jobs i had booked with regulars, both were very understanding that i had to put the flood work before them. i told them if they had a flood i would do the same for them.

nothing wrong with wanting to learn a bit more just in case, dib dib dib.

[Nick Attwood]

I think its pretty obvious I do have a franchise! There are good things about them and bad things but on balance good. I would not put anyone off trying to get into insurance work but the fact that you got work recently is not suprising with the volumes of work from burst pipes. I have been turning down work and told the person to get a local carpet cleaning business in and then claim on their insurance if required. The difficulty of making it work is when there is not extreme weather. You need the more mundane slow leaks off washing machines etc and quite a few of them or try and juggle between marketing a cleaning business - pre booked work and quoting for work in person and then drop everything and go and deal with a house fire. What do you do with your valued customer who has already booked you in? Doing a little bit of work in a surge situation is ok but dealing with it all the time is a bit more tricky. 2 hour response times for an emergency jobs might get 5 in 1 hour. I did last week.
And no I don't think its rocket science or that franchises do it better its just difficult to get lots of work all of the time.

Is that Graeme Hamilton Smith of ServiceMaster Huddersfield ?

[slioch]

YOU MAY WISH TO CONSIDER AN EMAIL FROM IICRC SENT TODAY 4 JAN.

Dear IICRC Technician

The UK is experiencing large volumes of water damage claims as a direct result of the cold weather and frozen pipes. The National Flood School has had a number of enquiries from Insurers and related service providers for extra-resource especially suitably qualified WRT & ASD technicians.

If you are a professional service provider with these qualifications and have spare capacity to assist in the Water damage restoration phase, then please send an email to the National Flood School .... with a brief description of your experience, qualifications, post codes you operate in, the volume of drying equipment you have available and the number of claims you could realistically service immediately.
 
For example, please see below, which is ideal:
 
Experience and qualifications:                    5 yrs experience IICRC WRT, ASD and FSRT held for 2 years.
Post Codes covered:                                      GU & SO
Volume of drying equipment:                    20 small dehum’s, 10 large dehum’s and 15 air movers.
No of claims capacity:                                     10 burst pipe claims
Contact information:                                      Name, email address and telephone number.
POINTS TO NOTE ARE:
1. THERE IS WORK OUT THERE - WE HAVE A MAJOR SURGE AT THE MOMENT
2. THE ROLE OF THE NFS HERE
3. WHAT THE IDEAL CONTRACTOR SHOULD HAVE IN THE WAY OF EXPERIENCE, QUALIFICATIONS AND KIT (IT AIN'T CHEAP AND WHERE DO YOU STORE IT AFTER THE SURGE?).  YES YOU CAN HIRE IT BUT TRY CALLING A FEW HIRE FIRMS TOMORROW TO SEE HOW DIFFICULT IT IS.

[peter maybury]

As I said earlier it is a matter of getting yourself in front of the customer first I have 15 driers and about 12 dehumidifiers that earn good rates when they are out. A franchisee can only tell you what he has been taught from his organisation it is going to be a very slanted opinion.  An indedendant can quite easily compete with the charges that the frachises charge and make a good living when the work is there.
Treat it as just another string to your bow.

Peter Maybury
 

[jasonl]

As I said earlier it is a matter of getting yourself in front of the customer first I have 15 driers and about 12 dehumidifiers that earn good rates when they are out. A franchisee can only tell you what he has been taught from his organisation it is going to be a very slanted opinion.  An indedendant can quite easily compete with the charges that the frachises charge and make a good living when the work is there.
Treat it as just another string to your bow.

Peter Maybury
 

Agreed ,, franchissees tend to get brainwashed , I know , I was one!

[Hamilton smith]

Yes it is to Nick and I would agree with peter it is not hard to compete on price any price can be undercut and in this case a good return made- and if you are 1st through the door you could be more expensive and have no problem, its an emergency after all.
N.B I believe the national flood school are linked to disaster care who have links to Davies loss adjusters so theres an avenue without being part of a franchise.

If you could got an inside look at a franchise it might be an eye opener but might not teach you anything about a different franchise. Chem Dry operates differently to Servicemaster and Servicemaster to Rainbow etc. There are some things about the others that I think I could not tolerate but they are only my perceptions and the reality might be different. There are huge differences in my network in terms of areas covered and people who just do insurance and those that don't do any

There was someone posting earlier who I think I have met and he had quite a big franchise operation and  has since made an exit. The thing that seemed to be in common is that you ought to run a carpet and upholstery business that does restoration but when you are under service level agreements it is hard to do that. You tend to put the national account work 1st because its reactive and that means you loose sight of advertising/marketing.
The ones who seem to well follow one route or the other not both but there will allways be exceptions.

Not that it matters anyway according to Stargazing live this evening the Andromeda system is going to crash into the milky way and we are all toast.