[John Kelly]

Just got back from a grueling week in Yorkshire dealing with the flooding. It is not just Sheffield that was badly hit, nearly every town from Wetherby down has an area which has been flooded.
Last job today was a childrens nursery which had one of there rear classrooms completely flooded with contaminated water. They called out the local carpet cleaner on Tuesday who cleaned the carpet and left it. Today it was stinking and the staff had to uplift it before it permeated the rest of the building.
Please if you get called out to something like this either tell them to contact their insurance or lift the carpet and underlay and spray some deodouriser down, but don't try and clean it.

[Mike Halliday]

but they don't want to listen, everyones an expert in flood restoration : :

I've had lots of calls and I try and explain but they all say "if you can just suck up the water everything will be fine,

all they see is a wet carpet.

Mike

[John Kelly]

How you getting on with yours Mike?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Same explaination as I'm giving, some customers who I have done work for are having the excess water sucked out by me and then as I strongly advise carrying on with the insurance claim.

It's the slurry stuff that will probably come next week as the water goes down (hopefully) but most of Sheffield is still in deep puddles in the east of the city and some homes have no power.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

John everythings fabulous

the water has gone and the loss adjuster has condemned everything the water touched, Raindow came down and said the bungalow was too big and they had'nt the time to do anything ( i got the feeling theY where allowing an hour per house), so they itermised everything that was to be dumped and said they will be back next week with a skip

the building insurance is with a different company and a loss adjuster will visit next week to see about the structural drying

all in all the house & contents are wrecked but I'll get a big payout from the insurance company so I'm not bothered

Mike

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

I wonder how Bill Franklin is managing to cope ? If Onslow road is`nt flooded
It’s the only place in Sheffield that is`nt

[carpetguy]

Franklin's is on a hill, if I remember correctly !

[martin19842]

hi there

we got called into a job, to look at where the water was coming from, when we arrived, the cleaners were there cleaning the carpet.  i spke to the MD of the business, and advised that the carpet cleaning was not going o cure the problem.

we opened up the suspended floor void, and showed them the situation, very wet, so we have been in there drying out and sanitising.

client is over the moon with the results so far.

regards

martin

[martin19842]

and the loss adjusters arent exactly working fast at the moment,

we have a situatuion at the moment, where my client is cryng out for us to go into four properties, but the loss adjuster hasnt made a decision yet.

so i'll have to wait for that one

regards

martin

[mark_roberts]

Mike

Are you still living in your house if its that bad?

John

At times like this is there any hope of us independants who may like to get into restoration approaching insurance companies or loss adjusters for work.  Especially if the likes of Rainbow cant seem to cope as Mike has suggested.

Mark

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't think Bill Franklin is with us anymore, and yes Franklins is on a hill and Rainbow International are having a birthday!

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

Mark, we're staying with friends until tomorrow, then on holiday, when we get back we can book into a hotel at the insurers expensive,but our bungalow has a dorma fitted which was'nt affected, so I might sort that out so we can live up thier.

Mike 

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Mike

Have a nice holiday and put it down to experience.

Cheers

Doug

[John Kelly]

Mark
We were working in Pontefract, Wakefield, Castleford, Whetherby and other smaller towns. I lost count of the number of people who aproached us to give them an estimate. They had been told by their insurers to get estimates. They haven't a hope in hell to get one off the main companies, in fact I heard Chem Dry refused to accept any more claims from Thursday.
Therefore there is scope for getting some work. How you go about I haven't a clue. You could just turn up, ask a local copper which part has been flooded as it is pretty localised with a number of streets in each place affected.
If you do mange to grab some make sure you have a mandate ready to be signed by the policyholder which will ensure you will be paid by the insurance company. If taking on any private work, again try and get some kind of document signed and if possible at least half the cah up front.

[John Kelly]

By the way it might seem lucrative but I've just sat down and worked out how much I've spent since Wednesday on wages, hotels, food and fuel, £1,300 in 3 days!

[John Kelly]

I wish

Just to put this in perspective. Carlisle was flooded 2 years ago, this was classed as a major disaster, some people still aren't back in their homes. There were around 3000 houses flooded.

This latest flooding, by the way it is absolutely stotting down at the minute, it is estimated there are 27,000 houses affected and over 5000 businesses.
The major restoration companies can't cope with this amount so if anyone wants some I'm sure they can go out and get it.

[eclipse]

 from what i have been told there is a colourful franchise in hull that cannot manage the current workload as they dont have enough technicians word has it that there is at least 700 jobs that have been turned down by them
wouldnt it be good if the qualified flood technicians on this board could get some work out of the insurance companys
 but as it seems they dont want to deal with small companys that cannot offer national coverage this is likeley not to happen
I worked for a company in lincoln about 5 or 6 years ago that had a network of national  local independent carpet cleaning and restoration companys and all was great until the likes of rainbow and chem dry servicemaster went in at a cheaper price for the insurance tenders and the company i was working for (disaster care) went bust
if any lessons can be learned from this major incident by the insurance companys i would hope they learn that bigger is not always better and perhaps start letting the little fish pick some work up too

i hope the above makes sense and i by no means intended to offend anybody that owns one of the above named franchise

[Prestige1]

I spoke to the Chemdry guy in Harrogate who is working in Hull, and he reckons that thats it for them, they will be flat out till Christmas now, due to Floods.

Phil

[John Kelly]

Lee, you are exactly right. The chickens are coming home to roost. It is estimated that some 300 independant restoration companies have ceased trading over the last 5 years. Due on the whole by what you have stated.
Now there is not the capacity to deal with flooding on this scale.
As I have said there is some scope to pick work up but you do have to have some idea of how to perform. Once you accept the claim you have to follow it through to the end which includes an inventory of all the contents, both damaged and restorable. Cleaning and sanitisation of the building. Stripping out kitchens, plaster, floors etc (although this is often done by the building contractor) then you have to dry it down to a safe level for reinstatement.

[martin19842]

john

hi there, you sound busy, if you get anybody begging for help, please feel free to pass them my way, we have already been up in worksop, and have a meting planned later this week, with a large drain company, to put together a packege for them, as they have already turned down two large commercial jobs.

its about delivery a quality service to these clients, that need reassurance at this time, and not unhelpful loss adjusters.

regards

martin
07771 526246