[The Carpet Man (1989) Ltd.]

I've had a quick look through previous posts, but couldn't find anything on Fire or Flood Restoration. Our business generates £1,000's worth of income from this type of service, the only draw back being that 99% of the time we're dealing with insurance companies which means having to wait sometimes 3 - 4 months to be paid.

Does anyone else tackle this type of work and if not, why not? 

[lands]

I would like to get into this but its the investment that holds me back. As far as I can see this work is only covered by the franchises in my area so there is room for an independent.

[John Kelly]

There are a few members on here who carry out this work, myself included. Having done this work for over 13 years I am finding that instead of things progressing they are actually going backwards. The rates now are up to 50% less than we were recieving 10 years ago. I supply a number of big franchises and even they are finding things a bit up and down. Have to say that for all the hassle, wading in sewage, working in carcinogenic fire damaged properties, I think you are better off cleaning carpets at 50-100 per hour.

[The Carpet Man (1989) Ltd.]

There are a few members on here who carry out this work, myself included. Having done this work for over 13 years I am finding that instead of things progressing they are actually going backwards. The rates now are up to 50% less than we were recieving 10 years ago. I supply a number of big franchises and even they are finding things a bit up and down. Have to say that for all the hassle, wading in sewage, working in carcinogenic fire damaged properties, I think you are better off cleaning carpets at 50-100 per hour.

I couldn't agree more, but we got into that area to generate a core customer base ie insurance companies, that would provide us with a regular stream of work. Of course, not all work is what you describe above, we get alot of calls requesting our attendence on small leaks ie rads etc. Our deal with the insurance companies is that regardless what the job intails our minmum charge will be £240. On the smaller jobs it's easy money and one we are kean to nurcher....... of course, we had to sign a service level agreement which is demanding, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Without our restoration/insurance work our carpet/upholstery cleaning section would be reduced to only 2 men instead of 5 at present  :

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Have done the odd job but never gone out of my way to find this type of work; it's more existing customers phoning me when they've had a (smallish) leak. But have also done some quite big jobs.

Main problem as far as I am concerned is that you obviously cannot say to the caller,"That's fine. I'll book you in for a week on Thursday."

In most cases I get paid by the client who is then re-reimbursed by their insurance company.

There's a lot of technical stuff to get your head round, far more than just cleaning carpets, and with the possibility of getting sued if not done properly I'm sure there will be a continual migration of the work to companies whose specialise in it.

[spencer davies]

We used to do a lot of flood work for insurance companies in the early 90's but stopped due to unreasonable payment terms, many world nearly always pay you after 120 days, but want instant service, which is the nature of this type of work.

Although the money was good, I am glad we don't rely on the income now as larger franchises and nationals are moving in on this type of work.

Regards



S

[martin19842]

hi there

we provide this service, and have a lot of differing opinions, and views.

the work from our point of view is good, and we make a good margin from it, we takean aggresive stance with our clients, whether that be the householder, a commercial client or the insurance company, they accept our rates and we cary out the work.

we then move on from that to carry out the reinstatemnet works, so more and more we are geting involved from incident through to handing the property back completed.

re the payment terms, yes nightmare, but if your cashflow is all running at 120 days, then the first 120 days are the worst.  my suggesation is to make sure that you have a client mix, ie insurance, and non insurance clients.

the other trick is to make sure that you do all your paperwork for each case, so that you can annoy them for payment.

regards

martin