It's official

[steve_64]

Let me tell you the hell Servpro went through at my moms house. Fire was in April and still dealing with it. Took that. I like the 2 or 3 hour jobs and done.

Loving our shop.

 

[Cleanworks]

I would lean towards setting up a rug shop. Even if you started with $3 per sqft. and $50 for pickup/delivery, you could make some decent money with less headaches. You don't need to have the latest equipment right away. A portable wash pit, a Zipper for extraction, some overhead poles for drying and some fans.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Rugs are a true pain in the ass. Especially when you don't have the high dollar equipment. Then it becomes labor intensive work. Plus you better like piss, handling piss, hugging piss, smelling like piss.

Ohh I forgot it was Damon...never mind.

 

[steve_64]

We just needed heated storage space for winter. Only took 2 years to outgrow the house.

Signed a two year lease and am looking to buy something before then. Already filling our shop up.

 

[steve_64]

Lowes had nice metal shelving on sale a few weeks ago. $120 for 7 ft wide 6 high and 2 deep. Easy to assemble. We bought 3 of those.

Got some rugs to finish up today maybe lol. Definately loving all the space.

 

[Nomad74]

Im installing a Garage door opener for the roll of door.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Course, there’s nothing this side of #heaven that’s not a #pain in the #ass in its own right!!

 

[Cleanworks]

Im installing a Garage door opener for the role of door.

What other roles does the door play?

 

[Nomad74]

What other roles does the door play?

Damn text to speech

 

[Bob Savage]

Loved it when I built our shop 20 some years ago. It's behind our house - 1600 sq. ft with upstairs, 10'ceiling, heated, A/C, 100amp electrical service, and a bathroom.

It needs a good straightening up right now though, which will be this winter's project.

Congrats!

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Loved it when I built our shop 20 some years ago. It's behind our house - 1600 sq. ft with upstairs, 10'ceiling, heated, A/C, 100amp electrical service, and a bathroom.

It needs a good straightening up right now though, which will be this winter's project.

Congrats!

That’s just what old carpet cleaners do. I waited till retirement age to build mine

 

[BIG WOOD]

Damon, I think the hardest thing in the restoration part of this business you'll find is not how to dry a facility, find the money to buy equipment, or even get the time to do an emergency job. The hardest thing you'll encounter is learning the software to present to the insurance adjusters. It was one of the main reasons I dropped out of it.

1. The monthly cost of Xactimate was stupid high when I called them. Over $500/month is what they told me back in 2012.
2. Just learning it intimidated me. So I found a third party to write up the Xactimate invoices and just paid them $100 each job I had. I suggest you do the same until you find some extra office staff employees to devote their time to learning that part of your business.

 

[BIG WOOD]

Keep in mind, I am an idiot. So it might not be as complicated as I stated above. It's just taking the time to learn everything while I'm wearing all the other hats in the business is what makes it very intimidating. I'd like to see other owner/ops speak up on whether or not they are successful with this.

But when several companies have a division just for filling out Xactimate invoices...there's a reason for that. And when the insurance adjusters told me they won't even talk to me, unless I use Xactimate, that's a frustrating cause.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Damon, I think the hardest thing in the restoration part of this business you'll find is not how to dry a facility, find the money to buy equipment, or even get the time to do an emergency job. The hardest thing you'll encounter is learning the software to present to the insurance adjusters. It was one of the main reasons I dropped out of it.

1. The monthly cost of Xactimate was stupid high when I called them. Over $500/month is what they told me back in 2012.
2. Just learning it intimidated me. So I found a third party to write up the Xactimate invoices and just paid them $100 each job I had. I suggest you do the same until you find some extra office staff employees to devote their time to learning that part of your business.

Its $120.00 a month. Not hard to learn unless you are doing fire damage or reconstruction. WDR is easy, in fact you build macros and it's even faster because you just update what was used.

The hard part is trying to process the emergency calls while maintaining your regular schedule.

 

[Cleanworks]

Keep in mind, I am an idiot. So it might not be as complicated as I stated above. It's just taking the time to learn everything while I'm wearing all the other hats in the business is what makes it very intimidating. I'd like to see other owner/ops speak up on whether or not they are successful with this.

But when several companies have a division just for filling out Xactimate invoices...there's a reason for that. And when the insurance adjusters told me they won't even talk to me, unless I use Xactimate, that's a frustrating cause.

That's one of the reasons I got out of the insurance business. I still do a little water damage but only for private parties. I charge what I feel is reasonable and if they don't like it, they can go somewhere else. I work a little for property mgrs when they don't want to make an insurance claim. Small jobs usually from $1000-$3000.

 

[Desk Jockey]

WDR work doesn't have to be insurance work. We regularly do over 250k a year of uninsured or self insured work.

 

[Old Coastie]

Go to Atlanta and learn how to restore color, then be the N CA expert.

I think Udy is mopping up in Jacksonville.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

Let your accounts know you are in the water damage business.

 

[BIG WOOD]

Its $120.00 a month. Not hard to learn unless you are doing fire damage or reconstruction. WDR is easy, in fact you build macros and it's even faster because you just update what was used.

The hard part is trying to process the emergency calls while maintaining your regular schedule.

That's weird. I wonder why they told me $500. I was in a different time in my business back in 2012. $500 every month was not in my budget. If they told me $120, I would've signed up.

 

[Desk Jockey]

That's weird. I wonder why they told me $500. I was in a different time in my business back in 2012. $500 every month was not in my budget. If they told me $120, I would've signed up.

You can also do mobile or desktop for the same rate

 

[Nomad74]

Go to Atlanta and learn how to restore color, then be the N CA expert.

I think Udy is mopping up in Jacksonville.

Do you mean carpet dyeing? OR busing in colorful rugs?

 

[DAT]

Do you mean carpet dyeing? OR busing in colorful rugs?

Are ya gonna take howard class?

 

[Josh Almanza]

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Even if you don't go into restoration work the shop can be a nice addition to your growth.

With the restoration just be prepared for every holiday being consumed with an emergency phone call (people are home breaking their homes that day) and at the end of each day when people arrive home you being called out to what can be another entire day's worth of work... And after a late night of clean up and gutting walls (with your lead paint and asbestos certifications of course) needing to be at your carpet cleaning jobs after a quick baconateor and a shower.

Doing restoration takes a special breed... We did it for many years also. Got tired of the insurance industry price fights and homeowners running off to the carribeans with the money.... and going through the headache of trying to collect, or wait for them to sell their home with the lein put on it.

I am very happy (and so are my brothers) now that we don't do that work anymore. I just sold some of my final pieces of water restoration equipment a month ago. Was saving it for that "just in case" moment.... Nope... We just don't do it anymore. This actually helped me to focus on what we do more and it made our carpet cleaning business stronger.

I am actually purging my shop currently. I still have equipment and products that were new or slightly used... Now just dumping.

But I am very happy for you... I just want you happy also and go cautious before jumping in is my words of caution.

Be happy in life!

“Quick Baconator” Lol!!!

 

[dealtimeman]

Water damage ain’t nothing but a thaing.

Setup correctly it should at some point overtake your carpet cleaning side of your biz.

You need a helper for sure at least many part timers that can be called in.

Don’t go signing a loan for the equipment unless you want to increase your chances of failure.

The losses come in bunches it seems, and at other times a while in between.

I am on most of our water losses as I really enjoy it and have learned to document, document, document everything as that makes the billing/collection/receipt of payment easier.

Don’t try to work out of a van as you will quickly learn to hate the work,as you have to work so much harder to achieve the same results,

Get a 16ft to 20ft trailer at least to start with, then a box truck with a lift gate.

Find subs (other carpet cleaners) in your area that can extract for you at a rate of 100 an hour or so depending your area.

Get as much education as you can and remember what they teach in the class will be nothing like you see in the field, but you must use it for reference to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.


To start I suggest 3 large Dehus and 16-20 air movers. At least 1 air scrubber. You will need multiple moisture meters even if you buy all in ones you still need redundancy as they will fail at 2am.

Much more but start here.

The most important part is to perform the job the same as you would eat an xlarge pizza, 1 slice or part at a time or it will be too much to take in.

 

[Nomad74]

Water damage ain’t nothing but a thaing.

Setup correctly it should at some point overtake your carpet cleaning side of your biz.

You need a helper for sure at least many part timers that can be called in.

Don’t go signing a loan for the equipment unless you want to increase your chances of failure.

The losses come in bunches it seems, and at other times a while in between.

I am on most of our water losses as I really enjoy it and have learned to document, document, document everything as that makes the billing/collection/receipt of payment easier.

Don’t try to work out of a van as you will quickly learn to hate the work,as you have to work so much harder to achieve the same results,

Get a 16ft to 20ft trailer at least to start with, then a box truck with a lift gate.

Find subs (other carpet cleaners) in your area that can extract for you at a rate of 100 an hour or so depending your area.

Get as much education as you can and remember what they teach in the class will be nothing like you see in the field, but you must use it for reference to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.


To start I suggest 3 large Dehus and 16-20 air movers. At least 1 air scrubber. You will need multiple moisture meters even if you buy all in ones you still need redundancy as they will fail at 2am.

Much more but start here.

The most important part is to perform the job the same as you would eat an xlarge pizza, 1 slice or part at a time or it will be too much to take in.

Thank you! Let the adventure begin..... I think.

 

[Mike Pailliotet]

Thank you! Let the adventure begin..... I think.

how are you going to pick up and drop off the tots when your sucking shit water all day?

 

[Nomad74]

how are you going to pick up and drop off the tots when your sucking shit water all day?

I'm a good dad, i'll make it work.

 

[DAT]

No thanks. I dont have that kind energy to do on call work 24 hours ...

 

[bob vawter]

Soooooooo then....you water people....
What happens when you get served legal
Papers on the house that is destroyed by the mold and mildew that YOU missed?

 

[Mike Pailliotet]

No thanks. I dont have that kind energy to do on call work 24 hours ...

give it a shot, you might be able to afford a hot tub. or a 370.