Hiring The Best Restoration Contractor For A Water Leak Job

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In this post I will touch on some of the operational differences between Restoration Contractors as well as some points of interest concerning insurance claims processing, negotiations, responsibilities & payment processing of an insurance claim.

It’s game day…..it’s 2 am, you are awakened by the sound of running water, you just realized that a pipe froze, broke & is leaking in the ceiling area between your 1st & 2nd floor. You also realize that your insurance agent is not available so you Google “pipe burst contractor Long Island”. You call a plumber, right? That’s not wrong, the plumber will come fix the broken pipe but there are many other choices and facets that should be considered.

Option 2: You could call the national franchise restoration contractor like Servpro or Servicemaster, they will come & stop the leak, make insurance notifications to start the claims process & they will soak up the standing water, demolish & expose any wet areas & continue for the next few days until the mitigation of the water & moisture has been extracted & dried down to acceptable ...
... levels, then they leave. Let me repeat that last part…..then they leave, did you catch that, they leave, as in they don’t finish the job. You are on your own to find your own contractor that you will have to negotiate a repair & replacement for all necessary repairs so that you can be brought back to pre-loss condition. At the same time, you will have to negotiate with your insurance company on payout for the same & hope that you don’t have to pay huge sums of money out of pocket.

Option 3: You could call a “full service restoration contractor”, one that not only does mitigation but also does the repairs. This class of restoration contractor will also vary in size & skillset, really good, versatile contractors will also be able to handle upgrades in scope of work as a lot of small water leak jobs will upgraded with the thought of “we might as well renovate the whole space” rather than just do a small repair or replacement. Once you move a project in this direction, your project is best handled by a full service general contractor that also has an emergency restoration division.

Another very important reason to consider a full service restoration contractor for both mitigation & repair is financial. Most of the profit potential for restoration work is on the mitigation side. The mitigation side is equipment intensive & also emergency work which gets a contractor paid at a premium. Additionally, the restoration contractor can lock the job in without providing a bid, there are industry standard pricing for just about all facets of mitigation work and once a scope of work is agreed between the restoration contractor & the adjuster, the payout on the job is as per the restoration contractors invoice.

On the repair side, the insurance payout is very tight and barely enough for a contractor to make a profit plus the homeowner’s deductible is applied to the repair side which leads to out of pocket expenses for the homeowner. Another huge point of note is the typical subcontractor or even general contractor who doesn’t specialize in restoration work doesn’t estimate with the industry standard database that the adjusters use, this cause a lot of pricing disparities and delays in negotiating the repair payout with the adjuster. The software & estimate it generates is the language of the industry, without it there are a lot of issues. Hiring just a mitigation contractor who will do ½ a job & make off with all the profit and leave a homeowner to fend for themselves hardly sounds like a solution to an already stressful situation.

The best scenario…..Hire the full service restoration contractor / general contractor who has the equipment, the database, the team to handle any situation, the ability to negotiate with the adjuster speaking the language of the industry. This contractor will combine both the lucrative mitigation and marginally profitable repair side into one good paying job and the homeowner will be rewarded with a “one call does it all” job as well as a much quicker, less frustrating return to pre-loss condition.

Perhaps I forgot to mention……True Restorations is just that kind of company, we are general contractors 1st & foremost and we can handle most mitigation conditions (water, fire & mold) and can repair those job as well as handle any phase of home remodeling & new house construction.

For pricing & particulars on our unique Design Estimate, call us at 631-757-0212