Mitigation vs. Restoration

Mitigation vs. Restoration

"Hundreds of dollars of cleaning can become thousands of dollars of replacement due to delayed action."

Over the years there has been an abundance of opinions and non-truths involving property damage and restoration procedures. Here are a few of the most commonly expressed misconceptions:

General statement: "It is less expensive to replace rather than to salvage."
Cleaning misconception: "If you get your carpets cleaned, they will get dirty faster."
Water Damage misconception: "Once the carpet is dry, that noisy equipment needs to be removed."
Fire Damage misconceptions: (1) "There's no rush to process the smoke cleanup; the damage is already done." (2) "Once a building has a fire, it will always smell like smoke."
Water Damaged Structure misconception: "Don't worry about the wet walls; they will dry on their own."

Professional restoration companies like PuroClean Home Rescue are trained to see beyond the misconceptions and misinformation that often complicate a claim. Secondary damage is damage due to a failure on someone's part to either act quickly or take the right processing actions and to either mitigate or restore damage caused by soot, smoke, water, sewage, and mold.

A professional restoration technician will prioritize mitigation over restoration making sure that the damage cost is not escalated. Mitigation will stop further damage and reduce the loss. Restoration repairs or attempts to put the damaged items back to a pre-loss condition are usually less critical but important and must be done quickly.

Mitigation needs to be accomplished within twenty-four hours of the loss for ultimate results. Every delay will further complicate or devalue the mitigation effort.

Cleaning is a mitigation process that yields excellent results at a very cost-effective price. Cleaning an item is a less expensive alternative compared to replacing it. When smoke is not cleaned from delicate fabrics and surfaces and secondary damage occurs, replacement can and has been the only option. Hundreds of dollars of cleaning can become thousands of dollars of replacement due to delayed action.

Today a restoration professional will be able to effectively clean and remove contaminates as a result of a loss. The old concept about carpets getting dirty faster was due to ineffective shampooing techniques that left soap residue in the carpet that, in fact, did rapidly attract soil. A professional restoration company will provide a cleaning process that will flush and rinse the carpet to prevent this from occurring.

The greatest failure in any water damage drying scenario would be in removing the drying equipment before everything is dry to the "dry standard." The dry standard describes the moisture content of the affected material in normal or ambient conditions.

A professional restoration firm will utilize testing and measuring equipment to determine that the moisture content has been returned to normal standards. Ineffective drying of the structure can result in a small water loss turning into a multi-thousand dollar mold claim. Using the carpet or cushion to determine dryness is a gross misrepresentation of whether the structure is dry or not, and one that cannot be easily defended if litigation follows. Meters and sensors are used to document and record data that supports and justifies the equipment usage and when the equipment may safely be removed. That is paramount to accomplish the end result, which is a totally dry structure. Carpet and cushion will repeatedly dry quicker than the structure.

Stories also abound about smoke-damaged restoration that has failed usually if odor remains or items don't restore. People fail to realize that the residue as a result of products of incomplete combustion is acidic in nature, and far more damaging to everything it comes in contact with especially compared to normal outdoor or environmental dirt or dust. Prompt cleaning action can reduce losses if this acid is removed or neutralized. Restoration for smoke odor has to be thorough and is more complicated than turning on any one machine to have satisfactory results. Guaranteed smoke odor removal means all contaminated areas need to be cleaned, deodorized, and possibly sealed (where applicable) as well as neutralization of all odor molecules whether airborne or absorbed.

Successful mitigation or restoration, whichever is required, is performed by specialists that do not endorse or repeat the erroneous theories and mistakes of the past. Professional restoration firms are specialists that are set apart by the state-of-the-art technical training they receive both initially and on a continual basis.

When an emergency property loss arises, contact PuroClean Home Rescue for immediate mitigation and restoration services.