We enjoyed the camaraderie. We kept each other company, told a clean joke or two, appreciated an intelligent conversation or two, and did a great job. A typical day was jam-packed with work, but it went by fast, and we enjoyed the challenge.

Back then, just like now, you were compelled to be careful about how loud you were and how much fun you had on the job. After all, there were people nearby. They could hear you. Never did you want to portray an unprofessional attitude.

Things have changed a bit. Now, it’s not just about your customers hearing you working in the next room or upstairs. They very well could be watching your every move.

We now live in the age of surveillance, some of it quite sophisticated, and most of it amateurish, yet very effective. From recording devices to nanny cams, to name a few, what you do and how you do it may be captured for future review.

I recall a story from a carpet cleaner who showed up on a job and the customer said, “Watch this video of someone we hired to work in our home.” This was a repeat customer and the cleaner wondered, “Did I pick my nose or something when I was here last?”

It wasn’t that at all. The video showed a pest control company tech come into the home through an unlocked door per arrangement since the homeowner wasn’t home, set down his sprayer, go off camera while he went into the kitchen, come back into view with a stolen soda, sit down, and turn on the TV and enjoy the spoils of his raid.

After a few minutes, the tech filled out an invoice, dropped it on the table, and left.

Hmmm…. quite a nice — and dishonest — profit margin on this job.

Although you would never do something so unethical as charging for work you never performed — not to mention stealing something even as “innocent” as a soda — what you must appreciate is how your every movement can be recorded.

Notice those doorbell cameras? They watch and record you walking up to the door. Anything you say or do is probably being recorded. Watch your comments.

And while you clean a carpet or dry a house after a flood? Surveillance cameras, often connected to the internet and recording you and what you are doing, are common.

Behave. You just never know. Someone could be watching you.

The post Always Watching: You’re Probably Being Recorded appeared first on Cleanfax.

Rick describes this particular job: “We had a client bring in this area rug, and she wanted to know if there was any hope in getting it to look better. We explained she could probably buy a new one for the same price as the cleaning. She said the area rug had sentimental value and asked us to do the best we could. We used our Rug Badger to remove dry soiling, vacuumed both sides, pre-sprayed with Procyon, shampooed with MasterBlend Oriental Rug Shampoo, cleaned and rinsed both sides with our HydraMaster CDS, applied fiber rinse, groomed it, and hung it to dry. The client was so happy, she had a tear in her eye when she picked it up.”

For an opportunity to win a chemical prize package from Solutions by Steam Pros (worth $250), send your images and a brief 100-word description on how you obtained your results to Jeff Cross, executive editor, at JeffCross@������ý.com or 193 Purple Finch Loop, Pataskala, OH 43062. Contest rules available by request.

[infobox title=’DID YOU KNOW’][/infobox]

There is no such thing as true “dry” carpet cleaning, compared to “dry” upholstery cleaning. Dry solvent usage for carpet is limited to spot and stain removal, while dry solvent usage is acceptable for overall upholstery cleaning — with proper ventilation and personal protective equipment of course.

Although some consumers may claim they sense a formaldehyde odor with new carpet, the carpet manufacturing industry claims no formaldehyde is used in production.

The post The Sentimental Area Rug [photo contest] appeared first on Cleanfax.

The 2018 Restoration Industry Leaders Review is about success. Not just the numbers, but also how companies impact their clients and communities. Take a few minutes and read on to learn what you can do to make your own company a true success story.

Without further ado, here are the 2018 restoration leaders:

[infobox title=’Delta Disaster Services’][/infobox]

Start-up restoration companies often have two main goals in mind: To provide people in crisis with restoration services and to create a profitable, efficient company.

That was what Mike Mastous, founder and president of , had in mind, but also a bit more.

With nearly 20 years of experience in insurance, franchising, and restoration, 13 years ago he launched Delta Disaster Services in the Denver market with one objective — to build a quality business model that he could then franchise.

And franchise he did. Delta Disaster Services is a nationally recognized, award-winning franchise brand that provides full-service restoration services to commercial and residential properties. Its restoration services cover damage from flood and water to smoke and fire, as well as mold and other environmental conditions. Delta Disaster Services franchise offices, located in 16 markets across the United States, are proud to have technicians certified in all restoration services they offer.

And now Mike is proud to be part of HRI Holdings Inc., based in Nashville. The company is probably best known in this industry as the parent company to Chem-Dry Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, but also owns the fast-growing N-Hance Wood Refinishing franchise. HRI Holdings acquired Delta Disaster Services early in 2018 and added the company to its portfolio of franchise offerings.

Early days

Delta Disaster Services was a true start-up company. Thirteen years ago, it was just Mike, flying solo. “I doubled our revenues every year for the first three years, and by our fourth year in business, we were an Inc. 500 company and one of the top 500 fastest-growing businesses in the U.S.” A solid reason to be proud. “By year five, we were a $5 million restoration firm, not only meeting, but surpassing our goals. In year six, we began franchising. And now, we’re aligned with the top insurance carriers in the country.”

Because of this type of fast growth — coupled with how Mike built the business “the right way” — he quickly caught the attention of the HRI Holdings acquisition team.

Unique partnerships

Although Mike has been solidly involved with the development of Delta Disaster Services since its inception, his vision to eventually franchise wasn’t based on a mere dream.

“Believe it or not, I started out as a franchise development director with Chem-Dry many years ago,” he recalled. “In this position, I witnessed a number of Chem-Dry franchises expand into the restoration business. It was clear to me then that this was an emerging industry, and there was a consumer need and a market opportunity that I could build on. To date, I’ve been in the restoration industry over 33 years.”

Now his company is part of a global community with more than 3,500 locations, including the HRI Holdings’ other residential and commercial services portfolio companies, Chem-Dry and N-Hance. Delta Disaster Services already has locations in Colorado, California, Utah, and eastern Gulf states but has plans to grow as any franchise model envisions.

And growth should happen since with Chem-Dry alone the company is in 55 countries, serving 11,000 homes and businesses each day. The franchise model should play out well for Delta Disaster Services. Some of that growth will come from within the HRI family of businesses. In fact, HRI reports they have already sold three Delta Disaster Services franchises to existing Chem-Dry franchisees within 30 days from offering the opportunity under the HRI umbrella.

Core values

Dan Tarantin is the president and chief executive officer of HRI Holdings. When his team was performing the due diligence common to acquisitions, they noticed a common belief in company values.

“As we began talking to Mike and learning more about Delta Disaster Services, we found the same kind of commitment to quality and innovation that we have with Chem-Dry and N-Hance,” Dan said. “Their very successful company-owned operation in Denver was the foundation for the unique Delta Disaster Services franchise model. Their innovation in areas including systems where they’ve built a customized, integrated, cloud-based communication and project management platform sets them apart in the industry.”

Mike saw the same thing.

“I also wholeheartedly agree with Dan that all three brands have a strong commitment to quality and innovation that make them a good fit within the HRI portfolio,” he observed. “One additional point worth mentioning is that, in our discovery process, we also found that the companies were well aligned in our mission and values. Both cultures are very customer-focused and built around the principle of helping our franchisees to be successful in running and growing their businesses. To me, that’s also a critical part of a successful integration of businesses and why I have so much confidence in this partnership and in the future growth of Delta Disaster Services.”

And everyone benefits from this business model. Delta Disaster Services can achieve its goal of growing to a national scale because of it being part of the HRI Holdings team. And Chem-Dry and N-Hance franchisees can now look at expanding into the property restoration market.

“The acquisition of Delta Disaster Services was a monumental step for HRI,” Dan said. “Existing Chem-Dry and N-Hance operators now have an opportunity to expand into the restoration industry with the strong, established franchise model that Delta Disaster Services has built and be a part of growing the brand on a national scale. Many of our Chem-Dry franchisees, similar to independents, have been offering restoration services but have hit a ceiling on their growth. The Delta Disaster Services system will help them break through that ceiling. It’s exciting to see this already beginning to come to fruition, with some existing Chem-Dry owners seeing the value and buying a Delta Disaster Services franchise. And we expect to see a lot more of that growth soon, not only from within our existing networks, but also from outside them.”

Optimistic outlook

Although right now a very successful property restoration company, more must be done, especially with the franchise business model.

“We are excited to see Delta Disaster Services achieve national scale and prominence in the restoration category in the coming years,” Mike said. “HRI has developed Chem-Dry and N-Hance into internationally acclaimed, award-winning brands. By leveraging their expertise and the same growth model, we have the opportunity to experience that same type of exponential growth.”

[infobox title=’Estradatize Cleaning & Restoration Systems’][/infobox]

Owning and operating a small, lean cleaning and restoration company in a huge metropolitan market such as Houston can be a logistical nightmare, but one entrepreneur has taken the challenge on with optimism.

David Estrada is the president of , running the company with his capable wife Melanie — whom, he would admit is “the real boss.”

While David has company growth on his radar, at this time it is a small blip, as he wants to make sure expansion is “slow and steady” so he can keep a handle on everything client related, as he has built a faithful following that he truly cares about.

His company is staffed by five capable professionals and specializes in water and fire restoration, which is what David claims is his true passion and most profitable division of the company. Estradatize also offers complete pack-out services and structural rebuilding, along with carpet, rug, upholstery, and tile and grout cleaning.

A modest company offering it all.

Starting at the bottom

Prior to his work in the cleaning and restoration industry, David was a purchasing agent and worked for two import/export companies and traveled to Mexico to visit different company locations. But that came to an end when he was laid off.

As a young man looking for work, he struggled to find something that was satisfactory. He eventually responded to a classified advertisement for a carpet cleaning technician position. The salary was $1,000 per week, which was what he was looking for.

He jumped into the work and found he enjoyed it immensely, along with the restoration side of the industry. The entrepreneur in him wouldn’t allow him to stay there long, and in 1991 he launched his own company.

Growing pains

Over the next 10 years, he built his company to a multi-truck operation, offering everything from carpet cleaning to mold remediation. Then the terror attacks on the United States brought the cleaning side of his company to a screeching halt. “People were afraid to spend money, not knowing how this tragedy would affect them,” David said. “I had to downscale to one van and shortly thereafter stopped the mold remediation part of my operation since insurance companies would not cover that any longer. Fortunately, my overhead was not very high, so the impact was not so severe.”

Since then, a strong marketing campaign has helped all aspects of his company, although he had another personal setback. “I went through a divorce, and that impacted not only me, but also my company,” he explained. “Things were kind of in limbo for a while, since I was used to my ex-wife’s assistance with the business.”

With his substantial experience in the industry, coupled with his bilingual abilities — he can speak both English and Spanish fluently — his career is on the move.

Making it work

David’s credentials and a willing-to-learn attitude makes growth a certainty. He won’t give up, and focuses on the big picture when he works on expanding his operation.

He believes in certification. In fact, years ago he was an Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration (IICRC)-approved instructor, helping others in the industry with their technical expertise. As the first Spanish-speaking instructor and teaching the first certification classes in Spanish, he made history. Whether it was using Spanish or English, David enjoyed helping students with technical expertise. And he hopes to return to teaching again soon. “Being certified in this industry sets us apart from other companies,” he explained. “And I feel it is very necessary.”

He plans to continue to grow his company by doing what has worked successfully so far, such as utilizing a recorded consumer-awareness message. “Since I’m a strong advocate of consumer education, it has helped me draw quality clients. Also, the ‘five-around’ cold-calling method I use in the neighborhoods I work in is a great way to reach new clients.”

What would he do differently, thinking back over the years? “I would have attended more marketing classes,” he laments. The technical expertise is one thing, but getting a quality clientele is another component entirely, he said.

“But no matter what, don’t let life’s ups and downs affect your business,” he advised. “Keep a positive and optimistic attitude.”

[infobox title=’SteamMaster Restoration and Cleaning’][/infobox]

Many restoration companies have their roots in cleaning, specifically carpet cleaning, and when they envision their company name, it usually ends with “Cleaning and Restoration.”

Cleaning first, and restoration second, even if the company does more restoration than cleaning.

Not so with in Minturn, CO. While the company offers most cleaning and restoration services, it is a very restoration-focused firm and makes sure that’s how the company is represented when people see the SteamMaster name and logo.

Raj Manickam is a co-owner and chief executive officer of the company. The company, established in 1978 by majority shareholders Gary Gilman and Julie Stoxen, is in its 40th year of operation. Matt Monica is the vice president and co-owner and has been part of the company for more than 30 years.

SteamMaster serves nine counties in Colorado, mainly in the towns of Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Winter Park, and the surrounding mountain resort communities.

The birth of SteamMaster

When Gary Gilman founded the company, he wanted to provide a single source of cleaning and restoration services in the Vail, CO, area — and also support his skiing habits.

Gary Gilman moved to the Vail area in 1977 to ski for one season and obtain in-state tuition for college at Colorado University. With the El Niño ski season, Vail had more than 500 inches of snow. Gary was hooked. With that kind of skiing, he decided to abandon plans for returning to college and started a cleaning company after the ski season. This allowed him to pursue his passion of skiing powder when the conditions were right. Since then, the company has grown and also experienced ups and downs.

Currently, SteamMaster hovers at just under 30 employees, with nearly 20 work vehicles housed in a 12,500-square foot, three-story building that also touts a nine-employee housing unit so their trained technicians can respond to emergency losses at any time and on any day. Housing costs and the general cost of living in a ski resort area is obviously prohibitive for many, and with on-site housing for those in the company who want it, it’s a win-win situation.

The services SteamMaster offers is lengthy, but Raj indicated that the largest volume of revenue comes from the company’s restoration division, which includes emergency water mitigation, smoke and fire damage restoration, and mold remediation.

Specific challenges

In a ski resort town, the obvious challenges are cost of living coupled with finding great, trainable, and sustainable employees, Raj said.

“After the economic downturn, many competitors started to create a one-man or two-man cleaning company, and several restoration companies also came into existence as competitors,” he recalls. “The marketplace became saturated with cleaning and restoration companies. We combated this with always remaining true to our values, cause, and being consistent. We never try to compete in our competitor’s terms and how they do business, but rather work harder at our own creativity and the benefits we bring to our clients, customers, and the communities we serve in.”

Everyone works in line with the SteamMaster company values, which uses the acronym B.R.I.E.R, representing balance, responsibility, integrity, excellence, and results. It works. “It is not what we occasionally do, but what we do all the time,” Raj said. “We are a community-impacting organization, year after year. And we are proud of our civic engagement, environmental, and sustainability contributions we make.”

The downturn in the economy came about a year after it really started, at least for SteamMaster, which is a tribute to their success. “We went down 50 percent in volume, in both revenue and employees,” Raj recalls. “The market in a resort town tends to be the last that is affected, and the last to come out of it, as well. We had many quick-moving companies betting on fast profits and unscrupulous tactics come one after another, and then fade away.”

SteamMaster maintained a lean, frugal, and hunkered-down mentality, while keeping its company values intact, Raj said. “This helped us rebound slowly and steadily. We have yet to get back to our 2008 and prior year revenues, but we are resolved to get there with sustainable growth. We have added three new services that will help stimulate new opportunities for revenue, and anticipate the next five years will see incremental double digit growth.”

He sounds like a banker, doesn’t he?

“Prior to working in restoration, I was in the banking industry,” he said. “Those are the two main areas I have been involved in. Two different spectrums, but it was the best thing I ever did for my career in restoration.”

Solid philosophy

Growth rarely occurs by mistake, as Raj will testify. It occurs because a determined team effort makes it happen.

“This is a noble industry when the intent and actions equate to doing the right thing. Our industry has its bothersome stigma with bad apples operating without conscience,” Raj said. “When done right, we make a huge difference in the lives of people we serve, enhancing quality of life. Indoor air quality, responding in an emergency and bringing calm, bringing back the beauty of all surfaces we clean and restore, and enhancing them, is what we strive for. Getting feedback from our customers and clients is what I appreciate and like.”

The plan is to keep doing what works, which includes giving back to the community, keeping up with cutting-edge technology and equipment, and always offering their clientele the best service possible.

See the 2017 Restoration Industry Leaders Review here.��

The post The 2018 Restoration Industry Leaders Review appeared first on Cleanfax.

When performing water damage restoration, we greatly rely on moisture meters to tell us important information about the status of the drying process.

When we start the job, we measure the conditions of the loss. Can we consider an open drying system? Which type of dehumidifier would be best? And as the job progresses, we wonder if we are making true progress or if drying has stopped. We might wonder if our equipment is even working properly at all.

The human body can sense moisture and temperature, certainly, but not to the degree of sensitivity required to map out a water loss or to determine whether drying is occurring. We rely on sensitive equipment — such as moisture meters — to give us the truth about an environment before we can proceed with any sort of assurance.

One can put a hand over a stove that is on and say, “Yes, it’s hot all right!” But we can’t determine if it is 450 or 460 degrees Fahrenheit. The difference of just 10 degrees can make all the difference in the world in a drying situation. And without properly calibrated meters, we may be missing that crucial difference.

Mistreatment mishaps

If moisture meters are so important to us, then why do we treat them like a regular claw hammer?  Why do we let people throw them on the floor of the vehicle, leave them in the front dash on a hot summer day, or let them sit in the van overnight and freeze in the winter?

Meters are sensitive electrical devices, even more so than your smartphone or tablet. Mistreatment of any kind can cause your meters to go out of calibration.

This brings up the question: Why is frequent moisture meter calibration important? Before answering this question, let’s look at something all of us have experienced.

How you care for your meters affects their dependability | Image courtesy of Protimeter

Why moisture meter calibration?

Most of us try to maintain an appropriate physical weight. Yet all of us are different, considering our own height, bone structure, muscle mass, etc.

A “good” weight varies considerably from person to person. But many of us get on the scale at home to see “where we are” and then get weighed at another place such as a doctor office, and, excluding clothing, our weight is different, sometimes by many pounds.

What is the difference? Is it the amount of gravitational attraction between you and the earth? Not quite. The difference is one scale is giving you an accurate weight (a scale that is in calibration) and the other scale is giving you an incorrect weight (a scale that is out of calibration).

So how does this correlate to you on a drying job? Let’s look at a couple of examples of what an incorrect reading could and would do to your decision making and, thus, what could and would happen to the job.

Starting a job

You arrive at a water loss and use your thermo-hygrometer to determine initial conditions. You feel with your skin that indoor conditions are warm, really warm, but your meter gives you a temperature of 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

A reading of 84 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity would lead you to choose a low-grain refrigerant (LGR) as the type of dehumidifier to set up. But what if your meter is wrong and the actual temperature is 96 degrees Fahrenheit? Many LGRs do not work properly (if at all) in very high-temperature environments. In this situation, making sure the dehumidifier is designed for high-temperature work would be required. If the dehumidifier you have is not a high-temperature machine, then using air conditioning to lower the temperature down into the dehumidifier’s best operating temperature range would be required.

Thus, your out-of-calibration meter will lead you to make an incorrect drying decision and critically delay the drying process.

During a job

You are on day three of a drying job. You arrive to do the daily monitoring, and the affected area feels… sort of OK. Your meter tells you the air is dry, about 20 percent relative humidity (RH). The temperature in the affected area is 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many of the materials are still showing quite a bit of moisture, which you determined using non-penetrating and penetrating moisture meters, so the job is not done… and maybe not making any real progress. With the information from our thermo-hygrometer, we know the affected area is at about 25 grains per pound (gpp), which is dry air. The process-out air from your dehumidifier is measuring about the same, 25 gpp, so there is virtually no grain depression; the air from the dehumidifier and in the affected area is dry, so the materials should be drying.

Checking the accuracy of a meter is important, and a test block with an expected moisture value can be used |Image courtesy Lignomat

What is wrong? Perhaps your readings. What if the RH is really 50 percent, and thus you have 65 gpp in the environment and are only getting 65 gpp process-out air from the dehumidifier? Your thermo-hygrometer has given you a wrong reading on humidity, meaning drying is not really occurring at the rate it should be, which you also noticed from your moisture mapping that showed materials that were not drying.

But what if, as I have seen on many jobs, true detailed moisture maps are not being generated, and all we have is the record of drying conditions? The air in the affected area is dry, the air coming out of the dehumidifier is dry.�� And the affected area is not drying. What do you think the end result of this job is going to be? Not very good at all.

These are just two examples of what can and will go wrong if your meters are not providing accurate information.

Optimal operation

The world of meters offers many brands and models. Each brand and model has specific instructions on how the meter should be handled and how often it should be calibrated. You need your meters operating properly — all the time.

Ensure that technicians are treating their assigned equipment — including those precious meters — with the respect and care they’d use if they had purchased it themselves, and hold them accountable if their negligence of that equipment results in damage, loss, or theft. Always keep your owner’s manual handy and check it when you have a concern, or contact your local distributor if you’ve lost your manual.

Remember, moisture meter calibration is important. It’s like a tune-up, and ensures it is working correctly. Contact your manufacturer for details on calibration.

If your meters provide inaccurate information, you will make mistakes in the field that can be very costly — much more than the cost or inconvenience of ensuring your meter is in proper working condition.

Richard Driscoll has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson College of Technology, an MBA from the University of Dayton, and is currently working on his doctorate. He is a professor at Webster University where he provides graduate and undergraduate level lectures. He is an Certified Master Restorer, Master Textile Cleaner, and approved instructor. He also is the author and instructor for Restoration Sciences Academy’s MR-110 and MR-210 microbial remediation classes and MR-211 trauma scene clean-up class. He can be reached ������rmd490@earthlink.net.

The post The Calibration Conundrum appeared first on Cleanfax.

Rick describes this particular job: “We had a client bring in this area rug, and she wanted to know if there was any hope in getting it to look better. We explained she could probably buy a new one for the same price as the cleaning. She said the rug had sentimental value and asked us to do the best we could. We used our Rug Badger to remove dry soiling, vacuumed both sides, presprayed with Procyon, shampooed with MasterBlend Oriental Rug Shampoo, cleaned and rinsed both sides with our HydraMaster CDS, applied fiber rinse, groomed it, and hung it to dry. The client was so happy, she had a tear in her eye when she picked it up.”

For an opportunity to win a chemical prize package from Solutions by Steam Pros (worth $250), send your images and a brief 100-word description on how you obtained your results to Jeff Cross, executive editor, at JeffCross@������ý.com or 193 Purple Finch Loop, Pataskala, OH 43062. Contest rules available by request.

There is no such thing as true “dry” carpet cleaning, compared to “dry” upholstery cleaning. Dry solvent usage for carpet is limited to spot and stain removal, while dry solvent usage is acceptable for overall upholstery cleaning — with proper ventilation and personal protective equipment of course.

Although some consumers may claim they sense a formaldehyde odor with new carpet, the carpet manufacturing industry claims no formaldehyde is used in production.

The post The Sentimental-Value Rug [photo contest] appeared first on Cleanfax.