ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —  Coming home from the holidays, one of the worst things you can discover is a water leak while you were away. However, Secure Restoration, a local housing mitigation and restoration company, can help.

Looking for leakage

According to Rob Franks, owner of Secure Restoration, there are a couple different types of water leaks.

“Typically, somebody discovers they’ve got a water leak when they’re coming home from work, they come home from a trip, they see something that indicates they’ve had a water leak,” Franks said. “People might discover a water leak inside of a wall, when they’ve got a mold smell or it’s starting to rot through, so it’s been going off for a long time. Sudden water leaks and there’s water leaks that have been hidden.”

In the case of a leak, while many water leaks are covered by property insurance, Secure Restoration can help with an emergency situation.

“If it’s a situation where there is a flood, basically, in their house, and they’ve turned off the water and there’s a bunch of sitting water, we’ll send an emergency crew out,” Franks said. “We can do that 24/7. We send an emergency crew out to extract all the water and try to minimize what we call ‘secondary damage.'”

In those scenarios, Secure Restoration will remove irreparable materials and use a small amount of machinery to mitigate the damage before clients check in with their insurance. This is the stabilization process.

Working with insurance

Secure Restoration can assist with determining an accurate insurance claim after water damage.

“Typically, people are gonna have a deductible of some sort. They’re gonna want to know, ‘Is this cost gonna be higher than my deductible?’ And that really varies,” Franks explained. “We’ll help them with some preliminary estimating, of what the costs are gonna look like, and then they can make a decision whether to file a claim or not.”

Secure Restoration will help clients communicate with their insurance adjuster, discussing allocated funds with the insurance company as additional repairs present themselves.

“The insurance company says, ‘Okay, this is gonna be a $3,000 job, and they reserve that amount,” Franks provided as an example. “We open up a wall, and there’s been this huge hidden leak and there’s a bunch of damage, we’re going to have to do a lot more work than we anticipated.”

Types of damage

After flooding or water leakage, Secure Restoration might have to remove drywall, insulation and flooring. While the former can rarely be salvaged, flooring can occasionally be saved if acted on quickly. This is the mitigation process.

“Hardwood, for example, can be salvaged sometimes, when we have the equipment to do that. During that stabilization process, we would potentially install some mats that would reduce the amount of moisture and hardwood to prevent it from cupping. Once the hardwood cups, it’s not replaceable. It’s not repairable,” Franks cautioned.

Cupping is what happens when a wooden board absorbs moisture, causing its edges to lift higher than its center and form a “cup” shape.

Another restorative measure Secure Restoration can take is to apply an antibacterial spray to the home, particularly if the leaked water was dirty.

“We have different types of water sources that could have been involved in the leak,” Franks said.

Class 1 is clean water, such as water that leaks out an ice machine.

Class 2 is slightly dirty water, but not dirty enough to cause illness, such as drain water from the dishwasher.

Class 3 is dirty water that might cause illness, such as water mixed with bird poop leaking through the ceiling.

“So, depending on the class, it makes a lot of sense to put a antimicrobial spray. We also want to spray to reduce the chances of mold, so there’s also an anti-fungal element to the spray,” Franks summarized.

Reconstruction process

After working to get a home cleared of water and damaged materials, Secure Restoration can assist with rebuilding, too.

“We stabilized, we mitigated, the house is now ready for reconstruction,” Franks
said. “At this point, everything stops until we agree to a construction repair estimate with the insurance company. We will put a proposal together and if the owner agrees with it, send it to insurance.”

Franks and his team essentially work as general contractors, identifying the work that needs to be done, filing for permits and bringing in plumbers, electricians and HVAC technicians as needed.

“I find those people, I bring them in, I pay them, I monitor them, get the inspection scheduled,” Franks said. “Everything that has to be replaced, is replaced and repaired, and that process can take a while. So, it’s really important that we have good communication with the homeowner, good communication with the insurance company, to speed that process up.” 

Stabilization. Mitigation. Reconstruction.

“These are all steps and phases that most people who have a significant amount of water damage are going to go through,” Franks said.

If you are dealing with a water leakage emergency, contact Secure Restoration by phone at (828) 490-7800 or email at rob@securerestoration.com.

For more information, visit www.securerestoration.com.