During my career as a professional restorer spanning the past 25-plus years I've encountered a wide range of building disasters from broken pipes and wastepaper basket fires to hurricane damaged hotels and firebombed schools. Professional restoration contractors handle everything from routine residential water losses to major high rise fire losses, including sewage damaged crawl spaces, kitchen protein fires, tear gas incidents, trauma scene clean-ups, vandalism, and the newest "hot topic," mold contamination. These disasters affect a wide range of buildings, people and personal property from the single-family residence to a high rise office building. The damage can be incidental or catastrophic in nature. The building may be vacant or involve the heart transplant ward of a hospital.

If you own, manage, live or work in a building, or are responsible for the health, comfort and welfare of a building's occupants, what do you do after a disaster strikes? Whom do you call? That's the focus of this article: How does one mitigate the damage to a building and its contents, prevent IEQ problems, insure a healthy indoor environment for the occupants, and restore the damaged property to a pre-loss condition?

Why IEQ Problems Occur After A Disaster

The "Evil Dozen" list on the previous page is not meant to be humorous, but an accurate point of view from a professional restorer. It represents "real life" in the field. Some of the reasons are complex issues that are beyond the scope of the suggestions provided in this article. I do believe that an educated consumer of restoration services who makes sound decisions after the disaster will have fewer problems and a healthier restored building than one who is uninformed and acts impulsively.

At this point, we should make some assumptions before proceeding: the building owner has adequate insurance coverage or funds to pay for the required restoration/remediation services, and in the event the damage is a commercial building, a disaster contingency plan is in effect which usually includes the pre-qualification of a mitigation contractor.

Based on these assumptions, it is critical following a loss that a process starts to have a "meeting of the minds" among the three parties that are central to a disaster restoration project. These are: the property owner, their insurance company and the restoration contractor of record. This unique relationship is what I call the "Restoration Triangle": Who's Damaged, Who's Fixin' It, and Who's Payin' For It.

If one of these parties is left out of the process of determining and agreeing on the extent of damage, scope of repair, cost of restoration to a pre-loss condition, and time lines and criteria for satisfactory completion, then there will be problems. These problems usually lead to IEQ issues, the cause of which can probably be traced back to the "evil dozen" list of reasons stated earlier.

Meeting Of The Minds In The "Restoration Triangle"

My experience has taught me that following a disaster, most insured parties want their property restored quickly, properly and at no out-of-pocket expense. Of course they must pay their deductible, but that is usually applied toward some portion of the claim that was a total loss. The problem is that most people haven't been through this before and don't know what to do. They must rely on the advice of others. That advice usually starts with a call to their insurance agent who will verify if they have coverage for the event and who may recommend a restoration contractor to help the insured mitigate their damage. The agent will also help file a claim on the insured's behalf, which will generate a claim number and assign an adjuster to the file.

By the time the adjuster responds and actually visits the site, the insured may or may not have authorized a restorer to mitigate the damage and the adjuster may or may not have solicited one of the insurance company's "preferred" contractors to contact the insured to "look at" the loss. Of course, while all this is going on there may already be the agent's recommended contractor on the job or someone the insured contacted through other means. Possibly, neither of these contractors is on the "preferred" list. We've just gotten started and already it's confusing.

Now, the above scenario may vary from loss to loss, but any experienced restorer worth their salt will confirm the accuracy and frequency at which these situations occur. One can only ask: What's a well meaning insured to do?

Well, let's first start with defining the roles of the adjuster and contractor of record. An adjuster's responsibility as quoted from an article in Claims Magazine, November 1998 issue, Page 53, "An adjuster is a fiduciary agent, who must do what's equitable for all parties involved in a loss." It is generally regarded as the adjuster's role to control the loss and ensure that the insurance company pays what it owes to the insured under the terms of the policy. The contractor's role is to provide the expertise and means to restore the damaged property to a pre-loss condition at a profit. In this role, once the insured contracts with the restorer, making him the restoration contractor of record, he has the responsibility to act in the best interests of his client (the insured).

In the contractor's "good faith" effort to act in his client's best interests, make a profit and not alienate the insurance adjuster, lies the essence of a successful restoration contractor. This is not an easy job, as the insured often has a sense of "entitlement" that must be dealt with, or the insured may feel victimized by a previous claim, and sometimes the insurance adjuster may breach his fiduciary duty to the profession and act as an advocate for the insured, insurance company or another contractor. And up to this point we haven't even discussed the possibility of this being a complex loss that may involve multiple claimants and insurance companies, public insurance adjusters who act as advocates for the insured similar to an attorney, third-party experts such as industrial hygienists, engineers and others who may be involved in a major loss scenario.

So, let's digress for a moment and outline the fundamental components essential to a successful restoration project that must be addressed by the three main participants in the Restoration Triangle to reach a meeting of the minds.

How The Restoration Triangle Reaches Agreement

The first essential ingredient is to identify the extent and degree of damage. An important sub-component is to assess the risk to the occupants and workers in the building, or those who may be entering the building. It is also vital to identify damages actually related to the cause of loss, as opposed to other damage that was pre-existing.

Second, a scope of work must be prepared and agreed upon after a thorough inspection of the damaged site, along with appropriate interviewing of the insured. During this phase, it is important that the need is established for any recommended procedures or repairs. Damage assessment is a complex process that entails training and experience. It should be viewed holistically because each procedure is directly related to each other procedure in establishing an appropriate scope for a specific project. How the damage is viewed directly relates to the recommended scope, which in turn will be proportional to the success or failure of each task that makes up the restoration process. For example, if the recommendation is to clean a wall when it really needed to be painted, then no matter how well the cleaning is done, the job will be unacceptable. It is important that the experts (i.e., contractors, consultants, etc.) provide an explanation for their recommendations to either do or not to do something so the layman understands the whys and can have a higher level of confidence for a successful job.

The third step is to prepare a detailed estimate of cost, including time lines and acceptance criteria as important sub-components. The detailed estimate will serve as marching orders for the contractor, road map for the insured, and a basis for the adjuster to establish and contain costs. It is also the frame of reference for all parties in the triangle to help clarify and resolve potential disputes.

It has been my experience in competitive bidding that a large difference in price by seemingly equally qualified contractors is usually related to a difference in scope. One guy is doing more or less than the other It's like comparing apples and oranges.

What this means is, until all three parties have agreed on the extent and degree of damage, a scope of work cannot be prepared. Until the scope is prepared and agreed upon it can't be determined how much it will cost and when it will be done.

Finally, how will the three parties know that everyone did what they agreed to so there won't be a problem later? On sewage and mold remediation projects where health issues are a concern, a third-party evaluator (e.g., an environmental consultant) is beginning to be more commonplace. Insurance companies, building owners and contractors realize that in our litigious society of heightened awareness their liability and exposure is increased proportionately based on the type of damage, and the attitudes and perceptions of today's more savvy claimant (i.e., property owners, occupants, affected parties, etc.). Use of independent third parties to help specify, oversee and clear a project is starting to be the norm and has added a new dynamic to the Triangle.

Getting From Here To There

It's not always easy to follow the above rules. It can be very challenging and stressful, but I believe the health and well being of the workers and occupants who must work in and enter these damaged buildings makes the effort worthwhile.

In closing, I'd like to say that if you fail at using my prescribed suggestions and the communication process starts to shut down the alternatives are not encouraging. Before you attempt to take legal action, try a little harder to satisfy your interests, or consider alternative dispute resolution such as arbitration or mediation. If all else fails, and you must take legal action to protect your interests, make sure you have the best lawyer you can afford!

Epilogue

As a resource for readers of this article I have prepared a list of references and documents for locating qualified contractors, third-party evaluators, best restoration practices, restoration-related IEQ training and disaster contingency planning.

Locating Qualified Restoration Contractors:

Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration International (ASCR International)
(800) 272-7012
www.ascr.org

Locating Third-Party Evaluators: 

American Industrial Hygiene
Association (AIHA)
(703) 849-8888
www.aiha.org

Finding Best Practices in Restoration, Remediation and Investigation

• Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)
  S-500 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration (2nd Edition).
  (360) 693-5675
  www.iicrc.org
  Note: S-100 and S-300 IICRC Standards for Professional Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning are also available
• NIDR Guidelines for Fire and Smoke Damage Repair
  The National Institute of Disaster Restoration (NIDR) is a division of ASCR International.
  (800) 272-7012
  www.ascr.org
• CGIH's Bioaerosols Assessment and Control
  Contact the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists
  (573) 742-6163
  www.acgih.org
• AIHA's Field Guide for the Determination of Biological Contaminants in Environmental Samples
  Contact AIHA
  (703) 849-8888
  www.aiha.org
• New York City Guidelines on Assessment and Remediation of Fungus in
  Indoor Environments
  Contact: New York City Department of Health, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Disease Epidemiology
  (212) 788-4290, or see document on the web at: www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/epi/moldrpt1.html

Restoration-Related IEQ Training:

MidAtlantic Environmental Hygiene
Resource Center (MEHRC), a program of the University City Science Center
(215) 387-4096
www.mehrc.org

Disaster Contingency Planning:

Disaster Recovery Institute
International (DRI)
(314) 434-2272
www.dr.org

Disaster Recovery Journal
(314) 894-0276
www.drj.com

Pete Consigli is a veteran of the professional cleaning and restoration industry and has been an advocate to improve communication between the restoration, insurance, and IEQ industries. He is a Certified Restorer (CR) qualified by the NIDR Division of ASCR International. He served four years as Education Chair for the Water Loss Institute (WLI) a Division of ASCR, International and is presently a "Goodwill Ambassador" for WLI. He served on the IICRC S-500 water damage task force for both the 1994 and 1999 editions as well as being the Co-Chair of the S-500 2nd edition's Inspection Subcommittee, and served for 5 years on the IICRC Board of Directors. Pete was recipient of the IAQ industry's Public Service Award in 1999, and serves on the editorial advisory board of Indoor Environment Connections. For the past four years, he has been a co-developer and presenter of "Damage Mitigation and Building Restoration for a Healthy Indoor Environment," a fire and water damage restoration awareness course for the IEQ industry presented by the MidAtlantic Environmental Hygiene Resource Center in Philadelphia. Pete is an independent consultant and trainer based out of Stamford, Conn., serving the restoration, insurance and IEQ industries. You can reach him by calling (203) 327-9755.

Statement of Copyright

The contents and concepts of this article are the intellectual property of G. Pete Consigli. This document was prepared for Indoor Environment Communications for publication in the October 2000 issue of Indoor Environment Connections. Use of this copyrighted article outside of brief quotes and excerpts requires permission of G. Pete Consigli (203-327-9755, or fax 203-323-9901) and/or Glenn Fellman at Indoor Environment Communications (301-962-5070, or email IAQglenn@aol.com).