Clean up on aisle 12!
Steamatic of Virginia Peninsula
A Commercial Fire
Shortly after 11:00am on Monday, September 21, 2020, a small fire was reported inside one of our large commercial retail stores. The fire was contained to an unoccupied store on the lower level of the building and was quickly extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system. While the fire damage was minimal, smoke and soot penetrated the store and the store department, and the sprinkler caused substantial water damage to the first floor where the
store decor and two large sections of books and house items are housed.
The Call
A local carpet cleaning company was first on-site in an attempt to extract the water. It quickly became apparent that the amount of moisture and the extent of drying required a professional restoration company, in order to mitigate the damage. Steamatic of Virginia Peninsula walked through the affected area with franchise officials, evaluated the damage, formulated a drying process, and submitted the required estimate and purchase order to begin work on the project.
The Client
Open communication, complete discloser, and working with limited disruption to the Store hours, the staff had established from the beginning of the project. Our project manager briefed the General Manager of the store at least twice daily with the day’s work schedule and a timeline progress report. Steamatic’s water restoration tech checked the moisture level in various locations of the Store every day and logged the specific levels in a mitigation binder. This binder was kept onsite and allowed the store’s management team, their adjusters, and Maintenance staff to check the drying progress themselves. Steamatic’s contents team worked to clean the fire damaged areas while the mitigation team worked on moving heavy supplies, setting up drying equipment and mitigating the water damage without disrupting the store staff whose daily operations resumed two days after the fire occurred. Steamatic of VA Peninsula also worked on Saturdays and after the store closed performing functions that could potentially disrupt Store activity.
The Supplies and books
Following the fire and it’s extinguishing, books, decorations items in the Decor aisle sustained water damage and were exposed to high humidity. Since high humidity can lead to the growth of mold or mildew in books, paper goods and special documents, the team knew time was of the essence to prevent this growth. They moved over 1000 books into a special chamber and set up on the lower level of the store. In this chamber, the team was able to control the humidity levels and dry the books, documents and paper items while the remediation took place around it throughout the store. In a week’s time. Stematic of Virginia Peninsula was able to remove the humidity from the items, dry and clean the affected areas and assist in returning the items to the assigned areas.
Testimonials
“Friendly, professional, and timely service provided. You can’t go wrong with Steamatic!”
Monica Harries, Payne & Associates, Inc.
“Very reliable and responsive company! Work and ethics are amazing.”
Mike Descher, MediaGroup Marketing
“The whole team at Steamatic is top-notch! Great customer service!!”
Katie Wind, ADP Small Business Services