What Is Restorative Drying?
Restorative drying removes abnormal water from structures to "restore" materials to a normal condition. It prevents moisture damage, microorganism and soil contamination, odors, and loss of indoor air quality. When damage has already occurred, restorative drying combines with steps like cleaning, refinishing, removal and replacement. Most abnormal water comes from within the building. Potential for damage exists even when the water is relatively clean from burst pipes, faulty appliances, leaky waterbeds, or many other sources. Sources that are more contaminating include overflowed toilets, sewer backups, or river floods.

The purpose of restorative drying is to decontaminate and dry materials efficiently. Except for easily movable items like furniture and contents, the aim is usually to dry them on-site rather than remove them. In some cases, restorative drying can even save saturated books and documents, hardwood floors, and soaked walls and ceilings.

Why Consider Restorative Drying?
The majority of water damage jobs affect carpet, and carpet is the cleaning professional's home field. The carpet cleaner already knows about carpet, and may already possess some drying equipment like airmovers. Also, it is natural for customers to associate restorative drying services with carpet cleaning, so a marketing advantage exists from the beginning.

Expanding into restorative drying can be a true expansion of existing services. A carpet cleaning company may already handle minor water spills with existing equipment such as a truck-mount. By adding airmovers and dehumidifiers, plus moisture detection instruments and the training to use them correctly, this company could handle larger and more complex jobs of the same kind.

More difficult restorative drying jobs include multiple-room saturation, water in walls, ceilings and insulation, water from unsanitary sources, water damage requiring reconstruction, and fire and smoke restoration. Handling such work involves much more planning and a higher level of expertise.

The initial diversification into restorative drying can be a natural fit for the right carpet cleaning company. Technicians already know a great deal about carpet, how to clean it, repair it, and if necessary replace it. They have experience with damp or wet carpet and cushion.

The Benefits of Expansion
Expanding into restorative drying can be profitable. Restoration work demands stepping up in skills, equipment, and knowledge, which can also result in a step up in profits. Overall, restorative drying is less labor intensive than cleaning, and depends more on skill and experience. Much of the profit comes from the rental charges for airmovers and dehumidifiers that operate on the job 24 hours a day.

Providing extra services in restorative drying expands the customer base. After experiencing a water-damage situation, customers tend to continue a relationship with a company that has met their emergency needs satisfactorily, and call them for routine cleanings as well.

Residential cleaning companies may be able to reduce idle time during a slow season, usually the winter. Water damage jobs tend to be more frequent in fall and winter, putting people and equipment to work when the carpet cleaning business is slower, and smoothing out the seasonal cycle.

Helping people out during water-damage situations is a responsible community service. Not only are abnormal water situations dangerous to structural soundness and to health, they are naturally upsetting and traumatic for people. Restorative drying contractors can be proud if they are able to help in such situations.

Consider the Added Responsibility
Of course, expanding into restorative drying often means business growth and additional profits, but it also calls for extra responsibility. Business expansion must be done carefully to guard against financial problems or being unready for the greater responsibility.

Restoration is an emergency response business. This means the company must have telephone service, personnel and equipment available to work every day, all day and night. The challenge and stress can be much greater and more complex than offering only daytime, non-emergency services.

A company that expands into restorative drying must deliver high caliber service in more difficult circumstances. Building occupants whose lives have been disrupted must be dealt with patiently, and the work must be done fast. Also, a third party usually enters the scene, namely an insurance company needing to be satisfied because they pay the invoice.

Drying jobs that are not done right can cause further damage. Hidden water in wall cavities or beneath cushion can lead to mold, mildew, and rot. Failure to reduce indoor humidity can cause absorption of water vapor by sensitive materials. Indoor air quality can be severely degraded. If insufficient drying leads to health problems or further property damage, a contractor doing a poor or incomplete job can be held legally responsible.

Training and Equipment
There is one good strategy for keeping out of trouble after a diversification into restorative drying work. That strategy is to obtain proper training ahead of time. Excellent training schools and seminars are available frequently across the U.S. and Canada. Usually these are one- or two-day programs teaching people about necessary equipment, tools, chemicals and methods.

At the end of a training session, the class participant can often become certified in one aspect of the field by an industry association. Membership in at least one of these organizations is indispensable for owners and technicians. Books and videos can provide motivation and continuing education. So can participating in local associations, and regional or national conventions.

What is the investment needed to expand from carpet cleaning into restorative drying? A one- or two-truck cleaning company could comfortably handle one "average" drying job with a single set of moisture detection tools, four airmovers, two dehumidifiers, accessories, and supplies, at a cost of $4500-$5500. This assumes that the company already owns a van with enough extra space for the restoration equipment (airmovers and dehumidifiers can take up a lot of room) and already owns carpet repair and installation tools.

Restoration jobs tend to occur more than one at a time, however. When handing two or more jobs at once, one set of moisture detection tools is enough, but a company would be better prepared for emergencies by adding two airmovers and one dehumidifier to the above equipment, at an additional cost of $1500-$2000.

Restorative drying is a field many carpet-cleaning companies, small or large, can expand into. It can be a "natural fit" for professionals who want to stretch their skills and abilities, if they are ready to take on more responsibility including emergency response. Because they will be accountable for both physical property and also human health, only a strong and confident company should consider the expansion. Training classes and seminars provide a necessary in-depth look at the background, equipment and procedures making it possible to diversify into the field.

Claude Blackburn has been involved in the cleaning and restoration industry since 1972. He is the founder and president of Dri-Eaz Products in Burlington, Washington.

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