Ready to dive into the wonderfully chaotic world of water damage? Eric G and John Dudley are joined by William Gordon from 1-800-WaterDamage.com, and trust me, this is a chat every homeowner needs to hear. We’re breaking down the ins and outs of handling water disasters—because let’s face it, no one wants their home to turn into a water park! From the new-fangled tech in water restoration to the mind-boggling insurance policies that could leave you high and dry (ha, see what I did there?), we’re covering it all. Get ready for some sarcastic wisdom and a few horror stories that’ll make you grateful for your dry walls. So, grab your floaties and let’s get this water show on the road! Water damage is one of those delightful surprises that homeowners just love to deal with, right? I mean, who doesn't enjoy coming home to find their living room transformed into a mini swimming pool? In this episode, Eric G and John Dudley sit down with the water damage guru, William Gordon from 1-800-water-damage.com. They dive deep into the murky waters of what to do when disaster strikes, discussing everything from the sudden failure of washing machine hoses to the insidious creep of mold. William, with his 42 years of experience, lays down some serious wisdom about the evolution of water damage restoration technology. Gone are the days of just throwing a fan at a wet carpet and calling it a day; now it’s all about high-tech drying equipment and professional assessments. The hosts and William explore the importance of acting fast—like, really fast—because every second counts in preventing mold growth and escalating repair costs. They also tackle the awkward but necessary conversation about insurance, shedding light on what homeowners should know about their coverage, and how to navigate the claims process without losing their minds (or their homes). Spoiler alert: if you think your insurance will cover everything, you might want to sit down for this one. The conversation shifts gears as the trio reminisces about the absurdities of life as a homeowner. From the ridiculousness of insurance adjusters to the hilarious mishaps that lead to water damage—like a rogue ice maker flooding the kitchen—there's no shortage of humor in the face of chaos. William shares stories that will make you laugh and cringe, reminding us that while water damage is a serious issue, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and find the humor in it. Listen closely, and you might just pick up a few tips on preventing those ‘oops’ moments that could turn your cozy abode into a waterlogged nightmare. So, grab your floaties and tune in, because this episode is a splash of knowledge you won’t want to miss!

Takeaways:

1. Water damage isn't just a minor inconvenience; it can lead to serious mold problems if not handled immediately.
2. If you think your insurance covers all water damage, think again; read the fine print or risk a hefty bill later.
3. The technology for assessing and restoring water damage has drastically improved over the past few decades, making it easier to handle issues.
4. Ignoring small leaks can lead to catastrophic failures, so stay on top of your home maintenance, folks!
5. Mold is not something you want to mess with; it can exacerbate health issues, so take it seriously!
6. Don't wait days to address water damage; a delayed response can lead to more extensive and expensive repairs later on.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. aroundthehouseonline.com
2. 1800-waterdamage.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. 1-800-Water Damage
2. Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification
3. Belfor

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Foreign.

Ready to turn your house into the home you've always dreamed of without the headaches or huge bills.

You're tuned to around the House, the nation's number one home improvement radio show and podcast with expert advice that's helped millions tackle everything from remodels to repairs.

Hosts Eric G. And John Dudley have got you covered with the best advice and information about your home.

Now let's get this hour started.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley.

Good to see you, my friend.

What's happening, brother?

We have got a great guest on today because it's something that nearly every homeowner has to deal with something at some point.

We got William Gordon from 1-800-Water damage.

Welcome to the show, brother.

Well, thank you.

Appreciate you having me on around the House.

Good to meet you guys and look forward to talking with you.

Man, this is gonna be great because this is one of the things that I think as a homeowner is so hard to navigate.

And if you dealt with something 20 plus years ago and you're dealing with it again, things have changed a lot.

The world has changed in water damage and how you deal with it.

It's not just, let's get a dry out and call it a day.

Yeah, I've been in the business for a long time, 42 years or something like that.

So that's a good thing.

We have way better tools for determining, you know, what's been affected by water and, and better tools for drying and rapidly restoring homes.

So, yeah, the tech, that's one thing that's changed in the last 20 years is just technology, both physical technology and computer technology.

Yeah, no question.

I keep saying, and I make some people get nervous when I say it, but I say that the mold in your home is the new lead paint, asbestos type that people aren't really got their arms around yet.

And water damage, if it's not dealt with correctly, can do just that and cause some serious issues.

Yeah, mold is a tough game.

I like to say mold.

You need to respect it.

You don't need to fear it, run into the street in panic, but you do need to respect it and it needs to be dealt with.

If you have a situation, whether it's large or small, it needs to be addressed because mold, the thing about mold is whatever your health condition is, really mold Will make it worse.

Sure.

If you're a nice healthy person, you know, you can, you know, it may not affect you a great deal or it'll wear you down slowly.

But if you've got any kind of respiratory or other, you know, health issues, mold's not good for you.

Gonna make it harder.

Yeah, well, interesting.

Yeah.

I mean especially post Covid with the people that have gained so many new health issues because of that, my mother being one of them.

Man, it's.

You got to be super careful now because.

And you know, we're all more susceptible.

People are more aware of their health and respiratory and so, you know, you want to address these things and so that they, they don't become a long term problem.

Yeah.

So William, my question for you is, let's just dive right into it.

Let's say somebody comes home from the store and they're.

We'll go something common.

Let's say it's the rubber hose behind the washing machine failed and you know, you had that basic garden hose running wild in the house for an hour.

What's the.

After them shutting that off and stopping the water, what's their next step?

You want to do what you can to contain.

A homeowner has a responsibility in that example, probably an insured loss insurance company is going to help you out and take care of the costs of repairing, buying out, repairing that situation.

But you have a responsibility to mitigate the loss best of your ability.

You know, we're obviously I'm in the drying business, restoration industry, the side of the restoration industry.

So I am always an advocate for quick response.

If you've got water that's traveled under walls or down through floors to a lower level across, underneath a kitchen floor or wood floor, a lot of laminates and wood floors these days, you should be calling for assistance.

And that's a experienced, trained restoration professional is what you need.

Obviously you contact your insurance company and file a claim.

Most likely, yeah, good, good call.

Because I tell you what, I know so many people, they go, okay, well I got to dried up.

It's been a couple of days.

And I'm like, those couple days can be expensive if you don't.

I spent 20 years on call and I spent a fair amount of time in the at 2am saying, you know, we really ought to come out now.

Yeah, everybody.

Nobody wants people out in their house at 2 in the morning, you know, because they really want to sleep or try to go back.

They don't want to face it.

They want to go back to bed.

But I I spent time saying, you know, it'd be a lot better for you because we could.

Three hours can make a great deal of difference in terms of how far water moves and soaks into things.

And so, you know, we all restoration companies are striving for a one to two hour response time, depending on your marketplace and your distance traffic and so on.

But, you know, the object is to get out and get this thing curtailed before it becomes a more expensive or worst case, you know, if you wait two or three days, then you're running the chance of mold growth or some kind of growth that's going to complicate the process.

Yeah.

Not only that, but water's so insidious, as we all know.

You know, it will crawl your wall.

So, you know, what was two inches up the wall is now a foot up the wall.

Well, you know, that's right.

It moves, we say it moves in an H pattern.

It goes sideways and up and down.

Everybody knows gravity.

Right.

It's good.

The water, your washing machine water is going to overflow and it's going to go down in the basement.

I'm thinking of a first floor washer.

Right.

But if it gets into the wall, it.

Yeah, it'll, it'll go.

It can go a foot, foot and a half off the drywall if it's left unattended.

And you know, now you're probably tearing out that wall.

Yeah.

Particularly if it's exterior wall with insulation.

Now we're into demolition.

Yeah, absolutely.

Expensive.

And the other thing is too, I think one of the common misconceptions and insurance companies are of course a for profit business and they do not want to pay more than they have to.

And the thing is, is that not all water damage is something you can turn in on your insurance sometimes basic neglect, they'll look at you and go, should have fixed that two years ago.

Yeah.

You know, this is why it's really good to talk about scenarios with your insurance agent.

When you're signing, it's easy to say, oh, I got water damage coverage, part of the policy.

Thank you very much.

Sign here.

You want to ask questions about what if this happens or my neighbor had this happen.

What if that happens to me, will I have coverage?

I'm a big advocate for adding backup, drain backup or sewage backflow coverage to your policy.

It's not normally part of the policy in most cases, so it's normally not that many dollars to add.

And I'm an advocate for probably a $15,000 of coverage.

There's a lot of policies with 5,000.

5,000 might get me to dry it out, but it's not going to get your sofa replaced.

It got, got wet in the basement.

So you want a solid $15,000 of coverage for backup.

And that still might not be enough.

I remember.

Is it sure if you get 20.

Get 20.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, I, I remember as a kid we were living in eastern Washington and my parents had just moved in and this house, we just moved and it had this, you know, really deep basement and the city was digging on the sewer line a couple blocks over, backed it up.

And I remember as a kid watching sewage coming up through the floor drains in the basement.

Of course, this is where my parents had the boxes of stuff that hadn't been unpacked yet because that's what you do.

Sure.

And it was coming through the floor drains.

It was shooting up like 18 inches through the floor drains and there were three floor drains.

And we, they put, you know, 18 of 18 inches of raw sewage in the basement.

And as a kid I'll.

That was like poltergeist to me going, what is happening down here?

That's therapy style trauma there.

Yeah.

You know, I was like, wow, grab the video camera.

You'll have, have something for life there.

Right.

And that got expensive.

And back, I mean this was the, this was the late 70s.

Even back then the insurance company was trying to get them to pull the carpet up, send it off and get it cleaned and put it back in.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah.

I was, I was going to say I'm a big advocate of just letting your insurance agent know that as you're asking him these questions that you recommend.

William, you'll be recording the conversation.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah.

The backflow unfortunately is, you know, we, there's a group called the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, which we more lovingly call the IICRC in our business that writes standards for how water damage should be done properly.

And they've done.

They've brought in scientists and insurance people and restoration companies.

They've drawn from all corners of the industry and affected parties to get, to get.

To write a standard for what you can save and what you can't save in each situation.

To find out more information, head to aroundthehouseonline.com.

don't change that.

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Welcome back to the around the House Show.

To find out more about us, head to our website@aroundthehouse online.com send us a message if you have a Subject or a question about your home?

Now let's get back to William Gordon.

There's a group called the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, which we more lovingly call the ICRC in our business that writes standards for how water damage should be done properly.

And they've done.

They've brought in scientists and insurance people and restoration companies.

They had drawn from all corners of the industry and affected parties to get, to get.

To write a standard for what you can save and what you can't save in each situation.

The wash machine, hose.

That's clean water generally.

And if you act quickly, most things can be saved.

But unfortunately, if you have a backflow like you described, the.

The geyser in the basement style Christmas stockings are covered in most everything down there.

We'll save the studs, but, yeah, that's about it.

Yeah, it was.

It was brutal.

But one other thing I've noticed too, where homeowners can make a huge mistake is they have that water leak and maybe it's the.

I'll come up with another comment on the ice maker, on the, on the freezer or the dishwasher, whatever.

You know, they call up and when those break, they call up and go, yeah, insurance agent.

And I'm not going to name names because I don't want to throw anybody under the bus here, but insurance agent, I had a flood.

Right?

You didn't have a flood because that's not flood insurance.

Yeah, that's true.

The language is their specific words have specific meanings and policies.

Yet one of the things that I always.

I don't know was the challenge, let's say, of interviewing that homeowner on that first call was, what happened?

What.

Tell me what happened.

And then I have to discern, you know, is this going to be covered or not?

Is it?

You angling for a kitchen remodel?

Yeah, that happens too.

But it was, yeah, because you have the widest range.

I've had people call me up, just freaked out.

You got to get out here.

I'm thinking, yeah, my toilet overflowed is a disaster.

It affected five square feet.

So, yeah, that's not good.

But, you know, we can handle that.

And I've had other people go, yeah, I've got some water in the basement.

I need you come out 12 inches.

Okay, well, tell me about what do you.

Well, it's probably about a foot and a half.

Yeah.

Foot and a half.

Yeah.

Okay.

That.

Yeah, you gotta take some serious equipment.

Consider the characters.

Right.

And the emotional response accordingly.

So it's.

It's important to.

From my perspective, it's important to.

To ask lots of questions to figure out what.

What am I walking into?

Yeah.

And I.

And I see that too.

And, and it's really depending on where the water's coming from.

If it's a.

If you had a torrential rain and you had a mudslide with water that came in and it directed the water towards the house.

That'.

Versus I froze a pipe and broke it.

Yeah.

Well, it's clearly different scenarios and different categories of contamination, you'd call it.

Yeah, the mudslide thing is category three water, we call that.

That's.

You might as well be sewage.

That's not.

That's.

And those, those tend to do significant structural damage as well.

So that, you know that.

That usually going to have to worry about bracing as well as shoveling to clear up, clear out the mess.

But in most cases, generally homeowners, they catch the problem, they discover it within a couple hours of the event.

And, you know, we.

We act quickly on it, get help in there, assess it.

We've got great documentation tools to be able to.

What happened and where.

Where the water traveled so that they can usually get an insurance claim paid pretty efficiently.

Well, you guys being a national company, it's got to be interesting because you work the major, you know, insurance companies nationwide, so you probably have a really good idea how to work with each one because, you know, each company is.

You kind of almost have to probably deal with them a little bit differently, knowing how they operate once you get in there.

Because I always take it like dealing with health insurance companies.

Everybody's a little bit different.

And you're almost like the doctor trying to figure out, okay, how do I.

This person has a broken leg, but how am I going to build this?

Yeah, there's a certain art and style to the business that's what we call.

Can be getting paid or getting coverage established is partially an art form because policies are generally the same.

There's rules and laws about what's covered and what exclusions are written.

But yeah, you hit it on the head.

Different companies have different points of view about how coverage should be applied or how.

I hate to say it, but if their stock hasn't performed very good lately, they might be a little tougher.

Yeah, it's, you know, there's.

It's a business.

They have to make money and they've got the actuarial figuring out, you know, what's the cost of the Losses.

And so yes, as restorers and homeowners, you want to be listening and speaking clearly about what, what your expectations are, what the loss is and asking them questions about coverage.

And from my perspective, you know, we're writing, writing a scope that's going to be the best possible outcome for the homeowner and a fair, fair result for the insurance company.

Most insurance companies are willing to pay the claim if it's properly documented.

There we go.

That's the crafty part.

You know, Dean Eric, my ex brother in law, so in the 90s, him and his buddy Rick had a water damage restoration company working for insurance companies.

And, and that was a big piece of it.

Right.

Like how they presented it to each specific insurance company and how they got paid for it and the homeowner got taken care of.

And yeah, definitely kind of a juggling act.

It's one of the advantage we have as a franchise.

We employ people with 30 years of insurance and estimated experience.

So you know, whether our guy in Virginia or our guy in Portland goes out to do a loss, he can make a phone call or submit an estimate for review to our team to get them the right answers, make sure that everything's properly documented and that you know it.

And we have people that know about coverages that can speak to an adjuster on their level.

So so much value in that as a business, you know, so much credibility and so much value when you know, a company like yours can go to the insurance company and get it done for you as a client.

That would be heartening versus going to somebody like my ex brother in law who is, you know, a two, sometimes three man operation.

And those guys are scrambling around and they're 28 years old and they're like, I think we could probably get you.

And yeah.

And succumbing to the homeowners will or wish to.

Yeah.

You know, angle for a kitchen remodel kind of thing and you know, and they're falling for it.

You're like, well that occurs and you know, sometimes you have to be diplomatic about, well, here's the thing.

Yep, I can do this, but if you want me to do that, that's probably an extra charge.

Yeah.

Because you know, we experienced man, we need to maintain our reputation in order to be a good partner.

Absolutely.

You know, for all of our clients.

If insurance companies lose you lose trust, then you can't work with people and, and it becomes hard to be a good partner for your client.

And our customer satisfaction ratings are really high.

So we, we're one of the leaders in the industry and in that.

And so we work really hard to keep.

Keep job on course for our homeowner so that they get a good product.

Hold the standard.

It speaks directly to something that you can ask Eric.

I'm always preaching, like just pay the pros.

Like pay the pros.

Experience is worth every extra penny you might spend on company.

Has been doing it for 40 years versus guy that just started his business nine months ago.

Not saying that, you know, some of these younger cats can't do it well, but it goes a long ways to pay the guys that have dealt with thousands of insurance claims versus 10.

And I've seen, Johnny, I've seen so many things go bad when somebody jumps on and gets the jumps on next door or Facebook marketplace and grabs the guy, that's cheap.

And, you know, they've been hounding on that page for a while and they might not be licensed, bonded and insured.

And that's where your projects come from.

Around the house.

Welcome back to the around the house show.

To find out more about us, head to our website@aroundthehouse online.com send us a message if you have a subject or.

Or a question about your home.

Now let's get back to William Gordon from 1-800-water damage.com when, as a, as.

A customer, you have to realize that guy's angling for his share of your insurance money too.

Because.

Because he's the new kid on the block and he wants to make a buck and he thinks insurance claims are easy money.

And I've seen it all as a.

Contractor and yeah, people are the only.

Guy you want to call.

People who don't have proper insurance coverage as a business are either not understanding the business or they're not invested in doing a.

Being a professional company.

They don't plan on staying in business.

They're gonna be a temporary, temporary company.

As far as longevity, yeah, you mentioned the other side of it is homeowners.

You need help with these things.

Putting a fan on it and hoping that it's going to dry is probably not the best plan.

I, I've worked in some marketplaces where my toughest competition was my own customer.

Just wasn't really willing to pay for somebody to come and dry it out.

And I would say, okay, well, here's what you should do.

But it, you know, we say anything you pay for water damage, whether Your situation's large or small, you're probably going to multiply that by 10 if you don't take care of it properly.

And now it's become a mold problem.

Yeah, now you have containments and PPE and you know, air scrubbing and, and all this hygienists doing testing that really satisfies the cost.

Herbalist, your insurance company starts at, you know, depending on your coverages, insurance company may say, well, you should have took care of that the first day.

We really don't think we should cover that.

Then it's a question for you.

Are you seeing out there?

Because you know, the, the trends have changed so much.

We've learned so much with water damage and mold and that kind of.

And as we talked about earlier in the show, that, that how these things are treated and handled and, and resolved are way different than they were 20 years ago.

How are homeowners doing out there on coverages?

And everything's more expensive from materials to everything else.

Are you running into a lot of underinsured homeowners or is it kind of a mix of that?

I'd say it's a mix.

I mean certainly that not having coverage or not buying the extra rider is always a worry.

And we try to question about that and make sure we know what we're getting into because we want to help the person any way we can.

But sometimes you have to say, well, here's your situation and maybe there's something you can do on your own that save you a buck that isn't going to be covered because you didn't have the policy you should have.

We have to be delicate about that because insurance agents sometimes don't remember to ask.

But at the same time, homeowners a lot of times just don't want to pay or don't want to listen when the agent's saying, well, you really should have this coverage.

And you know, you're always thinking that guy wants my money.

But when you have a loss, you're, you're happy to have the insurance.

Well, and you know, maybe you're saving $50 a year or a hundred dollars a year, even $200 a year.

Yeah.

And we just keep going and all of a sudden you just put a 10x on a project cost.

Yeah.

That's a lot to consider.

Y all a factor.

And the dirty little secret is there's still drywall mud out there that has asbestos.

So as you guys probably know, there's a few materials that come, you know, imported from various directions that still have this stuff.

And so we, we do test of quite often every job for.

For those things, depending on what we have to remove.

Yeah.

But of course this, what you're talking about is almost a given.

If you have an older home with nine by nine tiles.

It's.

I literally just have a property I own.

I had to pull up the tile floor in order to put down a new carpet because yeah, nine by nine tiles.

And there it makes.

That makes all of us that have done that.

Yeah.

And I have a question.

Actually, both Eric and I from the Northwest, I'm originally from Seattle area and was contractor up there for almost 30 years.

So water damage was a given.

Right.

Everybody's got a leaky basement and we've all dealt with it in our own ridiculous ways.

I'm kind of a dunderhead like that.

But.

Well, yeah, how do you approach a situation where somebody knew they had water coming in, but it only happens three times a year in the winter.

But finally they've got mold and water, you know, a foot and a half up the wall and they're like, there's water damage.

But it's been going on for like a. I mean, I know how you guys deal with it just like you would deal with regular water damage.

But how does that pass with the insurance company?

Then they're going to say that's neglect.

Right.

I'm saying that so that the listeners like, aware of.

Hey guys, pay attention and maintain things.

Otherwise you're gonna get bit.

Yeah.

Maintenance and regular inspection is a key, you know.

Yeah.

Having a.

That winterizing checklist and spring.

Spring cleaning checklist is valuable because that you catch those things before they become bigger problems.

And yes, if you've had a leaky pipe or you know, you get to somebody drilled a screw and it just barely popped the pipe and now it's been running down.

Never done that for six months.

And you know, six months in there, it never got wet enough to really run out on the floor.

But when you go to change out the bathroom, you open up the wall.

What's this?

So, yeah, that, you know, we have honest discussions with the Insurance company about what's the coverage?

Sometimes.

Occasionally there's coverage but sometimes there's not.

And so then we're just trying to minimize it for the homeowner.

You try to get it clean and sanitary so they can put it back together.

I mean if.

If you've got it apart it has to be put back together and a matter of making it clean and dry and safe.

Remediation and detonation.

At that point you're you guys side of the business.

You open up and find something like that.

My advice is close it back up up and get some help.

I just spray a bunch of kills on it, call it a day, seal.

The wall back up, throw some option.

But it's.

You want to contain the problem so that you don't end up having to clean the whole house.

We did something in a wall that we should have contained off before we mitigated it.

So yeah, I could have made a.

Water damage commercial probably about eight years ago in a rental house that I had before I bought my house that I was in before and I'm putting tv so I got the lag bolts to put it into the studs and I use my stud finder and it's on 16 on center.

It's great.

It's perfect.

I set it in and that wasn't a stud.

That was a 1 inch CPVC water line going up to the second floor.

Luckily I had the windows open that shot water out so hard on the other side of the living room which was 12ft.

It knocked the screen out of the window and hit the deck.

So 90% of the water went outside and not on the hardwood floor.

So it was an easy cleanup.

But impressive.

Yeah, that was like made for a TV show right there.

That was just one of those disasters where.

Yeah, yeah.

I wish I was shooting that one because that would be a.

That would be a go to for how to not do it right.

I felt you talk about it.

I felt so bad.

For a homeowner that had a problem.

He had a backup and it was.

And it was a city line back up.

You know, you think you mentioned it earlier.

And he had there.

He was helpless.

He'd called for help but there was nothing he could do to stop it.

And so he just pulled out his video camera and started videoing.

And we got the best footage you ever saw.

Get a couple commercials for all of our training classes for future references.

This can happen to you.

So yeah.

Worst I ever did was not sweat the cap on on a 1 inch water line.

But that was new construction, but it did shoot the cap completely to the neighbor's yard and just flooded all my new plywood.

Yep, I just threw some fans on it.

Don't worry about it.

Yeah, sure.

Why not?

William, what are you seeing out there is the most common ones that you're running into that are causing water damage?

Is it the washer and dryer?

Is it the dishwasher?

What are you seeing out there?

Some of the most common ones that you run into.

Yeah, you hit upon a couple of my favorites.

Those rubber hose washer lines.

They talk about using those steel braided.

You want to replace them with steel braided.

That's not a joke.

You want to do that because.

Yeah, the rubber line will, it'll develop a pinhole or something eventually and you know, it may take years, but sooner or later that's a money maker for me.

And same goes with your.

We love refrigerators with ice makers and you can roll that, roll that guy in and out to clean under it, back and forth several times with no problem and.

And son of a gun, the 26th.

Time around the house.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

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Now let's get back to William Gordon from 1-800-water damage.com William, what are you.

Seeing out there as the most common ones that you're running into that are causing water damage?

Is it the washer and dryer?

Is it the dishwasher?

What are you seeing out there?

Some of the most common ones that you run into.

Yeah, you hit upon a couple of my favorites.

Those rubber hose washer lines.

They talk about using those steel braided.

You want to replace them with steel braided.

That's not a joke.

You want to do that because.

Yeah, the rubber line will, it'll develop a pinhole or something eventually.

And you know, it may take years, but sooner or later that's a money maker for me.

And same goes with your.

We love refrigerators with ice makers.

And you can roll that, roll that guy in and out to clean under it back and forth several times with no problem.

And son of a gun, the 26th time.

Yeah, you come home and the water's all over the kitchen.

Those are frozen pipes.

In the winter, the backflows.

I, I don't Know, backup work is probably 30 to 40% of the business.

Wow.

I think we're, we're dealing with coverage questions or limited coverages.

Yeah, Pipe breaks, you know, like you say, the toilet lines, somebody, you know, puts a rag in the drain and forgets.

And so leave something running.

Yep.

Go away for the holidays and somehow, you know, you got water running out the front door.

Yeah, that is all out there.

It's a collage of things that happen.

And, you know, when you're in a marketplace, there's enough of it going on that there's always something for us to do.

And I think in the kitchens is where I think the biggest struggles for the industry are out there.

And this is where it can get expensive.

Because maybe you've got that 10 year old kitchen, that's the oak kitchen that was put in or maple or something like that.

You have the water damage under the dishwasher.

Now the sink base maybe is a little punky and the cabin on the other side's a little punky.

And the homeowners are expecting, I have got a beautiful kitchen coming.

That's not usually how that works, unfortunately.

Yeah, insurance policies are well written to not extend farther than they have to.

Like you said, they're a business.

They'll cover the damage, but they don't necessarily, you know, replace the countertop because the lower cabinets bad.

And you know, depending on how old your cabinets are, you have a big discussion about, well, the uppers have to match the lowers.

Well, that's fine.

But some policies will cover that and some don't.

That's one of those nice questions to ask your agent when you're, what can you afford?

You want the policy that replaces the upper cabinets because they don't match, or you want to save some money and just worry about the direct damage.

It's nice to think about that ahead of time so that you're not in an ugly conversation.

Because, you know, insurance adjusters don't like to be bad guys, but they're looking at black and white of what the policy says.

And yep, it's just math at that point.

They're not bad guys.

It's just math.

And it's a discussion about, well, what does like kind and quality mean?

Yeah.

And unfortunately, you can't expect them, and I can't believe this is coming out of my mouth, but you can't expect them to understand your attachment to your cabinetry or your flooring or your.

To them it's just another floor.

And that's fair.

It's a business they know it happens.

Yeah.

But the reality is sentimental value is not insured.

Yeah.

Not an actuarial figure.

Yeah.

And then the other thing is too is that when you jump into kitchens, this can be such a little snowball that turns into an avalanche because now if you're replacing all the kitchen cabinets and maybe they got that weird old oven that won't fit back in there or you know, there's always those weird things and once you're replacing that, well, new electrical code says you got to have two new circuits coming in here.

Yeah.

And now it's kitchen remodel time, not just repair and replace and so are going to be covered and some aren't.

Yeah, very true.

And again, that's a policy variation.

It's a conversation to have ahead of time if you're, you know, savvy purchaser of insurance and you know, decide your budget.

But we have lots of conversations with people about is it time to remodel because we can go this far and take care of half the cost.

But that new stove you're talking about or is it time to upgrade those appliances now?

Well, yeah, it's because I, you know, the kitchen's tore apart.

It's kind of.

While we're here, guys, you might want.

To consider, you know, think about it, you know, do we.

And we, amazingly, we have companies out there finance companies who work owners in that exact situation to help them finance.

Yeah.

You know, either, either the deductible that they're, you know, because deductibles are going wild these days.

One of the things you talk about a new, new trends is, is deductibles based on the percentage of the policy instead of a flat.

I remember the day when you people had hundred dollar deductibles.

Yeah.

And that's, that's a pinch when you get right down to it.

It saves you money on the, on the monthly premium.

But that's, it's a, it's a ton.

You get into percentage of policy stuff.

You can have five figure deductibles then.

So yeah, we're, it's all about, you know, managing expectations, managing fair, fair billing for fair work and good communication about what, what we can do and what's going to cost extra.

Well, William, that's a great thing about you guys over there.

1, 800 water damage.

You've got those resources that just that unfortunately that local little guy is not going to have because there's no way for them to use that enough for it to make sense.

But you guys, with the national footprint of franchises out there, it does make sense for that because you're right if, if you are having to replace an oven cabinet for a built in oven, it might not make sense to cut that new one out and put a 30 year old oven in it that you're, when that thing dies in a year or two, if you're lucky, you're now replacing that cabinet again because it's not going to fit.

You're right.

Having a handful of people on staff that have, you know, 30 plus years experience, they can make suggestions on how to get coverages to apply properly, they can talk about alternative solutions that are affordable.

And so there's a lot of experience comes with having to have solved a problem somewhere along the way and you know, opportunity to do it for people again.

Yeah, that's invaluable.

Again, you know, we're going to run out of time pretty soon in the hour here.

But you guys are all across the country.

I mean you're not a little tiny small company by any means.

Yeah, we are a big network.

We're from New Hampshire to Florida to San Diego to Portland and all points, you know, in between all the major markets and a lot of minor ones too.

Yeah.

And so you know, we're certainly out there that you know our, our numbers, our name 1-800-water damage and, and you know, you get, you call that number, you'll get the closest expert.

And the beauty is we're part of Belfor franchise group and Belfor's largest restoration company in the world.

So we have resources, both experience and intelligence and ass favorite saying, you know, people coming into the business is if there's enough money and enough time to solve a problem, we can get a solution.

If it requires a helicopter, I can get you a helicopter.

It's been done, it's out there.

There's been a time or two.

That's the beauty of the resources.

And we're certainly, you know, willing to do everything we can large and small to help people solve the problem.

William, I can say I have used the helicopter once.

There you go.

See a few big cranes.

I've had some big cranes.

I've needed a helicopter.

One I think we to a 42 story building and they had to carry them down because it wouldn't fit in the elevator.

So.

Yeah, yeah, that's a big container on the roof.

Yep.

We had recently in Hurricane Ian we had some folks that could only get to Sanibel Island.

By boat.

So we had boats.

Yeah.

Bill four is a company.

They're the ones that, hey, that NFL football stadium got damaged and they're the ones that are in there fixing it.

So.

Yeah, yeah, they've got the capacity to do all that large scale kind of stuff.

The 1-800-water damage brand focuses more mid level, you know, small commercial residential homes taking care of people and you know, it's local market.

We're a local market company.

We do a little bit of storm work.

But belfor, as the property restoration side, they're built to travel.

They take care of things all over the country.

All over the world, actually.

Yeah, I see those guys on the big ones, they're running in there with the semi truck with the command center and they're rocking and rolling and that's.

Yeah, they have some really cool tools.

They have some amazing assets there.

Yeah, that is great.

William, what's the best way for people to find you guys?

Of course 1-800-water damage, but website as well.

Sure, website.

You should be able to be, you know, 1-800-water damage near me should turn up.

Your local franchise I was on there this morning, said our people are trained, well experienced and truthfully, if you dial the 1-800-water- damage number, the operators will locate the right person for your zip code and so they'll get you an answer.

Nice.

And I'm sure that's probably a 24 hour a day number where they got somebody to help, right?

Absolutely.

I've answered so many calls in the middle of the night you wouldn't believe.

I bet.

William Gordon, thanks for coming on today, man.

We really appreciate it.

Love your knowledge on this subject because I think it really helps our audience out there to, to navigate these things because sooner or later something's going to go bad, especially with water.

And now you know how to deal with it correctly.

Yeah.

I appreciate your time, Eric and John, it's been fun.

So thanks.

And yeah, anything we can do to help, give us a call.

There we go.

Great chatting.

William.

Thank you very much for your time, man.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

All right, guys.

For John Dudley, I'm Eric G. You've been listening to around the House.

Thanks for tuning in to the first hour of this weekend's around the House show.

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