6 Questions to Help You Choose the Right Restoration Company

The Baxter Restoration crew can’t help everyone. Trust us, we wish we could. So, for those of you who can’t be with us when disaster strikes, we still want you to be in good hands. Here are eight useful questions to help you sift through the bad eggs and find a quality disaster restoration company - that is, if you're in a situation where you need one.

1. Are they licensed and certified?

The very first thing you should do is check into their credentials. Dave Baxter, owner of Baxter Restoration tells us, “The company itself should be properly licensed and the individual employees should hold various IICRC certifications. It’s good practice to have at least one employee with each certification - whether it be mold, water, cleaning, fire, odor removal, etc. ”In addition to being licensed and certified, the company should have good insurance - meaning if they don’t have enough money to finish a project you paid them for, you can file a claim. Remember, in Florida, anyone who does construction work has to have some sort of a construction license and ideally, you want someone with a general contractor’s license leading the way.

2. Do they have experience with your particular type of disaster?

Whether it’s water damage, mold remediation, fire damage, storm damage, contents cleaning, or biohazard, make sure they have skilled crews who are experienced in your specific type of catastrophe before committing to them. You don’t want to revisit damage at a later point that was supposed to be fixed, finished, and behind you.

3. What is their process for hiring employees? 

If complete strangers are coming into your home, regardless whether you’re there or not, you want to know a little bit about them, right? Ask about their hiring process. How do they go about finding and training new employees? As a starting point, all disaster restoration employees should have passed a background check and be insured before working in your home.

4. When is comes to mold remediation - is there a conflict of interest?

Make sure there’s a certified third party performing all pre and post-remediation testing. Otherwise, you may run the risk of someone on the inside skewing the results. Being dishonest during post-remediation testing can harm you, risking further mold growth, damage to your home, and health issues.

5. Is that guaranteed?

Find out what type of guarantee, if any, they can offer you on the work they’re performing. Say they fix a hole in your roof and a month later it caves in… will they come back and fix it for no extra charge?

6. Do they have references?

Contacting a company’s references will prove they have indeed worked before and have a list of happy clients - hopefully. Along with this, you should find out how long the company has been around for. This will give you an idea of how much experience they have - although length of time in the business doesn’t necessarily measure the quality of their work.

They may look fairly similar on the outside; but not all restoration companies are the same. If we can’t be the ones helping you restore your home or business, we want you to be in the best - well, second best - hands. Asking these questions will paint a clear picture of what type of restoration company you’re dealing with. Remember to find out as much as you can and make sure the information they give you is clearly stated, easily understood, and in writing. Good luck out there!