Preparing Your Commercial Business for a Disaster
7/22/2019 (Permalink)
It is stated that about 50% of commercial business who run into a disaster never re-open after that disaster occurred. SERVPRO of Nashua wants to help more business stay in business after an emergency happens and be there for support when needed.
SERVPRO of Nashua established an Emergency Disaster Program so that when a disaster comes, you will have a blanket of security in times of panic. This is a detailed description of where to go, when to take action and who you can call. An emergency ready profile is vital for your commercial business because a disaster could happen at any moment, and SERVPRO wants to help prepare our customers for any disaster that may come your way. The ERP, or emergency ready profile is a profile that will have all the necessary information you need to handle situations with disasters. No contracts are involved and it is at no cost to you or your business. We locate all the emergency numbers you may need and emergency action checklist for a step by step on what to do in a disaster. We also have provided the necessary utility shut off locations for all the gas, electric, heat, water and other important locations to know and understand how to turn them off. This is vital because in case of emergencies and panic, you may not know how to even shut off the source, which is important because the source needs to be shut off before any action can be done. It will also give you a complete property overview, showing where emergency exits are and where exactly you should leave the property when evacuating.
Time is of the essence in cases of emergency, so it is important to act fast to eliminate anymore disaster from occurring. By having a plan of action, you can readily be prepared and act in a timely manner, and limit the amount of time you as a company are inactive. Not only does the ERP save you time, but money as well. We obtain all your insurance information so you have it readily available at your convenience as a mobile app also. We have detailed an insurance policy information in your pamphlet to inform our customers what their policy is and what is covered by insurance. It is important to keep in mind, safety first and to account for everyone in the building and make sure everyone is okay before moving on. Things get crazy and hectic and emotions run high when a disaster occurs, so SERVPRO of Nashua wants to make this as easy as possible for our customers because we understand the hardships you might be going through at that moment. We can offer you all the services in the world to cleanup the damage, but the best service we can offer is helping you be prepared.
SERVPRO wants the best for our customers and we know the best for them is the Emergency Ready Profile. SERVPRO of Nashua always has your back when it comes to preparedness and the essentials when dealing with a disaster.
SERVPRO / GreenSky Financing for Nashua
9/22/2017 (Permalink)
Nashua Area Restoration Is Easier When SERVPRO Partners with GreenSky for Financing
Nashua Area Property Owners Get Help with Financing for Cleanup and Restoration
If you are dealing with fire, water, or mold disaster, quickly getting help can mean the difference in thousands of dollars in property loss and structural damage. Putting it off for even a couple of days because you are short of funds is an error that can cost you that and more; possibly even a total structural loss of your home.
At SERVPRO, we know exactly how difficult is to clean and return any Nashua home to its preloss condition. The sight of your home in distress is bad enough, but the cost to restore it is another stressor that nearly crushes some homeowners. Fortunately, there is a solution that can remove that additional burden from your shoulders.
Our office has recently joined efforts with GreenSky; an Atlanta based lending company that specializes in providing home restoration loans to people facing what can be the worst day in their lives. Depending on your need, you can qualify for a loan of up to $55,000.
GreenSky is an expert when it comes to installment loan approvals and has provided over $8 Billion to homeowners just like yourself in the last few years. Our managers and technicians have completed their training program to help you through the application process, whichever of their three methods you decide to use.
We can assist you with a GreenSky representative over the phone in our office. There is also an online application we can fill out for you. Approval usually takes less than an hour for either method.
The third application process is one we are very excited to offer. The company recently finished its mobile app; with this, we can handle everything at your home. That means we can take your information and get your approval notification in your front yard as our technicians are setting up pumps to drain flood water, start a mold inspection or begin pulling down fire damaged roof tiles.
With long-term loans with 7 or 8 years (84 or 96 months) and monthly payments as low as $79, this financing tool is one SERVPRO of Nashua is proud to offer its customers and neighbors. If you have more questions about financial assistance; or what we can do to restore your home to its original state, visit us at http://www.SERVPROnashua.com or call (603) 889-2311 today. We are here to help.
How To Prepare Your Chimney For The Winter!
10/14/2016 (Permalink)
Your chimney is part of your home, which needs cleaning too.
Fall is here! The temperature is mellowing into a more comfortable range, leaves have already started to fall off the trees. Before we all know it winter will be knocking at our doors! So lets get started on talking about cleaning your chimney in anticipation of cooler nights. Some of you might not know this but chimney's need cleaning at least once a year, more often if yours sees more use than average. Fall is a great time to check because you don't want to start a fire for the first time in the winter without performing maintenance. If you are unsure about if your chimney needs sprucing, all you got to do is take a flashlight and look into your chimney. Take a knife and scrape a bit of soot off of the wall, if it is more than 1/8 inches thick then get your gloves on because it's cleaning time!
If this is your first time your fireplace is seeing cleaning materials, be sure to check for nesting animals and critters who may have made a home there!
The next step is to measure the chimney. It's okay to overestimate but try to be as accurate as possible. This can be accomplished by climbing on the roof and measuring down or measuring up through the fireplace. The size and shape of the flue is important to jot down as well. It can be round or square, 6" or 8".
Now it's time to get all your cleaning materials together. Chimney brush, goggles, a broom and dustpan and also the most important thing is a face mask. Cleaning from top down with weighted brush requires up and down motions as you scrape away debris. Cleaning from the bottom up requires a partner on the roof to help scrub with a pulley system. After your chimney is all cleaned, you have to be careful when sweeping and discarding the debris. Now your chimney is ready for winter nights!
What to do if your house has mold
5/16/2016 (Permalink)
No mold is good mold, give us a call if you need help with any remediation or mold removal in your home today.
Mold. The very word can put terror into the eyes of a homeowner. After all, mold in your home can make you and your family sick. If nothing else, it looks disgusting. But it can also weaken your walls, ceilings and floor. And if you try to sell a house known to have mold, you might as well put a sign on your front lawn that reads: "Not For Sale."
So if you think you have mold, and plenty houses do – a 2003 University of Arizona study found that 100 percent of homes have mold (albeit not necessarily the dangerous kind) – what should you do?
Test for mold. That's probably the last thing you or any homeowner wants to hear because mold testing can be expensive, and there are plenty of horror stories out there. Several years ago, Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, who owns a public relations consulting company in San Diego, had a "wicked case of mold" in her kitchen.
"I had no idea it was developing until I could smell it," Falkenthal says.
It turned out to be mold that had developed due to a slow plumbing leak, and by the time she could smell the mold, it was so bad, she ended up having to hire a flood restoration team to gut her kitchen, remove the mold and rebuild a new one during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The mold removal alone – not including the cost of rebuilding her kitchen – set her back $15,000.
"My house looked like a hazmat scene," Falkenthal says, adding that on the bright side, "That's one way to get a new kitchen."
If you're deeply suspicious, it'll probably be worth it to hire a mold inspection company. The average cost to test for mold – not to remove, just to test – is $834, according to HomeAdvisor.com. If that price makes you ill, you could buy a mold testing home kit, which generally runs anywhere from $10 to $50. That said, molding test kits have a reputation for being unreliable, so as the expression goes, let the buyer beware.
If you do have mold. Don't panic yet. This may not be a major problem. As noted, all homes have some mold. If it's a small area, generally less than 10 square feet, and not that this is a recommendation, but you may be able to do it yourself or hire a handyman to come in and clean it. Websites from RemoveMoldGuide.com to Good Housekeeping articles explain the process, which basically entails treating areas of mold with a mixture of 1 part chlorine bleach and 15 parts water while wearing goggles and making sure you're in a well-ventilated room.
But you may need to hire the professionals. Lynn Munroe, who owns a public relations company in New City, New York, says that about 10 years ago, her youngest son, then 8 or 9 years old, had an unexplained stomach illness, and his asthma was getting worse. Munroe had taken him to numerous doctors, all of whom had no idea what was wrong.
It turned out the problem was with a dehumidifier in the basement. It was attached to the pipes behind the wall, to keep the basement dry. Unfortunately, the pipe apparently became disconnected from the drain pipe behind the wall, and for some time, had been dripping behind the wall.
"Next to where it was dripping was a cedar storage closet with my kids' old clothes that I was saving for my sister's kids," Munroe says. "I opened up that door one day and the inside of the closet was filled with black mold. The wall of that closet leaned up against my sons' playroom – and his TV where he spent countless hours with his brother playing video games. Air tests revealed a really bad mold problem not only in the closet but in the air."
Twenty-four hours later, Munroe says, "hazmat suits came and demolished my completely finished basement."
The very bad news: It set her back $40,000, including the costs of refinishing the basement. Munroe and her family also had to move into her sister's house for six weeks. The very good news: "My son's health condition improved immediately," she says.Avoid scams. Mold removal scams are fairly common. For instance, Kentucky has recently had a rise in reported residential mold cases after a spate of spring and early summer thunderstorms and flooding; this summer, the state alerted its citizens to be vigilant for scam artists and price-gouging by mold removal businesses.
And, of course, being aware that price gouging is a possibility is troubling. It's pretty easy to stay away from a clearly shady operation, like hiring a guy who does business out of the trunk of his car. You'd almost have to be a mind reader or a mold expert to know if a reputable company might be price gouging.
Still, if you're going to hire a company to remove your mold, "always get two bids, so you can get different opinions," says Sabine Schoenberg, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based real estate agent who runs the home improvement website ThisNewHouse.com.
But she adds: "To some extent, I'm a little sympathetic that mold removal companies can't always give you a hard-and-fast estimate since they don't always know what type of problem you have until they take a closer look."
Aside from getting multiple bids, make sure the company is also licensed, and find out how long they've been in business, she says.
Stay vigilant. If you aren't aware of any toxic mold in your home, keep an occasional eye out for it. "A lot of keeping mold away comes down to maintenance," Schoenberg says. "Anywhere you may have dampness, there can be mold. So look in dark and damp places. And it isn't always in obvious places. Like your washing machine, the tray where you put your soap, open that up and let that dry out."
John Bodrozic, co-founder of HomeZada.com, a home management website, echoes that advice and says these simple maintenance tasks will usually dramatically reduce your chances of having a mold problem. Mainly, he advises:
- Caulk around the water fixtures. That is, your kitchen and bathroom sink, or any sinks or showers in any rooms. "Leaks in and around showers, sinks and bathtubs are source of mold," he says.
- Clean out the gutters. Well, at least you were going to get around to this sometime, anyway, right? Not only will you prevent things like flooding, it'll reduce your chance of mold. "Standing water in your gutters due to clogs can lead to water leaking into the eaves, and thus in exterior walls," Bodrozic says.
- Caulk around your windows. On the outside, Bodrozic says. You don't want any leaking after a big rain.
- Take care of any roof leaks. You'll notice if your roof is leaking into your bedroom, of course, but do you have an attic? Or a crawl space over your ceiling? "These leaks can go unnoticed for years, causing mold growth," he says.
- Do you have a crawl space under the home? If you do, check under it, to make sure there's no water accumulating and standing there, Bodrozic says. Sure, it'll be gross, but water can lead to mold and structural problems, Bodrozic warns.
In other words, think of mold as a guest who knows it isn't welcome. So don't just hang out in the most popular areas of the house. Every once in awhile, be a good host and drop by the corners and crevices of your home that you normally wouldn't give a second thought about. Your mold is a visitor in your home – but a really shy one.
New and Improved Equipment
7/31/2015 (Permalink)
After attending the National SERVPRO convention, SERVPRO of Nashua has decided to invest in some fo the new equipment that was shown on display. SERVPRO of Nashua has invested in 10 new state of the art air-scrubbers and 10 new, more efficient dehumidifiers.
These new pieces of equipment will allow SERVPRO to better purify and rid the air of any harmful substances such as microbial spores. Along with the air purification equipment the new dehumidifiers will help to dry out an area or room more efficiently. These tools enable a faster ans more efficient cleanup to any disaster.
SERVPRO Nashua Attends SERVPRO Annual Convention
7/27/2015 (Permalink)
The National SERVPRO convention is the best way for SERVPRO of Nashua to keep up to date with the latest equipment and techniques that come out every year. There are always awesome new pieces of equipment that will help us clean any disaster faster and with more efficiency. It is great to be able to meet up with new or existing franchise owners, talking and exchanging new innovative ideas for the company.
Just about every supply company out there has a new and improved piece of equipment they like to show at this convention. However, this year it seemed that Pheonix was at the top of their game.
SERVPRO of Nashua Becomes an IICRC Certified Firm
8/29/2014 (Permalink)
Our Framed IICRC Firm Certification
SERVPRO of Nashua recently became an IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification) certified firm. The IICRC sets the industry standards for the Cleaning and Remediation industry, of which SERVPRO is an industry leader. The following is from the IICRC official website (http://www.iicrc.org).
”IICRC Certified Firms have earned the right to display the cleantrust logo as a symbol of quality. In order to achieve IICRC-certified status, firms must meet a rigorous list of standards in business ethics and expertise.
IICRC Certified Firms must:
• Present accurate information to consumers and conduct business with honesty and integrity.
• Require a technician on all jobs who has been formally trained and passed all required tests.
• Require a continuing education program to keep technicians up-to-date on the latest changes in the industry.
• Maintain liability insurance to protect all parties in the event of an accident.
• Maintain a written complaint policy and agree to Better Business Bureau or similar arbitration to resolve disputes, and accept the conclusions and recommendations of arbitration.
The IICRC actively pursues relationships with fiber producers, carpet and fabric mills, furnishing manufacturers and retailers, and others affiliated with the industry. The use of IICRC-certified service professionals is specified in leading manufacturers’ maintenance brochures and warranties.”
SERVPRO of Nashua is honored to count itself among the select organizations to receive this certification. We will continue to offer the same standard of excellence that you have come to expect, but now we have the IICRC stamp of approval to back that up.
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