Questions to ask a restoration company before the first fan goes in

Ask these before anyone starts

Before a water damage company starts, ask who exactly is coming and whether they are certified, how they will measure moisture and decide when the job is done, who handles the rebuild, how they document for insurance, and what you are signing. A good company answers all five clearly on the first call or the first visit. If the answers are vague, keep the water stopped, take photos and call someone else, because the first hours matter but a bad choice costs more than a short delay.

We are SERVPRO of Park Cities. Juan and I own the company, and our crews have answered water calls in Dallas, Highland Park and University Park for more than fifteen years. I would rather you hire a careful company that is not us than a careless one, so here are the questions I would ask if my own house were wet.

Why the choice is harder than it looks

Most people pick a restoration company on the worst day of their year. There is water on the floor, a ceiling sagging, maybe a family to keep dry, and the first company that answers the phone tends to get the job. Some are excellent. Others arrive with a van of fans, set them up, leave for a week and send a bill that nobody can explain.

The difference between the two rarely shows on the first day. It shows on day three, when the walls still read wet and nobody has come back to check, or at the end, when the drying company leaves and you discover you now have to find a contractor for drywall, paint and flooring while the house is half open. A few pointed questions on the first call tell you which kind of company you are dealing with.

If you can, make the call with these questions in front of you. Write down the answers, the name of the person you spoke with and the time a crew was promised. That small record helps if there is confusion later about what was agreed, and it gives your adjuster a clear timeline of when mitigation started.

Training and credentials worth checking

Ask whether the company is an IICRC Certified Firm and whether the technicians coming to your house hold IICRC certifications in water damage restoration. The IICRC, the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, describes certified firms as businesses that employ properly trained technicians and are held to recognized industry standards, and it offers an online locator so you can check a firm yourself. We are an IICRC Certified Firm. Certifications held on our team include water damage restoration (WRT), applied structural drying (ASD) and fire and smoke restoration (FSRT), and our staff also complete OSHA 10-hour safety training.

Certification on the website is not the same as certification on your job site, so ask who specifically will run your job and what they hold. If there is visible mold, ask a separate question. In Texas, mold work above a certain size has to be done by people licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and the Texas Department of Insurance advises homeowners to make sure any mold professional has a state license. I go into that rule in when you can clean mold yourself and when you should not.

• Are you an IICRC Certified Firm, and can I verify that?
• Which certifications does the person running my job hold?
• If mold is involved, who holds the Texas license for that work?
• Do you carry insurance, and can you send proof?

How will you know when my house is dry?

This is the single most revealing question. The right answer involves numbers. A careful company takes moisture readings on the first visit, marks the affected area, compares it with a dry reference area in the same house, and returns regularly to take readings again and adjust the equipment. The job ends when the materials read dry, not after a set number of days and not when the surface feels dry to your hand.

Ask whether you will see those readings. Ask how often someone will come back. Ask what happens if a wall is still wet on day four. A company that says it will drop off equipment and pick it up next week, with no visits in between, is guessing. You can read more about what should happen in the first two days in my guide to standing water and the first 48 hours.

• Will you take moisture readings on every visit and share them with me?
• How often will someone check the equipment?
• What will you dry in place, and what has to come out, and why?
• What is the standard you use to call the job finished?

Who rebuilds once the drying is finished?

Water mitigation is only half of most jobs. Once the wet pad, baseboards or lower drywall come out and the structure dries, somebody has to put the room back together. Ask the company directly whether they do that work themselves or hand you off. Neither answer is automatically wrong, but you should know before you start, because a handoff means a second estimate, a second schedule and a second set of people in your house.

We run our own reconstruction side, with estimators and reconstruction project managers who take over when drying ends, so the same company is responsible from the first extraction to the last coat of paint. I lay out the honest pros and cons of both approaches in one company or separate contractors after water damage.

Paperwork, insurance and what you are signing

Read the work authorization before you sign it. You are giving a company permission to work in your home, so you should understand what it covers, how billing works, and whether it assigns anything to the company or lets them deal with your insurance company on your behalf. Ask questions about any clause you do not understand. The Texas Department of Insurance, in its guidance after storms, tells consumers never to sign a contract with blank spaces, not to pay in full up front and to get more than one estimate where possible. In a true emergency you may not have time for three bids on the drying, but you do have time to read one page.

Ask how the company documents the loss. Your adjuster will want photos of the damage before anything is removed, moisture records, and a clear list of what was done and why. We document the damage and provide information about the services we perform so the claim has what it needs. Coverage itself is between you and your insurer, which I cover in how Texas homeowners policies treat water damage.

• Can I read the full work authorization before I sign?
• Will you photograph and document before removing anything?
• Who do I call with questions during the job?
• How will billing work if this goes through insurance, and if it does not?

Answers that should make you hesitate

Some answers are warning signs no matter how friendly the person on the phone sounds. Be cautious with a company that cannot tell you who is coming or when, that quotes a firm total before anyone has measured anything, or that pushes you to sign before you have had a chance to read. Be cautious, too, with anyone who suggests skipping the insurance company, offers to cover your deductible, or tells you that everything has to be torn out without showing you a reading that justifies it. Texas law prohibits contractors from waiving a homeowner's deductible, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

Also notice what is missing. A company that never mentions a drying goal, never offers to explain the plan and never asks where the water came from is not thinking about your house. A good crew asks as many questions as you do.

• A firm price before inspection
• Pressure to sign immediately
• No plan to return and take readings
• An offer to waive or cover your deductible
• Demolition recommended without evidence
• No local office or no clear point of contact

Local presence and availability

After a hard freeze or a large storm, out-of-town crews arrive to handle the overflow. Some do fine work, but when they leave, there is nobody to call about a stain that reappears six months later. Ask where the company's office is, who owns it and how long it has served your area. Our office is local, the owners live here, and our crews answer emergency calls around the clock, including weekends and holidays.

Ask, too, how they handle commercial properties if you manage a building or run a business. A company used to commercial work will talk about isolating the damaged area so the rest of the operation can keep going, and about communicating with tenants, owners and facility staff.

When you call us, here is what you will hear

We will ask you the questions in this guide in reverse: where the water came from, whether it is still running, what got wet, how long ago it started and whether you plan to use insurance. A crew comes out, inspects and measures, explains what will be dried in place and what has to come out, and shows you why. We photograph everything for your claim before anything is removed.

Then the equipment goes in, and someone comes back to take readings and adjust until the structure is dry. When it is, our reconstruction team scopes the repairs and puts the room back the way it was. You will always know who is running your job and how to reach them, which is the answer I think every homeowner deserves from any company they let into their walls.

Questions people ask me