Northeast Property Restoration
December 22, 2020
2:51 pm
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Dry-out Don't Pry-out

Dry-Out Don’t Pry-Out | The COVID pandemic has caused many hardships for businesses and families. For contractors and homeowners there has been a major issue with availability of materials and high costs.

As Restoration Contractors our job is to restore a property back to its original state. Our technicians evaluate and determine if materials can be cleaned and restored or if they need to be removed. If we don’t have to remove the materials then they will not have to be replaced. Therefore, if we can dry-out the materials we don’t have to pry-out!

Below we discuss availability of lumber, costs of lumber, and how we as Restoration Contractors can try to limit the need to remove materials.

Availability of Materials

The pandemic has many families moving from big cities and settling in suburban areas. This causes a high demand for lumber because more housing is needed.

Also since many people have been stuck at home they have started to do their own home improvement projects. This causes even less availability.

Sort supply has caused a delay in construction thus impacting the income for contractors.

Cost of Lumber

Cost of building materials has increased due to the pandemic. When supply goes down you can usually expect prices to go up.

Prices for lumber peaked at an all-time high of roughly $950 per thousand board feet in September, prices decreased to around $500 in October, and now back up to around $950 this December.

If demand for lumber remains strong, customers will continue to chase supply through much of 2021, and prices will remain high.

Applied Structural Drying

Applied Structural Drying is an: Effective, efficient, and timely drying of water-damaged structures and contents, in order to facilitate appropriate decision making within a restorative drying environment.

Our technicians have been trained and certified in Applied Structural Drying. Therefore, they have the knowledge to make decisions on what can be dried and how to dry them.

Lumber is a porous material and is difficult to dry out. However, there is special restoration techniques and equipment that can successfully dry out wood. These include:

Pressurized Wall Cavity Dryers- For Wall Cavities
Drying Mat System- For Hardwood Floors and Subfloors
Moisture Meters- Detect the Level of Moisture
Heaters/Fans- Helps to Dry out Materials
Dehumidifiers- Removes Moisture from the Air

Training

IICRC, Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, and RTI, Restoration Technical Institute, offers a ASD course to train Water Restoration Technicians (WRT).

Water restoration is a science. These classes provides knowledge and skill in the performance and documentation of water mitigation services. The technicians learn a variety of techniques, and get to use proper equipment, meters, and tools. They also learn how to communicate and document the drying process.

Dry-Out Don't Pry-Out

Due to the availability and high costs of materials it is important as Restoration Contractors that we try to use our skills and knowledge to avoid demolition. Without removing there will be less need for materials to rebuild, thus avoiding more costs!

Northeast Property Restoration can help with your water damage restoration needs! Call us today for more information.