Restore-It Blog

Your home is damaged by water, and you feel like your world is upside down. A burst pipe or a sewage backup has flooded your floor. You call a reputable restoration company, and they stop the damage from spreading any further. After they are done, they confirm your fears: the damaged boards of your floor must be replaced.

When you walk into your office and find sewage on the floor, you know you need to act fast. While you prioritize safety first, your immediate second thought is "How much is this gonna cost me?"

It happens during one of those cold January mornings in South Arkansas. You climb into the attic to store your holiday decorations when your flashlight hits the roof deck. Then you see them. Dark spots and fuzzy white patches are spreading across the wood. Will you need to replace the whole thing? And how much will this cost you?

Home fires are not that uncommon. Every once in a while, you can tune into the news and see it happen to some unfortunate family. And while you might think, "this could never be us,” the reality is that home fires can happen to anyone. And when they do, they happen fast, and in those moments, there is no time to figure things out. You need to have a plan.

If your kitchen and bathroom tile floors are shining, you might think you have done your job as a responsible homeowner. However, if you assume water cannot possibly hurt what is underneath, you might catch a nasty surprise in the future.

As an Arkansan, you are used to the rain. Whether it is a brief mist or a flood, rain is less of a surprise and more of a constant. What may shock you is how much it can affect your home. Crawl spaces, the small areas underneath the home, are particularly vulnerable to the elements, especially rainwater.

You wake up with allergies. Sometimes you get headaches. But you have noticed that you feel better when you are at work or visiting friends or relatives. What if the culprit behind your symptoms isn't some mysterious disease but your home itself? Or, to be more precise, your indoor quality. If you suspect indoor mold, the issue might be more serious than you think, depending on your case.

It's the first day of what promises to be a long week. You unlock the office in the morning, and you immediately feel something is off. A sour, strange odor sneaks up. You follow it only to find dark water seeping from a floor drain into your floor. Suddenly, your regular workday becomes a business emergency.

When a pipe bursts or a kitchen fire coats your property in a blanket of smoke, the last thing you want to do is take your time shopping around contractors. You want quick action, but how do you tell which companies are trustworthy from the ones that are scams? Here is where the IICRC certification comes into the picture.

Coming back to reopen your small business on a Monday morning, only to find it in a bad condition, can turn even the most optimistic person into a bundle of nerves. What was supposed to be the start of your working week has now turned into a burning question: Will I be able to open soon?

It is the middle of a workweek. Your office or facility is busy, but the complaints are starting to pile up. Employees talk about stuffy air, headaches, and musty smells. A few team members say their asthma or allergies are worse on days they are in the building. A tenant emails you photos of suspicious stains on ceiling tiles.

January 1. It's the morning, and you are walking through your house trying to see how bad the New Year’s Eve damage really is. Then, you start to notice it, clear as day: a red wine stain on your light carpet, or some other mess a guest made in a drunken mood.

The last week of December feels like a break for your business. Offices are quiet, lights are off, and a "skeleton crew" makes quick rounds while everyone else enjoys the holidays. It is tempting to think that a locked, empty building is a safe building. But when freezing weather and plumbing problems collide with an empty facility, that silence can hide a growing disaster.

Homeownership costs, including insurance premiums and repair and material expenses, are on the rise. However, that is not the primary focus of this discussion.

Once the festivities are over, it's time to pack it up. All the decorations are taken down. The wrapping paper goes to the bin. The Christmas tree goes to the curbside for pickup, to drop-off centers, or for composting. And the ornaments go into the attic until next year. The point is, you want to be done with everything as quickly as possible. But, wait. Before you close the hatch of your attic, take a second look.

For many of us in South Arkansas, the holidays mean one thing: going back to visit Grandma's place. It's where so many memories live, and now you get to create new ones with other members of the family.

It can happen to anyone. A pipe bursts in the wall, a washing machine hose fails, or a heavy storm overwhelms the sump pump. Suddenly, there is water on the floor.

It's the middle of December in Arkansas. The heater has been running for weeks. You are walking across your living room in your socks when, suddenly, you feel something odd.

You go to your kitchen for a midnight snack. As you walk in, your feet get wet, and you immediately realize what happened: a pipe broke somewhere, and now an inch of water covers the floor.

The moment you discover water damage or a fire in your home, your first instinct is to call your insurance agent. You trust them. You pay your premiums every month, and you expect them to take care of you when a disaster strikes.