Dear Shawn,
Sunday May 20, 2011 my daughter and I came home to our house that had flooded due to the heavy rain. You were called and came to the house promptly and worked on the property in the cold, rain and darkness pumping water for five hours, never once complaining. You stayed with us until the water was pumped out to a safe level. The following days you removed,repaired and restored the house to it’s original condition. You showed up faithfully and never complained about the conditions. When the job was finished, you presented me with a fair bill for the work done and buried some of the cost you incurred.
Thank you so much for all you did.
Sincerely,
Valerie Bennett
Camarillo
November 7, 2009
To: My Friends and Neighbors
Subject: What To Do When Your House Is Flooded
In April, 2009, my water heater experienced some type of internal catastrophic failure, which resulted in water spurting from every joint and seam. Although it is located in a closet accessed only from the exterior of the house, the closet was not designed to drain the water to the exterior in such circumstances. The water therefore seeped right through the drywall into the laundry room. And when I say “seeped,” I mean a steady flow. The entire lower floor was flooded within minutes. After turning the main water valve off, the question was – what to do next?
Did I mention that this was about 1:30 a.m. on a weekend? Who are you going to call? The first call was to a heavily advertised national franchise service, who said maybe they’d drop by on Monday. Another “24-hour” service never even returned the call. Then we called Shawn’s Custom Carpet Care. Presto! In less than an hour, Shawn and crew arrived with equipment and immediately began the dewatering operation. This was crucial to minimize damage to the walls, which sop up the water like sponges.
I won’t bore you with the details, but you should understand that a couple inches of water on the floor, even for just an hour or two, causes major damage. ALL the flooring had to be removed right away. Because the water was wicked up into the walls, ALL the baseboard was removed and the bottom foot of drywall was removed throughout ALL the lower floor. Multiple dryers and blowers then blew dust everywhere for days, consuming hundreds of dollars of electricity. Shawn returned daily to check status, take wall moisture readings, and spray to prevent mold. Eventually, his work was done.
To regain hot water, I was fortunate to connect with Hansen’s Plumbing. Kerry Hansen, who I have always found to be very responsive when needed, sent Richard Huff over the same weekend. Because the water heater was still under warranty, I was faced with what appeared to be a dilemma: wait until Monday to begin the process of negotiating with the manufacturer, or have the water heater replaced immediately at my expense. But guess what? Richard knew the water heater distributor and arranged to get a replacement under warranty and install it that same weekend! And because drywall repairs were needed in the water heater closet before the new unit could be installed, he referred me to another independent contractor who took care of that work.
Once Shawn’s and Richard’s work was done, I needed someone to repair all the walls and repaint them. Shawn recommended Ross Goodwin of R & S Construction because I said I wanted someone who would do it right. To replace all the laminate flooring (Shawn saved the carpet), I turned to the only guy I’ll let do my flooring, Roy Donald of Floor To Ceiling Interiors. Early in the process, I was not hearing the encouraging sounds from the State Farm Insurance adjustor that I expected, and that was a concern because time was
of the essence to prevent further damage and start the long process of repairs. Specifically, it appeared that there may not be enough money approved to get the job done right. Fortunately, it was mostly miscommunication/lack of communication, and it all worked out (the total exceeded $30,000), especially with a little involvement of my agent, Terry Lutz. Agents do not normally get involved during claims adjusting, but I told Terry I needed him and he responded.
I could provide more details of the obstacles that presented themselves, the hurdles that were crossed, etc, but suffice it to say that everyone coordinated and worked together to get my home put back together. We could have cut corners and finished sooner, but to do it right took three weeks and could easily have taken longer. It was bad luck to have such a disastrous water heater failure, but I was fortunate indeed to have the right team to fix things up as good as new. So the purpose of this letter is to provide you with the contact information for this team in case you or someone you know ever faces a similar calamity. Here they are – and I recommend all of them:
Mark Wessel
“We have been very satisfied with the results on all of the jobs that Shawn and his company has done. The services thay have provided have been performed professionally and always in an expedient manner. They have proved excellent in their quick response to “emergency” situations.”
Lisa Graham, BOWKER & ROTH PROPERTY SERVICES, INC.
