Water Damage Restoration and Fire Damage Restoration Blog

Recently, we at All Aces had one of our regular loss assessors contact us about a wood floor drying job.Since he had been working with us for the last seven years, he knew that we would be the right ones for the job that he had in mind. A client at Hope Island had discovered that a pipe had burst in their upstairs bathroom, flooding the carpets and sub floors. The water had continued to seep through to the ceiling of the downstairs area as well. This caused the ceiling to collapse onto 40sqm of parquetry flooring, which had leached the natural wood stain into the lime stone tiles below.

Restoration Company A managed to dry the upstairs area as well as the carpets. They were pulling up the parquetry flooring when the assessor arrived. He asked them to stop where they were, and immediately called All Aces Services, who arrived to see very wet and buckled parquetry flooring. We at All Aces then called our wood floor expert known as Les, from Cork Interiors. It was soon determined that we would be able to restore the floor using our drying equipment.

Wood Floor Drying using Heat Drying

We began the restoration by setting up a false wall, using the Zip Wall System. We then set up our Dry Matic Heat Dryer, as well as a Dry Matic Heat Boost Box and Dry Matic Drying Mats, + 6 covers. By installing this equipment, we were able to take advantage of new technology, which drastically reduces drying times. Using the process of evaporation, which turns liquid into gas, we are able to accelerate the wood floor drying time, with controlled heat and airflow.

In seven days, the parquetry and sub flooring were completely dry. With the help of Cork Interiors, a few other repairs were completed which brought the flooring back to complete restoration. Cork interiors was able to sand and seal the floor as well as completely restore the parquetry flooring.

Glen, who is our Hard Surface Cleaning Specialist, was also called to the property, where he managed to remove one hundred percent of the wood grain staining from the limestone tiles. All Aces Services wood floor drying systems are one hundred percent guaranteed, and if we cannot save your floor, you owe us nothing. In the case of Hope Island, everyone-including the Assessor, the Insurance Company, and the property owner- was completely satisfied with a job well done.

Technorati Tags: heat drying, hope island, structural drying, water damage gold coast, water damage restoration, wood floor drying

A recent storm caused extensive damage to a house in Wynnum and required wood floor restoration. Water flowed through the house, causing damage to the owner’s lovely wood floor. Wood floors are not only costly to replace, in this case the owner had a special attachment to this wood floor as he had laid it himself by hand.

Luckily, All Aces Services was called to the property quickly to do a wood floor restoration inspection and assess whether or not we would be able to dry it out and restore it.

It is always best to call a restoration expert, such as All Aces Services, when you have storm damage, flood damage or general water damage. Our All Aces Services Technicians are fully trained through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification so that they are able to inspect damage and suggest the best wood floor restoration method.

The first thing an All Aces Services Technician will do is take moisture readings of the area on their trusty “Delmhorst Total Check three-in-one meter” to establish how much moisture is in the area. This allows our technician to select the best mix of equipment to dry the area in the minimum amount of time.

When our All Aces Services Technician tested the wood floors at this property, they noted that there was a still a great deal of moisture in the floors as the wood had absorbed a lot of the water from the storm damage. If the floor was not dried quickly the wood would start cupping and warping and the customer would need to have the floor replaced.

VAC-IT Panels allow air to be pushed into the floor to dry the area.

The fastest way to dry a wood floor is using Heat Drying Machines and an Injecti-Dry system using VAC-IT panels, an Interceptor and a Silencer. At present there are approximately seven Injecti-Dry systems in Brisbane and All Aces Services owns three of these systems. The Injecti-Dry technology is so rare that there may only be twelve systems in the whole of Queensland, which means All Aces Services has one quarter of the Injecti-Dry systems in the whole of Queensland.

Injecti-Dry was formed to develop specialised drying equipment that make it possible to dry out structures more quickly and with less invasive tactics. The aim is to limit the amount of replacement when drying out wet structures when ever possible, while at the same time, keep our environment healthy. The first solution came with the adaptation of a device from the packaging industry, (also used by aquariums to deliver air to fish), called a “regenerative blower”. From a pure physics standpoint, it had all the solutions, as it had the ability to deliver consistent air movement with the pressure needed. The accompanying delivery system did not exist and has been developed as the family of Injecti-Dry Systems, i.e. a system of hoses, connectors, injectors, etc. that are needed to move the air from the compressor to the interior of the structure.

We installed all three of our All Aces Services Injecti-Dry Systems into this property and also two Heat Drying Systems. Normally a job this large may require the owners of the property to relocate while the work is being undertaken due to noise and inconvenience of having the drying equipment onsite.  However, in this case the customer was able to remain living in the property because All Aces Services have Interceptors and Silencers which they were able to install in the property during the wood floor restoration.

The Interceptor contains a HEPA filter which can be set up to process air going into or coming out of the wood floors. It is important to know that HEPA filters do not make a HEPA system. Only by processing all air negatively, can a HEPA system be achieved. All air is processed before going  through the blower in either negative or positive drying modes, thus never contaminating the Injecti-Dry System. Whilst the Interceptor was cleaning the air in the system and making sure it was free of contaminants, the silencer was reducing the noise of the system to a liveable level so that the customer could remain living in their property. The Silencer is made of ABS plastic and quiets the drying system by about 28%. It takes some of the impeller noise out in addition to attenuating the air rush sound.

Thanks to the specialist knowledge of our All Aces Services Technicians and our state of the art equipment, we were able to dry the wood floor on the batons and the concrete subfloor underneath at the same time. The two Heat Drying machines were able to maintain a temperature of 40 degrees celcius in the air that we directed into the wood floor and concrete subfloor. After only two weeks, All Aces Services had successfully dried the concrete to 75% Relative Humidity and the wood floor to below 12% Wood Moisture Equivalent.

What this means in real terms is:

1. We saved the wood floor that was precious to the customer as he had laid it himself.
2. We saved the insurance company approximately $20,000 as the wood floor did not have to be replaced.
3. We saved the customer the inconvenience of having to vacate their property. Our equipment ensured they were able to continue living in their house.

At All Aces Services we always try to restore items rather than go through the costly and time consuming ordeal of replacement.
This customer was so thankful to us for saving their floor. Another successesful wood floor restoration for All Aces Services, the Masters of Disaster!

Technorati Tags: flood damage, water damage, wood floor damage, wood floor drying

Calling a restoration company for water damage restoration may not be at the front of your mind when you’ve had a break in at your property. However, we at All Aces Services find we are often able to help out in break in situations.

Recently we received a call from a real estate agent where one of their properties had been broken into between tenants living at the property. To add to the disaster there was also rain that afternoon which caused water damage to the property. As no one was living in the property at the time it was a while before the real estate agents were alerted to the damage and could call All Aces Services.

Once we received the call we sent two All Aces Services technicians to the property to rectify the water damage. We noticed damage to one carpeted room and the hallway which had wooden floors. Because we arrived at the scene relatively quickly we were able to save both the hardwood floor in the hallway and the carpet in the affected room by extracting the standing water with our Flood Pumper. Having two technicians on site allowed us to work quickly. While one technician was extracting water with our Flood Pumper, the other was setting up a Phoenix Quick Dry Chamber to prepare the area for drying and dehumidification.

Arriving on site and working quickly is the key to restoring wood floors, the sooner we can get our technicians to a property, remove standing water and install drying equipment – the greater chance we have of successful wood floor drying.

After removing standing water and setting up the drying chamber, our technicians installed a R200 dehumidifier to remove the moisture from the air in the area we were attempting to restore. The use of the Phoenix Quick Dry chamber ensures the R200 dehumidifier is able to perform at optimal levels as it minimises the area from which the moisture in the air needs to be removed.

Our All Aces Services technicians also installed Force 9 Axial fans and High Speed Air Movers in the Phoenix Quick Dry Chamber along with the R200 dehumidifier. This ensures that air circulates in the drying chamber and dries the carpet and wood floor affected in the minimum amount of time.

After only 4 days of our equipment being on site we had successfully dried the carpet and wood floor. In order to complete our full service of restoring the affected area to pre-damage condition, we performed a Deluxe Carpet Clean on the affected carpet.

Our Deluxe Carpet Cleaning System is our premium service that involves our specialised 10 Step Process to give our customers the optimum result from the carpet clean.

Not many of our water damage customers realise that a Deluxe Carpet Clean is part of our service when we restore water damaged areas. Often our customers are simply overjoyed that we have been able to restore their carpets and floors. Providing a Deluxe Carpet Clean is our way of ensuring our customers are left feeling completely satisfied with our service.

100% Customer Satisfaction is our goal at All Aces Services.

If you have any problems with damage from Break-Ins or water damage, please call All Aces Services on 1800 00 1010.

Technorati Tags: break in clean up, flood damage, water damage, water damage brisbane, water damage gold coast, water damage sunshine coast, wood floor drying

While some may not consider a burst kitchen sink pipe a water damage disaster, when a pipe does burst it can cause quite a mess. Here at All Aces Services we try to rectify any disaster our customers have, be it big or small.

Recently we had a business call us because a burst pipe in the kitchen sink of one of their offices caused damage to three office buildings that were next to one another. We sent one of our All Aces Services technicians out to rectify the damage as quickly as we were able and this ensured the extent of the damage was minimised.

When our technician attended he went quickly to work extracting the standing water in the affected areas with one of our Flood Pumper water extractors. Our quality extraction equipment means we can remove the maximum amount of water from carpets, wood floors and other hard floors which in turn reduces the time it takes to dry the affected areas.

After extracting the water our technician assessed the extent of the water damage to the various types of flooring in the affected areas. All Aces Services Technicians are all fully qualified through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration which means they are able to identify different flooring types and understand the correct restoration procedures required. In this case our technician recognised some of the bamboo flooring in one of the office buildings was unable to be restored and hence we arranged for it to be removed so that we could effectively dry the subfloor and structure in the area. Drying the subfloor and structure is just as important as drying the flooring and covering as it makes certain that new flooring is able to be laid without the risk of bacterial and mould growth in the affected area. The bamboo floor was the only area where we were unable to restore the flooring –  the other areas affected were carpet and concrete.

Our All Aces Service Technician installed Force 9 Axial Fans and High Speed Air Movers in the two office buildings that had only minimal damage from the burst kitchen sink pipe. The affected areas in these two buildings took 4 days to dry using our high quality drying equipment. When drying commercial premises we are able to set up our drying equipment in such a way as to minimise interruption to business activity. Many of our commercial customers are delighted to know that they can continue operations with minimal disturbance whilst we restore their affected areas.

The office where the burst pipe was located had the worst water damage. Once our All Aces Services Technician had removed the bamboo floors in this office, he set up the following drying equipment:

- R200 dehumidifiers were used to remove moisture from the air in the affected area to speed up the drying process

- Force 9 Axial Fans were used to circulate air in the area and dry the affected subfloor and structure.

- Phoenix Drying Chambers were set up to ensure we minimised the area of the airflow and hence maximise the effectiveness of our Force 9 Axial Fans and R200 Dehumidifiers.

- Air Scrubbers with HEPA filters were installed to ensure the air in the affected area was clean and safe to allow the office workers to continue working in the area while we rectified the damage.

- Safety is a priority at All Aces Services, so our technician installed Flashing Signs and additional Power Boards where required to ensure that power points were not overloaded and staff in the area were aware of trip hazards.

Using all of the above equipment we were able to dry the affected area in four days, with minimal interruption to the office workers in the area. The water damage customer was so happy with our service that they wrote us a testimonial expressing their satisfaction and in turn we rewarded them with some free products. At All Aces Services we love rewarding our happy customers.

Technorati Tags: hard floor drying, water damage, water damage brisbane, water damage gold coast, water damage sunshine coast