Articles posted by angela

Without a doubt, fires can be devastating to families, communities, and business. With the proper response and restoration plan, fire damage restoration can be swift and effective, no matter how devastating the damage to the property.

From a business perspective, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP) are essential to have on hand in the case of a disaster like a fire to minimize damage, recover after a fire, and get the business up and running again as soon as possible.

While it is important to assess the specific risks of each property, most disaster recovery plans, including those for fire, include similar steps.

Below are the five basic steps of disaster recovery plans to implement with the goal of fire damage restoration.

1. Safety assessment: Hire an expert to identify structural issues and other health dangers that might have been exposed after a fire. This could prevent potential harm done to people who enter the building or property after the incident.
2. Secure the property: Set up the area so that people cannot enter unsafe areas of the building.
3. Prevent additional damage: Waiting too long to take action can cause corrosion and further damage. Keep in mind how a damaged infrastructure will also expose parts of the property to external climate (rain, freezing temperatures, high temperatures).
4. Assess the damage: In addition to assessing safety, it is important to assess the damage that has been done on the property.
5. Clean up: Hire a company that is an expert in fire damage restoration.

Much more work must be done to recover from a fire fully. The key is to work with fire damage restoration allies that can help you and your business recover as quickly as possible.

After a fire or smoke damage has affected your commercial building, emergency responses have been carried out, and damage has been assessed, the next important step is to carry out a smoke damage cleanup protocol.
Even after the emergency has passed, smoke residue, ash, and soot can permeate the walls and floors of the building. Some damage to your business’ structure and environment that can occur after a fire can include:

• Discoloration of walls, ceilings, and surfaces that lead to corrosion. This is caused by the acidic residue in soot, and often surfaces must be removed or replaced.
• Smoke odor caused by soot, which are tiny particles of carbon in the air.
• Interior damage, including structure and framing, ventilation, wall studs, and insulation.
• Electrical damage to wiring and electrical systems.

Soot that is left after the smoke has been present indoors contains particles, vapors, and toxic gases that can be toxic and poisonous. This is why smoke damage cleanup is so important – not only to eliminate visible effects of smoke that impact the way people see the safety and quality of the business environment, but, most importantly, to ensure the health of the people that are present in the commercial building as employees, visitors, or customers.

Commercial Smoke Damage Cleanup to Prevent Health Issues:

To clean up after smoke damage has occurred, business owners should consider the following:

1. Report the incident to the insurance company.
2. Contact a professional smoke damage inspector. She or he will tell you what areas need to be cleaned up and how.
3. Contract a professional smoke damage cleanup service to remove smoke damage.
4. Implement a smoke damage restoration protocol within a few days of the fire.

Many tornadoes have the power to clear everything in its path without losing power for up to several hours. They can generate speeds of over 250 miles per hour, which can completely demolish even the most structurally-sound buildings. Disaster restoration services are essential to the aftermath of tornadoes, but you can reduce the impact by learning how to protect your building from tornado damage.

There is no surefire way of protecting any structure against tornado damage. However, if a commercial business is in a tornado-prone area, business owners have the responsibility to take measures to protect your buildings from tornado damage. This is important for reducing the risk of damage tornadoes can inflict on structures and on the lives and wellbeing of business employees.

You can help to protect your commercial building from tornado damage by implementing 4 key strategies. These strategies make up the acronym PUMA to help you remember them.

1. Protect: Protect your employees and your business’ assets. In addition to making sure you have proper insurance coverage, it is important to put emergency response strategies in place, run drills, and even consider constructing a safe room. Minimize structural risk by using only high wind-rate products and strengthening every and all structural connection point. Make sure you have contacted disaster restoration services to act in the case of an emergency.

2. Understand alerts: Warnings are always more serious than watches.

3. Minimize: Minimize the potential impact of flying debris by maintaining the grounds, trees, and surrounding powerlines and clearing them of loose pieces and debris.

4. Assess: be aware of the risk of a tornado hitting your area, and follow measures depending on your risk of a tornado.

Mold is not only an issue for the physical appearance of a school, but, more importantly, it is also a serious problem for the air quality in schools. For this reason, mold remediation strategies must be implemented in the school environment.

Good air quality is essential for the health of students and school staff. Allergies and asthma are two health issues that are directly impacted by mold management. In the United States, about 20 million people are affected by asthma, and about 9 million of them are children.

Additionally, millions of people suffer from allergies caused by indoor allergens, including mold. These key statistics make it essential for school administrators to effectively implement mold remediation strategies.

The EPA promotes the following 5 key mold remediation strategies in schools:
1. Reduce indoor humidity: Showers, bathrooms, and other sources of moisture should have vents that direct moisture outdoors. It is also important to provide adequate ventilation to control humidity levels.
2. Inspect the building for signs of mold, moisture, leaks, or spills: Work with trained personnel or an inspector to identify moldy odors, stains, or discoloration in classrooms, bathrooms, and staff rooms. Remove standing water.
3. Respond quickly when signs of mold or moisture have been detected: Clean up and fully dry any signs of moisture. If mold has been detected, clean off the surface with specialized detergent, or replace absorbent materials; the source of the moisture must also be fixed.
4. Prevent condensation of moisture: add insulation and ensure proper ventilation.
5. Maintain floor and carpets clean: Use proper care to prevent excess moisture using the manufacturer’s recommended techniques and frequency. Avoid carpeting in areas with proximity to water.

If you live in an area prone to hailstorms, it is essential that you take measures to reduce hail damage to your business and prepare for commercial storm damage cleanup.

Hail can cost your business hundreds of thousands (or even millions!) of dollars in damage to your roof, siding, and exposed equipment. Roofs are the part of your business’ structure that is most commonly affected by hail damage, but the damage can be much more generalized depending on the intensity of the storm and the structure of the building and exterior areas.

The type of damage can be categorized as either functional or cosmetic. Functional damage impacts the performance of the building structure and usually needs to be repaired quickly so as not to inflict further loss. Cosmetic damage doesn’t affect the function of the structure, but it does impact the way the building looks.

If your business has experienced damage from a hailstorm, it is important that you prepare for commercial storm damage cleanup. First, hire an inspector to assess the damage. If you have hail insurance, the insurance company will send one for you to assess the extent and cost of damage, in addition to coordinating cleanup. If you don’t have insurance, or if it isn’t covered by your insurance, you will have to hire out an inspector and a cleanup and repair company.

Some of the decisions your business can make to reduce hail damage include:

1. Hiring an inspector: If you live in an area that is prone to hail damage, or if you have been affected by hail damage in the past, it is important that you have an inspector identify potential weaknesses in the structure and materials used in your building’s structure that can help to reduce hail damage.

2. Choose the right roof cover: If you live in a hail-prone area, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) recommends the use of roofing products that have a UL 2218 Class 4 or FM Approvals 4473 Class 4 rating.

3. Install hail guards: If you have external equipment or roof, mounted equipment, installing hail can help prevent hail damage to condenser coils, fan blades, and exhaust vents, among other equipment parts.

When your business suffers a disaster from fire to water to mold to smoke, Armor Environmental Solutions can aide in the clean-up. Did you know that Armor Environmental Solutions is still at your service for the rebuilding process? Yes, we provide everything you require in terms of reconstruction and renovation.

Whether you need your space restored to its former condition, or you decide to take the opportunity to upgrade, we have the capacity and know-how to provide you with the finest start-to-finish service to put your business back in business. We are renewal specialists, and we will work efficiently, in the eco-friendliest way possible, on budget and on time.

What Restoration Services does Armor Environmental Solutions offer?

Depending on the nature of the catastrophe, different damage can be incurred. Fire can damage structures. Mold can be cleaned up but come back without further prevention. Flood waters can be taken out, but they’ll come back without fixing the leak. Armor Environmental Solutions not only cleans the problem, we fix the problem.

To bring your business back to normal, we provide:

• Design and construction
• Remodeling
• Kitchen and bathroom makeovers
• Basement waterproofing and renovation
• Installation of ventilation and dehumidifying systems
• Exterior drainage
• Roof repair
• Water infiltration solutions
• Project management

We will bring your business back “from the ground up.” (Foundations too.)

Why Armor Environmental Solutions?

Hiring the wrong cleanup and restoration can spell the death of a business. We bring to the table a combined experience of over 100 years in the field of disaster recovery service. We strive to utilize our experience and expertise to guide you through a bad situation and get back to normal as quickly and with as quality work as possible.

Your business is threatened because fire has destroyed all or part of it. You’re in need of a top recovery specialist, and your online search for fire damage restoration companies is raising your stress level even higher. But there is only one call you need to make – to Armor Environmental Solutions. We are here twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and will respond to your call immediately. We won’t let your business go up in smoke.

What causes fires? How can I avoid fire in the first place?

• Cooking – in restaurants and office break rooms alike, cooking can cause fires.
• Electrical and heating systems – every building has electrical systems, which can start fires either by user error or system malfunction.
• Combustibles – most businesses have flammable materials on location somewhere. These materials require both proper storage and employee training to prevent disaster.

How does smoke damage a building?

Even harder in some ways than fire damage recovery, smoke damage is pervasive; we are expert at purging odor and cleaning the air. We also inventory the contents of the space, clean and make repairs if possible, or record any losses for insurance claims, as well as provide storage.

• Rapid assessment and estimate
• Fire damage cleaning
• Smoke damage cleanup
• Odor removal and air purification
• Clean up and drying of water damage from extinguishing fire
• Timely restoration of space to original condition

We will provide any structural stabilization needed, including board-ups to keep your space secure. We use eco-friendly products and methods to clean up any soot or other residues and prevent mold and mildew by using anti-microbials and disinfectants.

We can provide, if needed, complete remodeling, including design and construction, as well as project management. Exterior repairs, roof repairs, odor removal – whatever is needed, we can handle it, quickly and efficiently.

Armor Environmental Services – the “go-to” specialists in fire damage recovery.

Call us anytime at 1-800-413-3070 when your business is hit by the unexpected.

Damage from a fire doesn’t end with the blaze and the water the fire department uses to put it out. Smoke damage can be pervasive, challenging to eliminate and even effect your business equipment. The longer it goes untreated, the more it sinks into your walls, floors, and furniture.

A fire doesn’t even have to be in your office to inflict smoke damage – a fire in an adjacent building can send smoke billowing into your facility. Left unchecked, this can cause lingering odors and discoloration to your business which is why you should call Armor Environmental Solutions immediately. We are responsive, dependable, expedient and have the expertise to rid your office of the offensive odor of smoke, restore your walls, and purify your air.

It More than Stinks.

Yes, smoke causes an unpleasant and belligerent odor but smoke and soot worse than stink. These substances are incredibly acidic and this acidity can damage almost any building material or surface. The longer these acids linger on your surfaces, the more damage they do. This means that smoke cleanup is a time sensitive process. The sooner call Armor Environmental Solutions to remedy the situation, the less damage is done to your business, saving you time and money

Time Sensitive, you say?

Yes. Smoke damage operates by a surprisingly predictable schedule. When theres a fire, within:

• Minutes: smoke and soot can cause yellow staining. Especially to porous materials like plastics and marble.
• Hours: the acidity in soot and smoke can cause permanent staining to pipes, grout, mortars, metal surfaces, and carpets
• Days: due to high acidity, much of this staining can become permanent. Rust can start to form on previously discolored metals. Many materials in your office from floors to furniture to office equipment may need replacing.
• Weeks: if left untreated for weeks, the dissolved particles and acids in soot and smoke can become release toxic chemicals, causing permanent corrosion and damage, and also posing a health risk to your employees and patrons.

What Restoration Services does Armor Environmental Solutions offer?

We use the latest state-of-the-art ventilation systems, air movers, and eco-friendly cleaning products. We also provide air purification and sanitation, reconstruction of any damaged areas, and can even help with the insurance claims process.

• Rapid response, appraisal and estimate
• State of the art, eco-friendly tools and methods used
• Repair and reconstruction
• Contents cleaning and restoration
• Air purification
• Soot removed from walls, floors, ceilings

When disaster strikes, don’t let your business go up in smoke! Call the experts with over 100 years of experience.

We are available 24/7, 365 days a year to make sure your business can stay in business.

Call us anytime at 1-800-413-3070

Whether you’re dealing with flood damage, water damage from a fire, or a plumbing disaster, water damage can really dampen your business. You need an experienced team of flood cleanup experts. You need Armor Environmental Solutions. For water damage repair, flood damage restoration, or water damage restoration service, we are unparalleled for responsiveness, efficiency and professionalism.

Rapid Response is Key

It is generally an expert recommendation that when flood hits, cleanup begin within 24 hours. There are many reasons for this. The safety of those who use your building from employees to customers may be at risk.

Within twenty-four hours after a flood, microorganisms can begin to grow. This includes bacteria, molds, and other airborne pathogens, which can risk the health of those inside. These risks double after 48 hours. Check out our blog on Mold Damage here. Simply put, the less time that water has to cause damage, the less damage it will cause. The Grand Canyon wasn’t carved by a river flowing for a week. The more porous the surface, (ceiling tiles, drywall, insulation, etc.) the quicker the damage occurs.

Other problems can arise from inaction. This can range from odors to ruined fabrics to damage to wood, concrete and other building materials. These problems are just from regular standing water, the need for speed is only accelerated (for obvious reason) if the water damage has come from a broken sewer line.

What Flood Recovery Services does Armor Environmental Solutions offer?

We use the latest state-of-the-art equipment, including high-powered water extraction equipment, dehumidifiers, and air movers to be ensure all moisture in the area has been dried out.

We also provide air purification and sanitation, reconstruction of any damaged areas, and can even help with the insurance claims process. We can help your business stay afloat with:

• Rapid response, appraisal and estimate
• State of the art, eco-friendly tools and methods used
• Repair and reconstruction
• Contents cleaning and restoration
• Emergency board-up and securing of space if needed
• Packing and storage of contents if needed

If water damage is affecting your business, call the flood cleanup experts with over 100 years of experience. We’ll help keep your business afloat!

Call us anytime, 24/7, 365 days a year at 1-800-413-3070

Mold infestations can mean big problems for business owners. Mold can damage buildings as well as cause harm to humans, not just to the owners of a business but to the employees of a business. This means your business or its ownership (you) could be legally vulnerable. Speedy action is required in this instance. But did you know, not all molds are created equal? Neither are all mold remediation companies. Armor Environmental Solutions will take our combined over 100 years of experience and put it to work for you so that you can get your business back on track as quickly and painlessly as possible.

What is mold? How does it form?

Mold can develop almost anywhere as long as three conditions are met: an organic material on which to form (your wood, carpet, drywall or insulation should do nicely) moisture, and oxygen. You won’t always see mold spores in the air, but if they land someplace damp, a mold colony will consume wherever they decide to grow.

Are all molds dangerous?

Yes and no. All molds are dangerous to structures and building materials. All molds also have the potential to cause adverse health affects. Some molds trigger allergies or asthma, and some other molds are known to generate some pretty powerful toxins and irritants.

At Armor Environmental Solutions, we know that mold damage is serious business. Our business is serious about removing it. If your commercial property is damaged from mold,

contact us today at 1-800-413-3070