IF YOUR BASEMENT IS FLOODED

Here are some quick tips on what you can do to minimize the damage before professionals can arrive:
First thing people should do when they find water is to call their insurance, get a claim rolling and figure out what their coverage looks like.
Second is to call a mitigation company, or if the damage is not too severe – get the water out yourself. Even if you do the latter you still need to call a professional company to take care of the remaining water to make sure you do not have another problem with an improperly dried out basement – mold. Mold WILL grow if not mitigated properly; i.e. steam cleaning, anti-microbial agents, and tearing out the affected area. Even if you do the initial cleanup yourself; it is in your best interest to have a professional come in and do an inspection; make sure they’ve got the relevant certifications – as many people call themselves ‘experts’ but few actually are.
After making the two phone calls; return to the flooded area to move their contents out; particularly wood as it will wick water up from the carpet and rot out the legs or base. If it’s too big to be moved, put plastic or some other impermeable material between the water and the wood. Even just slightly moist carpet will absolutely ruin furniture.
Then assess the situation; the more information you can give your insurance company and the company coming to mitigate the damage the better. Determine where the water came in, as it determines coverage. Determine how far spread it was, and be sure the crews you have cleaning know the extent of the damage.
In a case like the one we just had; be patient. We realize it's an incredibly tough thing to ask of someone who's basement has standing water in it; but the simple truth is there are 1,000 flooded basements in NE Ohio and a limited number of people qualified to remedy them.
Be kind to your adjuster. Adjusters will be slow getting out to claims; these poor folks have had upwards of 100 files hit their desk all at once. Even working 15+ hours a day, 7 days a week - the widespread nature of the damage up here has them behind. We've worked with all of them in our 35 years in NE Ohio, and you are blessed with some of the best insurance adjusters in the nation; despite their unfading effort - you'll likely still be waiting longer than you'd like.
The same goes for us here at Allen Keith - typically we'd be there in 30 mins or less if you called us with water in your basement. Unfortunately this is being called a thousand-year-rain, and despite our best efforts, everybody is going to be responded to in a time markedly less prompt than our ususal service. Thank you for trusting us with your business, and even if it takes longer than we like - we will still leave you with a top quality job. We will never sacrifice quality for quantity, tempting as it may be.
Thank you for bearing with us as we save as many basements as possible!

So you've called into Allen Keith with your emergency, here's a quick rundown on what to expect:

Allen Keith is broken into two wings.
- Servicemaster – who specializes in stopping damage from spreading further.
- Allen Keith Construction – who specializes in rebuilding the damage to its prior state.
Secretary takes your call, gives it to Dave who runs Servicemaster. (The mitigation wing)
Dave schedules the jobs and does what’s necessary to move it onto the Allen Keith side. (The reconstruction wing)
- What Service master does:
  - Structure: Includes some or all of the following: Extracting water, removing carpet/paneling/drywall/baseboard, steam cleaning, using a micro biocide, generalized cleaning.
  - Contents – moving out and cleaning in the warehouse with specialized equipment those which need it, filing them item by item on the servers, and storing them on our property until the work is completed and they can be moved back.
Once the job is properly mitigated, the rebuilding can begin. Dave will then prepare a bill, and send it to either the insurance company or the homeowner. The first phase is completed.
The file is handed off to one of five project managers at Allen Keith.
- They will call the insured to meet them at their home and assess the damage.
- They will use an insurance industry standard software called “Xactimate” to write up a scope of the damage.
- This scope is then passed along to the adjuster in charge of the claim; the project manager from Allen Keith and the insurance adjuster then work to come together on an “agreed upon price” to do to work.
- Once the scope of the work to be done is established - the trades and crews required to complete the work are scheduled to actually do the work.
- If you had contents moved out and cleaned by Servicemaster; they are pulled from the warehouse and moved back (and placed properly) into the home now that it is rebuilt.
- Once the work is completed and the insured is happy with the work done, they sign off on the check issued by the insurance company.
This concludes the second and final phase of work to recoup your claim. When you use Allen Keith Construction, it is a hands off operation for the insured. As you can see everything is cleaned out and removed, rebuilt, then moved back in – the same way it was before the disaster happened – with as little as effort as possible on the side of the insured.

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