Am I getting ripped off by the water restoration company and the environmental consultant?
February 11, 2008 6:38 PM Subscribe
Am I getting ripped off by the water restoration company and the environmental consultant?
My basement flooded last week due to a backed up drain and a lot of rainfall. About 1/2 an inch to an inch of water completely covered the carpeted floor of my finished basement before an emergency plumbing service arrived to snake the drain. I have two drains in my basement, and both overflowed. One clearly contained sewage. The other appeared to overflow with rain water. My wife runs a licensed daycare out of the home, so we wanted a professional to come out and inspect the basement to find out if anything was dangerously contaminated by the flooding. The environmental consultant charged $80 per testing swab. He swabbed three areas ($240 total): both drains and the center of the kids play area. The test results for the play area and one drain came back okay. The area around the other drain came back with dangerous levels of e. coli. I was told that an e. coli level over 200 is dangerous, and that my basement had a reading of 600.
The consultant referred us to a restoration company, which gave us a quote of $3,000 to remove anything that came into contact with the water (carpet, furniture, wall panels, etc.), disinfect, and deodorize. I was told anything made of wood needs to be trashed (bookshelves, desk, bar, tables, chairs, etc.). I will also have to pay to have the consultant come back to re-test so that we can issue the daycare parents a written "all clear" notice. Am I getting ripped off? Can any of my stuff be saved? Can I do the restoration myself? I have already spent hundreds of dollars, and my homeowners policy will not cover the cost of the restoration, so any frugal (but safe) advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
My basement flooded last week due to a backed up drain and a lot of rainfall. About 1/2 an inch to an inch of water completely covered the carpeted floor of my finished basement before an emergency plumbing service arrived to snake the drain. I have two drains in my basement, and both overflowed. One clearly contained sewage. The other appeared to overflow with rain water. My wife runs a licensed daycare out of the home, so we wanted a professional to come out and inspect the basement to find out if anything was dangerously contaminated by the flooding. The environmental consultant charged $80 per testing swab. He swabbed three areas ($240 total): both drains and the center of the kids play area. The test results for the play area and one drain came back okay. The area around the other drain came back with dangerous levels of e. coli. I was told that an e. coli level over 200 is dangerous, and that my basement had a reading of 600.
The consultant referred us to a restoration company, which gave us a quote of $3,000 to remove anything that came into contact with the water (carpet, furniture, wall panels, etc.), disinfect, and deodorize. I was told anything made of wood needs to be trashed (bookshelves, desk, bar, tables, chairs, etc.). I will also have to pay to have the consultant come back to re-test so that we can issue the daycare parents a written "all clear" notice. Am I getting ripped off? Can any of my stuff be saved? Can I do the restoration myself? I have already spent hundreds of dollars, and my homeowners policy will not cover the cost of the restoration, so any frugal (but safe) advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
My basement was flooded last summer, although it was only about 60% or so of the carpet that was wet. I paid a little over $2000 for water removal, anti mold and fungal treatment, and rental on the big dehumidifiers they left running for a week. Lucky for me, they were able to save the carpet.
So that quote doesn't sound out of line based on my experience.
posted by COD at 7:59 PM on February 11, 2008
So that quote doesn't sound out of line based on my experience.
posted by COD at 7:59 PM on February 11, 2008
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On what scale? Those numbers could be very arbitrary.
a quote of $3,000 to remove anything that came into contact with the water (carpet, furniture, wall panels, etc.), disinfect, and deodorize.
I'd pull up the carpet, throw out anything porous that got soaked, disinfect and deodorize yourself (bleach? ammonia?) and then call up a different consultant and have them test it. Then get cheap wall-to-wall installed.
But that's just me and I'm not sure what type of written notice you're looking for.
I'm not sure what it takes to run a daycare, but there maybe city and state ordinances involved (along with approved contractors) that you must follow in situations like this.
posted by wfrgms at 6:56 PM on February 11, 2008