How much do I need to start a water damage business?

[Moser Brothers]

I want to start a partnership with a friend who has some construction background and no carpet cleaning and water damage background

What I have, an old dynachem truckmount, prefer to get a new unit, a large water claw and hydro sensor

I would need to take water damage classes

$1,000 for both of us

Thermal camera
$1500

Extra tools, hydro sensor, extra water claw
$2000

2 dehu's $2800

5 air movers $1000

Website
$1500

Shirts and printed materials
$500

New equipment $60,000, will try and put that off till later

We may need a third guy, who I have in mind that's reliable and doesn't need mush money at first and needs a job

So I'm thinking about $15,000 to get
Started, I'm i way off?





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[Nate The Great]

Proper insurance/bonding/Liability............etc...

 

[Desk Jockey]

Lyman start off cheap, get the training, get business cards, put it on your trucks. Get magnets and leave them with all your clients and prospects. Get a Hydrosensor and penetrating meter, save the thermal for later. Buy used equipment to start, then new as you start getting work. We would put half of the income from the loss towards new equipment the the other half back in the business.

 

[Moser Brothers]

Thanks Doc


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[Cleaning Concierge]

Thanks Doc. This is a great resource.

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[Willy P]

Lyman start off cheap, get the training, get business cards, put it on your trucks. Get magnets and leave them with all your clients and prospects. Get a Hydrosensor and penetrating meter, save the thermal for later. Buy used equipment to start, then new as you start getting work. We would put half of the income from the loss towards new equipment the the other half back in the business.

Yeah but can you operate a portable?

 

[Desk Jockey]

One of those things you rent at the grocery store?

 

[Willy P]

One of those things you rent at the grocery store?

You mean one of those fancy assed overpowered high end Rug Doctor thingys.Gold rated so they must kick ass.

 

[Desk Jockey]

juuu goot it dude!

Get Cobb or Valentine to send you over one of those superduper hamster wheel vac's and you cookin with grease! Truck mount power baby!

 

[your_good_sons]

You forgot the most important thing... INSURANCE! How about $3,000 down and $1,000 a month? If you say you are a carpet cleaner, but then do restoration, you are not covered. You gonna open up walls? How about pollution insurance?

How about marketing? Figure $2,000 the first month and $500 per month after that.
PPE? Air scrubbers? Foggers? Couple of e-Tes? Wall Dryer? You gonna Water Claw a dining room in a restaurant when the sprinkler went off? No, you want a Rover, that's $3,500. Air Wolf/Wolf Pack or are you not going to dry hardwood floors where 80% of the money is?

You are off by about $50,000. I'd say getting in for $75,000 is shoestring. You will not get jobs away from Servpro, DKI, Rainbow or Servicemaster, and other franchise. A made a LOT of cash money extracting in the Perth Amboy section of NJ with another CC in 2012 after Sandy. We weren't doing restoration really, just extraction. I had a 3500 watt generator stolen while it was running. That was the little one. Better have a 10,000 watt one if you want to run a pair of e-tes. Bad flood, the power has to be shut off, no power, you have to make your own.

Two dehues and fiver blowers? That's nothing. What are you going to specialize in fish tank leaks? Wait a second, I clean carpet in a MD office. They have a HUGE fish tank with some really big fish. They told me it was 265 gallons! i'd hate to see 100 gallons on the floor with what you mention.

I'm not trying to be a dick. Been there, tried that. Just trying to keep it real.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Don't fool yourself you're never really covered.

Pollution insurance usually comes with a high deductible and believe me if there is ever a claim, they are NOT on your side. They are for themselves and will sell you out to cut their losses.

 

[your_good_sons]

I forgot another important one... Xactimate. Spend a couple thousand learning that. If you don't you get nothing out of insurance! You might as well speak Chinese is you don't have Xactimate, no insurance company will even take a bill otherwise in most cases. $1500 a year. Contents will add another $750 per year.

 

[your_good_sons]

Pollution insurance. Better to have it than lose everything.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Agreed. But if you dry everything and can prove you did it, you'll stay out of trouble too.

 

[your_good_sons]

I did a lot of pumping and extracting post Sandy. You send that sewage water down the driveway and the DEC would be right on you. You send it down the drain and they want to know what fertilizer/pesticide containers were floating in the soup. Because of the scale of the disaster, they turned a blind eye to a lot of stuff. Some cases that just isn't the way. I never said I was "restoring" or "drying" on any of those jobs. I just said extracting, pumping, cleaning carpet. Didn't even mention that I sprayed about 8 gallons of Quat 32 in working dilution (being vague here on purpose).

 

[Desk Jockey]

Insurance is the best idea but just don't want anyone to get the false impression. They are not on your side! They will only payout what they are forced to pay.

 

[Askal]

Doc nailed it. My CPL is a very good policy with a 5k deductable that covers about 1.5 million in gross and it is about 4500 a year. Your practices are your best insurance. Hey I should coin that phrase.

 

[Desk Jockey]

You send that sewage water down the driveway and the DEC would be right on you.

They should, that "shit" should go to a sanitary sewer, you don't want to contaminate any water ways with it.

 

[your_good_sons]

When I was doing Sandy clean up, at least half the victims were pouring it into the street. Once the water subsided, they immediately cracked down on it because the sewers could flow. I actually filled two swimming pools with sewage, no where else to put it, later the pool was pumped down the sewer. Insurance would replace the liner in above ground or clean and repaint an in ground. I'm shocked that after Sandy there wasn't a widespread epidemic cholera or something. I was vaccinated for it in 2008 along with hepatitis and tetanus.
I found a dead fish in one house I cleaned. That house, the home owner had three 32 gallon plastic trash cans filled with "solids" that wouldn't go down the floor drain.
My point is, when you are fined $1,000,000 whether you did a good job or not, insurance is the only thing that will keep you out of jail. There is no excuse to not have insurance and most people will not hire you if not properly insured.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I thoroughly understand your point but, if you do what you're supposed to and don't break any laws (shouldn't be an issue for most of us). You're paying for cover that you basicly self insure and is only going to be used in a total fookup.

We have it but we have a lot to lose. I still feel if you do good work, be thorough slowly build it up. Then yes as the work comes it , insure yourself with pollution insurance. Still you should never use it. If you ever need to, thats probably the end of you anyway. You'll never be insurable again.

 

[hogjowl]

As you all know, you need insurance , a CPA, and a good lawyer.

You can't keep your money without them.

 

[knoxclean]

Don't be bullied into large start up costs. Start out doing some basic extractions and drying some small wd jobs. Reinvest in more equipment from those jobs and build from there. Build some good contacts along the way that will refer you work so you will have a steady supply of work to cover your over head

 

[Steve Toburen]

I want to start a partnership with a friend...

Sorry, Lyon. You lost me right there. 99% of all partnerships are like "marriage without sex". (All the disadvantages of being married with none of the "benefits". Chavez is one of the exceptions.)

I'm just sayin...

Steve

PS You've received lots of good ideas above. The best way to start is small using your current customer base. (And with no partner. Or did I already mention that?)

 

[ruff]

And, as you start small, are you ready for the life style change?

It ain't carpet cleaning. Completely different demands.