After a disaster caused by a storm, fire, or flood, your main concern is to restore your home into a livable space. Before conducting any restoration, it is vital to assess the extent of the damage and save as many treasured possessions such as furniture or clothing that hold sentimental value.
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It is less expensive to clean and restore some of your things rather than replacing everything and starting from scratch. Most restoration companies do content cleaning and pack-out services to restore your items. This can also be part of an extensive restoration process. If you live in Centreville, VA, there’s a lot of ways and services that could help you with such.
If you have some confusion understanding what it means, then let’s talk more about it here.
What is Pack out and its importance?
A pack-out involves extensive cleaning and deodorizing of contents in the affected area, such as electronics, documents, furniture, books, stuffed toys, artwork, etc. Professionals will do their best to restore and repair all damaged items inside your property. This is the essence of content pack out and cleaning service.
Important Note: Valuable items such as jewelry, photographs, important documents, and collectibles must be kept by the property owner.
Pack out and cleaning service is significant because it gives you the assurance that no further damage shall be done to your property while the restoration process is ongoing.
What to expect from Pack-out, Cleaning, and Restoration services?
When you hire professionals to restore your belongings, it is essential to identify a priority list of the valuable items that you seek to salvage. Your inventory will ensure that none of your valuable items are lost.
After completing the inventory and assessing the damage, you will receive a quote. It is highly recommended to review your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. Most policies contain coverage for pack-out and cleaning services.
When you agree with the quote, the restoration company will transport the contents to an onsite or offsite cleaning and climate-controlled storage. It will then be cleaned and deodorized which will remove soot, mildew, mold, and smoke without damaging the items. Although, if mold is your biggest concern, there are mold cleaning tips that can surely help you out.
Once all your possessions are cleaned and restored, they will then be re-packed and sent back to you.
What will I have to do?
So, do you know what you need to do on your end? Let’s enumerate some of the things you need to do on your end as you hire a house cleaner in Centreville, VA:
- You need to fill out an authorization form.
- Create an inventory of your damaged possessions. This will help the restoration company to determine which is to clean first and which is worth saving possessions.
- Assist during the packing out. When it comes to assessing which one is worth repairing or not, the homeowner’s judgment is very important.
- Be on-site for the delivery of your possessions.
Why shouldn’t I just leave my damaged clothes at the Local Dry Cleaner?
It is undoubtedly cheaper if you let the local dry cleaner clean your damaged clothes, however, it is not cost-effective. Studies have shown that a typical dry cleaner can only restore about 65 % of the damaged items. On the other hand, restoration companies are typically able to restore 98% of garments.
Besides that, you want to maximize the benefit of your insurance policy, so letting that cover your expense for content pack out and restoration is the best choice. This prevents you from paying out of pocket for a local dry cleaner.
Why shouldn’t I replace all the damaged possessions?
For some isolated cases, replacing them will be the best choice. However, replacing all contents can be costly and time-consuming. It is observed that the repairs alone will usually max out the homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy, therefore, you may need to replace all damaged possessions out of your pocket.
Buying new furniture and belongings is more expensive than having them repaired and shouldered by your insurance policy. But you need to know the coverage of your insurance before hiring a restoration company. This helps you foresee how much you need to pay out of pocket for this concern. If your kitchen is heavily damaged, then it’s the perfect time to check out the latest kitchen remodeling ideas and get your dream kitchen.
How are the damaged items restored?
Restoration companies use different cleaning methods depending on the type of materials. At some point, the usual house cleaning tips wouldn’t work for situations like this. The methods include the use of advanced technology. These include aqueous electronic cleaning, precision cleaning, deodorization, and so on.
For instance, we use a different cleaning method for restoring the condition of your carpets and wooden furniture. However, for damaged cabinets, checking out the latest cost of kitchen cabinets and replacing your damaged ones would be a wiser decision. They are made from different materials, so they’ll need specific methods for cleaning and repair. Besides that, we can remove stains and foul odor in your fabrics, wooden furniture, and other materials inside your home.
The benefit of hiring professional pack-out and cleaning services in Centreville, VA, is that they know the right cleaning methods and technology to use. It is important to use the correct technology and cleaning method to avoid damaging your items even more.
How to file an insurance claim?
When tragedy strikes, be sure to keep yourself and family safe first. After that, you need to think of ways on how to mitigate fire and water damages. Once you’ve done that, you need to call your insurance company to file a claim.
Here is a brief summary on how the process of insurance claim works:
- You need to take pictures of the fire or water damage, and the source of it. This is to prove that the incident was never due to negligence.
- You need to make an inventory of all items damaged during the incident. This is to counter check the inventory list of the restoration company. Also, bring out the receipts of all those items (if you still have them). This serves as the basis for the cost of damage. Depreciation cost will be accounted for valuing those damaged belongings.
- It usually takes a day or two for an insurance company to respond to your email. Then, they would need to send someone to visit your property for an ocular assessment. That person would also be responsible for valuing the damage done to your property.
Still, looking for a reliable restoration company near you?
It’s frustrating to be in the situation of a fire or flood damage. You’d have to maximize your insurance policy to help you cope with expenses for hiring a professional pack out and content cleaning in Centreville, VA. They need to be trustworthy, trained, and bonded to help you restore your belongings and house.
If you have questions about the topic, feel free to contact us. You can call us at (202) 800-9976 for emergency service or a free consultation. Visit us on Instagram and see more of our amazing works!
