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Fire & Water - Cleanup & Restoration



Irma Relief and Repair of a Florida Hotel

After Hurricane Irma struck the West Florida coast in September, SERVPRO offices from other areas of the country responded. Teams from the Evergreen Park / South Chicago City franchise brought in not just themselves and their expertise, but trucked in their equipment and supplies so they would not task local resources and agencies already stretched thin by the disaster. Their goal is to make storm damage “Like it never even happened” in order to reopen a local hotel to support residents needing temporary housing and to help jumpstart local tourism.

The video shows the morning briefing with the team leader breaking down the tasks they need to accomplish that day and making final work assignments. You can see in the background some of the damage as well as scaffolding already set-up. By this point, they removed all standing water, and the commercial carpeting in the rooms and hallways has either been removed or dried in place on the upper floors using extraction wands, fans, and air movers.

The work now is removing the sheetrock and other building materials damaged by exposure to the wind and water. After the work crews remove the material, inspectors examine the framing and structural supports. In a hotel this size, the main supports are steel, and much of the framing is aluminum, but inside the individual rooms, there is still wood used.

Most of the framing they found to be salvageable, but the pieces on the ground, as well as the floor trim, usually absorbed a lot of standing water and then leeched even more out of the carpets. The work crews began restoration by drying out the framing using more air movers to direct warm, dry air across the framing. Once the salvageable pieces were completely dry, they removed and replaced the sections that split and cracked from the water.

In a home, this normally takes less than a week. In a hotel, removing the water, drying carpets, and replacing just the wall framing was a multi-week task. The Evergreen Park team did complete the job though, and the hotel is now open for business.

For more about what SERVPRO of Evergreen Park / South Chicago City did for Florida or to see what they can do for your Brainerd, Chatham, or West Chesterfield home or business, visit them at http://www.SERVPROevergreenparksouthchicagocity.com/ or call their office at (773) 337-3900.