Safety First: How Restoration Experts Navigate Large-Scale Commercial Water Damage

When dealing with Commercial Water Damage do you have to employ different strategies for large buildings or structures?

The complexities of commercial water damage restoration demand specialized knowledge and strategies that evolve with the scale of the building. When disaster strikes high-rises, warehouses, or sprawling campuses, restoration professionals must adapt their approach to address unique structural challenges while minimizing business disruption.

Chad Mallonee, owner of Hazard Clean Restoration, breaks down the sophisticated equipment and techniques required for large-scale commercial projects. Unlike residential restoration that relies on portable units, commercial disasters often necessitate trailer-mounted dehumidifiers positioned outside the building, pumping dry air in while extracting moisture—sometimes operating alongside existing HVAC systems to keep businesses running during recovery.

High-rise buildings present particularly fascinating challenges due to what Chad calls the "stack effect"—a chimney-like phenomenon where warm air rises through the building, creating pressure differentials between floors. This natural physics principle not only affects drying strategies but can create safety hazards by making emergency doors difficult to open if not properly managed. Meanwhile, the human element adds another layer of complexity, with restoration teams coordinating between building owners, property managers, business operators, insurance representatives, and sometimes city officials—each with their own priorities.

Throughout all these variables, Chad emphasizes that safety remains the absolute priority in any restoration effort. Before developing strategies or deploying equipment, professionals must identify potential electrical hazards, structural concerns, and other safety issues. Whether you're managing a skyscraper recovery or wondering how commercial restoration differs from residential approaches, this episode provides valuable insights into the science and strategy behind getting businesses back to normal after disaster strikes.

Ready to learn more about protecting your commercial property? Visit Hazardclean.net or call 772-259-5018 to speak with a restoration expert today.

To learn more about Hazard Clean Restoration visit:
https://hazardclean.net/
Hazard Clean Restoration
772-259-5018

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Restoration Revolution podcast,
where we help restore hope andput your family on the road to
recovery, one episode at a time.
Here's your host and owner ofHazard Clean Restoration, chad
Melody.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Whether you're dealing with high-rises
warehouses or campuses.
When the footprint gets bigger,so does the strategy.
In this episode, chad breaksdown how restoration scales up
for commercial giants.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm sophia yvette, co-host andproducer, back in the studio
with Chad Maloney, owner ofHazard Claim Restoration.

(00:47):
Hi, chad, how are you doingtoday?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Good Sophia, good Glad to be here, looking forward
to this topic.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, and it's always great to have you on Now, Chad.
You are always ready to levelus up with your insights.
So today's topic is all aboutthinking bigger and smarter when
disaster strikes.
So when dealing with commercialwater damage, do you have to
employ different strategies forlarge buildings or structures?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely have to employ large
I mean different strategies forlarge buildings and everything.
First off, large buildings orif you have tall structures and
everything else you know you'redealing with, the buildings are
built differently, right?
So you're building, you know ahigh rise is going to be built

(01:39):
differently and have differentcomplexities than maybe a really
large structure that's one ortwo stories and so, whether it's
a 30-story high-rise or it's200,000, 300,000 square feet
warehouse, you're going to havedifferent complexities and
you're going to change yourscope and your drying strategy

(01:59):
based on that, on that, when youthink of the depending on how
you.
You know different commercialbuildings are built differently
and sometimes you can't alwaysget into different areas.
So you're going to stage yourequipment and then you also have
to figure out how you're goingto get that equipment into the
different areas.

(02:22):
For large buildings, we're alsotypically using trailer mounted
dehumidifiers, so not alwaysportables, and a lot of times it
can also be a mixture of both,but we're going to usually be
bringing the dry air into thebuilding, you know, through
those trailer mountdehumidifiers, and you know we
also there's times where we'regoing to try to dry a building

(02:45):
because it flooded out and theair conditioning that is 20
years to continue to run and wewant to keep that that business
going so they don't lose theirincome.
And, you know, depending on thesituation, so that way they

(03:10):
they can, you know, stay openwhile we're actively drying the
building.
So you know, we'll bring inthose dehumidifiers, we'll bring
in the air conditioning unitsand you know they're going to be
outside the building and thenwe'll, we'll set it up so that
way it's bringing you that coldair in or that warm dry air into
the building, or both at thesame time.

(03:31):
And that could be for highrises or large, large warehouse
type buildings.
If it's, you know, a a say, ahigh rise.
There's definitely differentcomplexities to that.
You know, when you're drawing ahigh rise, because you think

(03:52):
about, you know it's almost likea chimney right, and so you get
something that's called a stackeffect and so the warm air
rises and, uh, you know it'llthat high rise.
What you have to be aware of isthat stack effect where, as that
air is going to go up throughthat building, it actually is
pulling from the lower parts ofthe building and so the higher

(04:15):
say the 30th floor of a buildingthe temperature could get a lot
hotter right than the firstfloor of the building floor of
the building.
And in addition to that, becauseof that stack effect, the first
floor of the building whenyou're trying to open the doors
to enter the building or exitthe building, it can get very
difficult because you have thatpressure that's pulling upwards

(04:38):
towards the top of the buildingand if you don't manage that
pressure properly you could alsorun into some safety issues.
Because just think if there wassome kind of emergency and they
had to evacuate the building oreveryone was trying to get out
and they go to the doors and thedoors aren't opening Because
it's holding them closed becauseof that pressure.

(04:59):
So it's things like that youhave to be aware of when you're
doing high rises.
You know high-rise buildingsthat can definitely impact that
that, uh, that project I wouldassume so it definitely does.
And then you know you get intodifferent complexities because

(05:19):
you're dealing with multipleparties, usually on commercial.
So you know, no matter if it'sa a high rise or if it's just a
large commercial project, you'regoing to have the owner of the
building, usually the propertymanager, or it could be the
company that's running it.
As far as the propertymanagement company, you may have

(05:39):
a couple of them that you'reworking with.
You're also going to be workingwith, a lot of times,
consultants on that project aswell, and then you got the
insurance company that a lot oftimes is involved, and you could
also have some city officialsand everything depending on the

(05:59):
size and scope of the project.
So you have a lot ofcommunication, a lot of
different interested parties,that everyone needs to be on the
same page, you know.
And if you're keeping thatbusiness open as well, you have,
you know the.
If there's different businessesthat are on different floors,
you're going to make sure you'recommunicating with each of them

(06:22):
and their interested partiesand make sure that you're
incorporating that into yourdrying strategy so that way
their customer base can stillenter and exit the building and
they're not losing money bymaybe closing down a certain
area or whichever.
So there's definitely a lot ofcomplexities and a lot that goes

(06:44):
into the commercial setting.
When you have that water damagewhether it's a pipe or it's
hurricane damage or whicheveryou have to take a lot into
building out what's going to bethe scope of this project and
what's the best way to get thisbuilding dry and back open so
that way you're having asminimal impact to that business

(07:07):
as possible.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Now Chad.
What is the first priority whenassessing water damage in a
large facility like a hotel or amulti-story office?

Speaker 3 (07:19):
First priority safety .
It's safety.
It's not even building thescope or anything else, it's
always safety.
When you're dealing with phonecall, we're even talking about
safety.
We don't want whoever's callingus, the property owner or

(07:50):
anyone on there, start to try toinvestigate anything.
We always want to make sureeveryone's safe and if they can
turn the water off, that's great, but if not, safety is priority
number one.
And even when we show up toscope out what's occurring, we
start investigating.
We're focused on safety becausethere's just a lot that can go

(08:12):
wrong and you don't know whenyou first show up if you have
electrical hazards or if youhave structural hazards, and
there's just a lot that goesinto it.
And so I'd say, if there's onething you're asking of what we
focus on when we first show upto a large commercial building

(08:35):
that's experienced a lot ofwater damage, it's going to be
safety.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, chad, it's clear your company isn't called
Hazard Clean Restoration for noreason.
Thanks again, your ability toscale strategy without losing
empathy is what makes HazardClean such a standout.
Looking forward to next time.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Thanks, thanks, sophia, bye everyone.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Thanks for listening to the Restoration Revolution
revolution podcast, whererecovery starts here.
Let us help put your family onthe road to recovery.
Go to hazardcleannet or call772-259-5018.
That's 772-259-5018.