Restoration Insights: Navigating Disasters

In this episode, we welcome Cesar Zavala and CeCe Adame of Service Master Restore to discuss their extensive experience in the restoration business and the vital services they provide. Cesar and CeCe share insights into the empathetic approach they take when helping individuals navigate challenging situations. We delve into the aftermath of the recent Mountain Fire in Ventura County, exploring the process of making homes habitable again, the time and manpower required, and the complexities of working with insurance companies. Cesar and CeCe also highlight the unfortunate rise of scams following disasters and recount their team’s mobilization to South Carolina after Hurricane Helene, where Service Master Corporate coordinated teams from across the country. Cesar shares one of the most unusual experiences from his 11 years in restoration, including dealing with biohazard materials. The episode wraps up with advice for consumers on working with insurance companies, preventative maintenance tips, and details on the areas their team serves, along with how to contact Service Master Restore.

 

Watch the full episode HERE:

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

0:00 Welcome to the show and some background information on today’s topic

0:29 Introduction of our guests Cesar Zavala and CeCe Adame of Service Master Restore

0:47 Find out how long Cesar and CeCe have been in the restoration business

1:34 We learn about the services that Service Master Restore provides and the empathy they display when walking individuals through their trouble

3:41 The recent Mountain Fire in Ventura County 

5:10 The process of making a home habitable after damage

7:30 The time and man power it can take to restore a home

8:20 Dealing with insurance companies and what happens if the work is not approved

9:54 Scams that are occurring in light of the recent fire

11:15 Cesar’s and his team mobilized to South Carolina after Hurricane Helene. 

12:28 Service Master Corporate sent teams from all over the United States to South Carolina

13:36 The most off the wall thing Cesar has seen in his 11 years of restoration work and what happens with biohazard trash

14:50 Find out the areas that Cesar and CeCe’s team serve

15:35 Cesar’s advice for consumers when dealing with insurance and preventative maintenance

16:35 Service Master Restore’s contact information

17:25 A special thank you to our sponsor: Opus Escrow

 

Related Episodes: Sparkled & Sanitized by Mayra’s Helping Hands Colm FitzGerald - Deluxe Window Cleaning

 

ServiceMaster Restore by Restoration Pros 3051 Sturgis Rd.  Oxnard, CA 93030 Cell [phone] | Office [phone] | Fax [phone] www.smrpros.com

Contact Paul Ward: 805-479-5004 [e-mail]

 

Have ideas for future episodes? We'd love to answer your questions - leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to [e-mail] or visit www.HomeAndRanchTeam.com

 

A special THANK YOU to our sponsor, OPUS ESCROW! Farm Talk with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsor Opus Escrow. Supporting our sponsor ensures Farm Talk can provide listeners with the best possible episodes.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hi friends, it's Paul Ward here,and welcome to On the Road. Well,
we've had quite some excitement andnot the good kind here in our local
Ventura County area. Recentlywe had a fire that burned,
I think over 200 homes in an, inan afternoon, in a 24 hour period.
It was quite devastating.
And so I wanted to bring some folkson who are part of the cleanup crew

(00:28):
with Service Master here inour local area in Oxnard,
we have Cesar Zavala and CeCe Adame.
Welcome to On the Road.
Thank you. Thank you for having us today.
Absolutely. So tell us guys,how long have you been in the,
I guess you call it therestoration business?
Correct. restoration Business and I,

(00:48):
I've been doing it for 11 years now.
So fresh outta high school,
I decided that this was theindustry I wanted to be in.
I had multiple family membersin the industry and saw how
much they enjoyed it, and I justfigured it was, I'd give it a try.
After giving it a try, Ifigured it was a fit for me.
Great. Well, it's great that you're,

(01:09):
you're passionate about it andthat you could spread the word and,
and help our help our audienceunderstand what it's all about. And Cece,
how long have you been doing this?
I'm new to the area.
I've been with the company a little bitover a little bit under a year and a
half. Okay.
Alright.
Yeah. But I'm very passionateabout helping people.
So in, in restoration

(01:31):
what all areas do you do you cover?
So I would say we cover water damage,
which can be simply froma pipe break over to
weather related, which wouldbe rainstorm roof leaks,
water intrusion through there,backups from toilet drain lines,

(01:52):
drain lines that crack or fail
as simply to a kid putting a,
a toy where in,
in the tub where it doesn'tdrain and it overflows.
We've had it where people forget toturn the water off while they were gonna
take a a, a bath and .

(02:14):
You just never know what's gonna bethe issue of the, of the day. But it,
there's always some type of aCeCeidentthat happens where people end up with
water damage. We do fire as well,
which can be like what we're goingthrough now with the wildfire situation.
Or it could be a typicalhouse fire. We do mold,
so mold as if people had a leak andthey didn't know about it or they were

(02:38):
negligent about it and just let itbe. And unfortunately it became mold.
We do odor such as like skunk wow.
Just various things.
People call us in for tenants thatthey had that smoked in the home and
there's an order that they can'tget rid of. We do trauma as well,

(03:00):
which can be anything fromsuicide over to people not
being found that they weredead over a period of time.
It could be a dog thatbled throughout the house,
just various ways that it can oCeCeur.
Wow. So you never know what kind of,
what kind of call you'regonna get from day to day.
Correct.

(03:21):
The one thing we do know is that somebodythat's in need of our services and
they're gonna need a lot of empathy inorder to be able to walk 'em through it
and get 'em back to ho.
That's a, that's a key word right there.Empathy. 'cause you never know what,
what folks are going through.
Correct.
And now I mentioned that we hada, a fire here. It's called the,
it's called the Mountain Fire.

(03:42):
And I'm not sure sure exactlyhow many homes burned,
but it was definitely in the hundredsand all within a, you know, 24,
48 hour period. And allthe homes were, you know,
in the million dollar plus range. Pretty,
pretty dramatic for the area.You must be very busy with that.

(04:03):
Of course. Extremely busy.
Ever since the moment the fire oCeCeurredwe were getting calls from insurance
companies to see if we were able to goout to these properties and see what we
can do in order to prevent from thefire to completely wiping 'em out.
They were asking us to grab the gardenhose, use the pool water if needed,
whatever it was that it took in orderfor us to prevent from the fire to wiping

(04:27):
out the home. And we were out there,
we did what we could to be ableto save some houses. However,
it comes to a point whereit's dangerous and we
take the decision that,
you know what it's best if we leave theproperty instead of us risking ourselves
in order to save somebody'shouse. That's materialistic.

(04:49):
Right, right.
And then when you are able tosave a house and it's now full
of soot and ash and, you know,
melted plastics and all kinds of, youknow, hazardous chemicals, what's the,
what's the process for cleaning itup and making it habitable again?
So first off,

(05:10):
we start off with an inspection becauseevery home as similar as it can be,
as close as it could be toa fire the fire itself or
a, a home that burned entirely,every single home is different.
So we start off with an inspection,checking the levels of so,
and what areas of the home were impacted.

(05:32):
One thing that a lot of peopledon't think of is sit in their,
stood in ash in theirattic. Mm-Hmm .
So that's one of the mainareas that we start in.
And once we go out there,
we'll crawl in the attic andsee if there's any ash and soot.
If we determine that there is any we'regonna recommend for the installation to

(05:54):
be removed, attic to behepa, vacuum and deodorized.
And then the new insulation would haveto be installed in the home itself.
Another area that doesn'tget caught is ducting for
the heating and air.
So take a look in there andit's pretty much whenever a

(06:15):
home is that close to the fire,
it's pretty much a given thatthat has to be cleaned. Right.
So we go ahead and clean ducting.
Then if we notice any soot in the home,
then we start with cleaning.And there's different levels,
light medium and heavy.
Pretty much the bottom linewould be cleaning ceiling,

(06:38):
walls and floor and the contentsitself. So if, for instance,
somebody has a bookshelf, we'regonna empty the bookshelf,
clean the bookshelf itself, and thenclean the contents as it goes back.
Upholstery cleaning for any couches.
We do carpet cleaning area rugs,
and if there's anything thatwe can't handle ourselves,

(07:00):
we do bring in a third party companythat's gonna be able to fulfill the needs
of the customer. We do useair filtration devices.
They're gonna pick up any of the particlesthat we're making airborne as we're
cleaning.
We're gonna use hydroxyls ozones inorder to be able to properly deodorize

(07:21):
the, the home so that it'shabitable for the, for the customer.
So this could take, I mean, weeksright? If the house is big enough.
Yeah. Well,
considering the sizes of the homes outin this area that we've been dealing in
we're trying to fulfilleveryone. So we do have

(07:42):
say three to five people oneach home. Mm-Hmm .
And it's taking us roughly about a week.
Okay. And then how do you keep.
In mind that's the interior of thehome, keep in mind we have the exterior,
which we can tell pressurewashing the home itself,
the roof, the driveways and whatnotin order to get all that set up.
Right. And then how do you deal withthe maybe you've got some advice.

(08:04):
How do you deal with the insurancecompanies? I mean, some seem to be,
let's say cooperative, morecooperative than others.
How do you deal with them whenthese folks have real, you know,
problems and the insurancecompany's like, well, you know,
we're not sure about that.
So for us,
it's always a big concern whether theinsurance company is gonna approve the

(08:25):
scope of work. So the moment we inspectthe home, that's our biggest concern is,
and we start to hound them forapprovals and present our scope of
work, try and get, ifthey request an estimate,
get our estimate as soon as possible,
submit it to them so that they canreview it for approvals before we start.
Because to a homeowner it might seem like,

(08:48):
oh, they're just coming to clean myhouse. My housekeeper, they charge,
I don't know, 300 bucks every timethey come in. They're professionals,
they're probably gonnacharge me a thousand bucks.
But in reality it's more than athousand bucks considering we're pulling
installation. It's more detailed workin order for us to properly deodorize.
Right. So, considering thatwe always, it's gonna be,

(09:11):
we know it's gonna be an expensiveprocess and the last thing we want is to
leave a bill on the, on the insured.So we make sure we get approvals.
If for whatever reason we can't getany approvals or they don't approve our
scope of work, if there's anythingthat we need to change, we will.
But if it's an automaticno, hey, you don't know,
we don't feel that this house wasimpacted by the wildfire for whatnot,

(09:35):
we go ahead and let the customerknow that it's not covered.
And then we present the estimate overto them and they can decide whether they
wanna pay outta pocket.
Gotcha. And I understand,unfortunately, I mean,
there's honest people anddishonest people out there,
but I understand there's somescams going on right now just kind
of given the scope of the problem.
Yeah, definitely.
There's a ton of other companiesout there that are knocking

(09:59):
door to door and they're not beingsent out by insurance or recommended by
anyone. They're just knocking the doorsand letting these people know, Hey,
we can clean it. We will take care ofit. Your insurance is gonna pay for it.
And no one's a hundredpercent sure ,
no matter how many wildfireswe've been through,
we're not a hundred percent sure thatit's gonna, it's gonna be a cover. Right.

(10:21):
And considering that there's a greatchance that the customer's gonna
be left with a bill. Hmm.
Not only that the insurance companieswork off of a certain software.
That software pretty much you putmeasurements in and it gives you a price.
It's not a price thatwe can make up. Right.
So if these companies come inand say, Hey, we're gonna do it.
We're gonna get it covered, andinsurance, you're not gonna pay a dime.

(10:44):
And even if it is covered, say theinsurance says, okay, our estimate was,
I don't know, $20,000mm-hmm . But this customer, the, the,
these other companies they're writingand putting their own pricing for it.
And maybe it was $30,000what they wrote up. Right.
So the insurance company's gonna pay the$20,000 and then the customer left with

(11:04):
the $10,000 difference.
Interesting. And I understand Cesar,
you recently went to South Carolinato help up after Hurricane Helene?
Correct. We mobilized out there. We werethere for roughly about seven weeks.
Wow. And helped a ton of people out there.
Everyone's really appreciative out there.

(11:26):
The hurricane just pretty much wipedout a good portion of the state. Right.
Tons of trees that fellon homes. Same deal,
just like the wildfire, people tryingto take advantage of the customer.
I'm talking about 35, $40,000to remove a tree off of a home.
And they're the customer'sin just desperate to have

(11:49):
it done right so that they can get atarp placed over the roof. So that,
trying to mitigate everything they can.
And unfortunately they'resigning people's contracts,
not knowing what theprice is supposed to be.
And an insurance companycomes in and says, Hey,
that should have only been 5,000.Here goes your 5,000 check. Right.
And they're stuck with a bill. Sosame deal is not just in our hometown,

(12:11):
but pretty much anywhere we do work,
we try and be honest with the people andlet 'em know that we're gonna try and
get approvals on the front end so thatthey're not stuck with a bill at the end
of the day. Right.
Now,
did ServiceMaster mobilize from all overthe country to go to South Carolina?
Did you, did you bring a team?
Correct.
So they ServiceMaster corporate prettymuch asked all the franchise, Hey,

(12:33):
who's willing to mobilizeout to this area of need?
And based on the volunteers,
the franchisees that volunteer to goup there we put our team together.
I took it was 10 of us total. We goout there, we take our equipment,
we take our vehicles, and westay out there. And in this case,
we stayed in an Airbnb for theseven weeks we were out there.

(12:56):
And that's pretty much our office andwarehouse at throughout that
period of time.
Well, and you, and you, yeah. Youwould've had to drive, right? Not fly.
'cause You need all of your equipment.
Yeah. We need our equipment. Sowe definitely drove out there.
Three day drive is definitelytough. We work 12 hours days,
seven days a week. Wedidn't have a day off,
but we knew we were reallyhelping somebody out.
Right. That's, that's, that's wonderful.That's, that's good. Important work.

(13:21):
So obviously you've seen a lot in 11 yearsand just out of, you know, curiosity,
the, the morbid me what,
what's kind of the most off thewall thing you've you've seen,
I guess without getting too, too graphic.
The trauma jobs, thoseare always an eyeopener.

(13:43):
It's always, you never,
as much as you try and prepare mentallyto walk into one of these jobs,
you just never know whatyou're gonna encounter. Right.
So th those definitely gotta be the ones.
We've had it notnecessarily death related,
but it was someone having dialysisin their home and something
malfunctioned where there was just bloodthroughout the whole master bedroom

(14:06):
Oof, .
Yeah. And you bring in all, youbring in all kinds of equipment and.
To equipment and then personal protectiveequipment, that's the main thing.
So that we're all safe aswe're doing the work. Right.
and then being trained more thananything. Mm-Hmm .
Knowing what to look out for andwhatnot so that we're able to be able to

(14:28):
fulfill the customer, butwhile being safe as well.
Right. And I would imaginewith something like that,
you'd have a certain place thatyou'd have to drop off the.
Correct.
We have certain protocols that we followfor the biohazard trash and whatnot.
Mm-Hmm . So what, what'syour, what, what's your territory?
What guy, what areas do you guys serve?

(14:50):
So we are based out of Ventura County,
but we do have a license in SantaBarbara County and LA County.
So we pretty much coverlopa, Santa Maria east,
and then we go as far east as Claremont.
Okay.
And then up north we go all theway up into Ridgecrest area.

(15:13):
Okay. So big, big territory.
Pretty much. It's roughly,
it comes down to about a threehour drive from our hometown.
Right. Do you have any advice forfolks back on, on the insurance piece?
Do you have any advice for folksjust to kind of make sure they're
protected, you know, and so preventativemaintenance type of a thing?

(15:35):
Preventative maintenance,
I would say when possible definitelytry and have a plumber come in and
perform leak detections. If younotice any increase in your build,
there could be a possibilityyou have a leak going on.
So that's definitely onething to look out for.
As far as preventativewith the company they pick,

(15:57):
I would definitely advise themto use a preferred vendor.
There's a ton of companies outthere and talk to your adjuster,
use a preferred vendor.
Majority of the times there's arelationship between the, the,
we frequently see the same adjustersso they understand who's honest and who
isn't. And they're gonna,we're going not just us,

(16:19):
but any preferred vendor is gonnabe able to fulfill your needs,
the way you expect versusany random other company.
That's a good, that's agood point. And how folks,
how can folks get aholdof you guys specifically?
What's your best website email?
So the company name isServiceMaster Restore,
buy Restoration Pros ServiceMasteras a whole, ServiceMaster Restore,

(16:41):
but buy Restoration Pros is ourfranchise name, franchise number 9 7 7 8.
And if you wanted to reach us atour office? 8 0 5 3 8 8 1 4 0 9.
That's gonna be the bestway calling our office.
Wonderful. Or you can.
Or you can contact me onmy cell phone. You know,
my phone is on twenty four seven at
8 0 5 7 5 0 5 6 3 8.

(17:05):
Wonderful. Well, Cesar and Cici,
we appreciate you very much being onthis episode of On the Road and we will
spread the word and you know,if folks have questions,
we'll we'll ask them to reachout and contact you. Thank.
You. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much guys.