Pack-Out Services during the Water Damage Mitigation Process

First, pack-out services are an industry term. We restoration guys throw this term around, so you may not know what it means. 

What are pack-out services? What does it mean? How is this related to Water Damage Mitigation?

Pack-out services are offered by restoration companies to help manage your belongings after a disaster like fire, flood, or mold damage. Here's a breakdown of what they typically involve:

What Happens During Pack-Out Services:

1. Inventory and Assessment: The crew will first assess your belongings and create a detailed inventory. This helps track your items and ensures nothing gets lost.

2. Packing: Professionals carefully pack your belongings using protective materials like boxes, padding, and plastic wrap. Fragile items receive special attention.

3. Transportation: Packed belongings are then safely transported to a secure storage facility, such as a climate-controlled warehouse or another designated location.

4. Storage: Your items are stored securely until your property is ready for them again. Some companies may offer cleaning or restoration services for your belongings while they're in storage.

5. Pack-Back: Once your property is restored and habitable, the crew will return your belongings and help you unpack them in their designated locations.

Benefits of Using Pack-Out Services:

• Protects Your Belongings: Professional packing and storage minimize the risk of further damage from lingering moisture, smoke, or dust.

• Peace of Mind: Knowing your belongings are safe and secure allows you to focus on the restoration process without worry.

• Efficiency: Trained crews can pack and transport your belongings quickly and efficiently, minimizing disruption to your daily life.

• Inventory Tracking: A detailed inventory ensures you can track all your belongings and simplifies insurance claims.

• Potential Restoration Services: Some companies may offer cleaning or restoration services for your belongings while they're in storage (check with the specific provider).

Who Might Need Pack-Out Services:

• Homeowners or renters dealing with fire, flood, or mold damage.

• Businesses are experiencing property damage that requires restoration work.

• Anyone needing temporary storage for their belongings during renovations or other events.

Manage Water Mitigation Through Contents Removal

Regardless of how damaging water invaded your Marietta home, the first steps in cleaning and drying up the mess involve stopping or mitigating the ongoing destruction. Mitigation might include shutting down supply lines after plumbing and appliance ruptures or tarping and boarding up of destroyed exteriors after storms. Another highly efficient intervention is the removal of soaked furnishings and other contents from the affected spaces. Taking wet articles out of the spaces reduces humidity levels in your water-damaged home and opens up the areas for water removal and drying. Saturated items get specialized mitigation, remediation, and restoration attention outside the damaged building areas, preventing the bulk of your valued possessing from landing in the trash.  

Streamlining Disaster Recovery

Homeowners experience heightened stress when both their building and its contents are at risk of permanent loss. Professional pack-out services are essential in many Marietta water mitigation efforts, easing worries and speeding up the process. AdvantaClean of Marietta frequently recommends a partial or whole-home inventory and pack-out early in the restoration process to clear the decks for onsite remediation in your residence.

Pack-Out and Inventory Protocols and Benefits

AdvantaClean technicians hold a wide range of certifications from the 

Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), including specialized training as a Contents Processing Technician (CPT). Our experienced crews assess the furnishings and personal property in each water-damaged space, wrapping and removing salvageable furniture and boxing other items for evaluation at our production facility. 

Process    

• Sorting items into salvageable and irreparably damaged categories

• Documenting conditions of items in both categories, using digital photography of the contents' condition and written explanations if needed--disposing of and making replacement claims for ruined items after consultation with your insurer

• Noting the locations of the contents for easier repositioning during pack-back

• Placing smaller, loose items into study cartons with a complete inventory of each box 

• Transporting the contents efficiently to our production facility for further industry standard-based water mitigation, cleaning, sanitizing, drying, and climate-controlled storage  

Benefits 

• Back at your home, AdvantaClean of Marietta crews concentrate on building-centric water mitigation without continuously moving heavy items and coping with dripping and staining.

• Efficient drying in your home requires humidity and temperature adjustments to evaporate absorbed water from building materials, which is much easier to achieve when soaking-wet furnishings and possessions are gone.

• Contents have different mitigation, remediation, and restoration needs than walls and floors, and our CPTs have the skills and the equipment to mitigate moisture damage and dry out items safely. 

For example, we use industrial-grade laundry facilities, enclose furniture with wet padding inside contained and monitored drying pods that help prevent the swelling or corroding of wooden or metal frames, and employ innovative electronics, paper, picture, and document drying techniques.

Separating contents allows us to work with you and your insurer every step of the way to make the extra efforts needed to stop progressive water damage and save heirlooms and other valuables while reducing or eliminating out-of-pocket replacement costs.

AdvantaClean of Marietta offers a full spectrum of water mitigation strategies for your damaged residential property, including professional pack-out and inventory services. Call (470) 819-2077 to secure and restore your home and its contents from water disasters.