All Forum Posts by: Bryan Swallow

For ink, denatured alcohol or hairspray does the trick. Apply, blot with clean terry towel (white preferrable), apply, turn towel to clean side, blot, repeat until ink is gone.

The major cost of cabinetry (production line, NOT custom) are the face frames, doors and drawer faces. Generally, the rest of the cabinet is particle board paneling. This would include the boxes, shelves and drawer boxes.

If all your faces and doors are fine, the chepest option is purchasing cabinet boxes and reattaching the faces to them. Replacing doors and and face frames is not too difficult, but cabinets are generally disontinued after a year, so it may become more difficult to find a match. If an exact match is important, I'd recommend your local furniture repairman, a reputable one can match the color/staining dead on 99 out of 100 times.

OfGift,

I hope you have seen your doctor about your symptons and what you believe is causing them. It is very important that you take this step. It sounds to me that you have much more than an odor problem, which is annoying, and more of an indoor air quality issue.

Besides your home, other causes could be fabrics, furniture or other personal belognings you have acquired. Once had a case of stuffed animals from China being the culprit of a little girls respiratory illness. Check some of your recent purchases from around the time you've noticed the odor.

Speak with you doctor first, and I recommend an inspection by a certified and legitimate inspection firm prior to having other companies come in and take a shot in the dark at the problem. If you are unsure, send me an email and I can recommend a couple to you.

Odor clean up can get pretty tricky, so I'll give you some of the basics. These are general guides, and I will add a bit to help your situation.

Source- identify the source of the odors and remove, if possible. Since they were meth smokers, this will probably be all surfaces, which you don't want to remove.

Clean- ALL remaining surfaces. In a situation like this, it is not enough to clean the carpet and floors and countertops. There must be a top to bottom wipe of ALL surfaces, including walls and ceilings. You'll want to use a cleaner that is designed for the mess you're cleaning. Meth leaves a chemical residue behind that will seep into walls, so you'll have to use something pretty strong, and wear respiratory and skin (gloves, sleeves and goggles) protection. You will also want your ductwork cleaned, along with the airhandler, and filters replaced.

If cleaning doesn't solve it, and you still have some residual odors- Deodorize using product specifically designed to eliminate (not mask) odors. They can be applied by fogging, spraying, or wiping onto surfaces. Carpets can be rinsed with a solution of one of these products mixed with the rinse water in the carpet cleaner (test for color fastness first!)

You can also call a company to run an Odorox or Ozone machine for a day. Do that only after you've completed the first steps, as it can cost a few hundred, and companies will not likely warranty the results if they have not done the cleaning themselves. Ozone must be run when the building is unoccupied, I don't recommend renting one and learning as you go! The only reason I recommend these to you is, as you'll see, the next steps become very expensive, very fast.

Still odor?- Seal and paint the walls and other surfaces. Sealing is a must, if there is something there strong enough to survive and still give off odor, it will seep through paint, or possibly cause the paint to fail. If the odor is coming from the carpet, remove and replace carpet AND pad. It probably seeped through to the padding, and is coming back after each cleaning.

For cleaning supplies, I recommend going down to your neighborhood commercial carpet cleaner supply, such as an Interlink. They will carry many types of cleaners and deodorizers designed for these situations.

Cleaning odors can be very simple, or very intensive, as you can see. Hopefully yours won't be so bad. Good luck!

Quick update for all you investors and property managers- New York city has recently revised and updated its guidelines concerning fungi (mold) in the indoor environment.

If your state does not have specific guidelines concerning mold remediation/cleanup, they probably defer to the NYC guidelines. You can find these guidelines by google-ing "new york city guidelines mold". The link will be on the nyc.gov website, just to make sure you find the right one.

Print out a copy for yourself, it is free to access. It will help keep you informed and prepared if the need ever arises. If you have questions, post 'em here and we can discuss and clarify them.

Mold and rot are not the only things that come from prolonged water damage, termites are usually found in areas of continuous water intrusion. Be sure to have a good pest inspector come out to check for signs of termites.

The agent can advise his client, based on what information he is given, on specific wording that may or may not include coverage for a claim. The adjuster, as you know, has no role unless a claim is submitted. If the prop owner had a simple homeowners policy that excluded tenants, and possibly voided coverage if property was changed to a rental, the agent would advise as so.

I suspect, however, that a claim was turned in and reviewed by a desk adjuster who, in turn, denied coverage based on the homeowners own description of loss.

We are no longer involved with this project, so I don't know all the details, but with all the changes you can make to your policy to keep the price down, I have no doubt this was an option that was regrettably chosen.

Funny how things work out...We got called to a property yesterday to review damage for exactly the same thing we are discussing here - a child left the upstairs bath tub running and flooded most of the house. This is a tenant/landlord situation.
After giving our estimate, the landlord said he wanted to review with his insurance company(AmFam) first.

Today he told us that his agent says there is no coverage, because he has a landlord policy that only covers defects and failures of the plumbing, tenant caused damage is not covered. Accidents are covered only if it is owner ocupied.

Yikes! Do you know what your policy limitations are?!?

In regards to the question of water damage... A few things you'll like to know: What was the source of the water damage, is it dry,was it repaired, and was the damage properly addressed according to industry standards (S520 standard andreference guide for professional water damage restoration). An inspection of the structure would be in order, untreated water damage can lead to a variety of problems, including staining, warpage, deterioation of pressboard(cabinets and shelving), mold, termites and other critters.

Water is broken up into three categories when determining the effects on a structure, and what is needed to be done.

Category 1 is water that came from a clean source, such as a supply line or faucet.
Category 2 is unsanitary water that could cause illness if consumed. Generally drains that break or back up that do NOT contain feces. Waterbeds fall in this category.
Category 3 is grossly contaminated water that has a high likelihood of causing illness or death if consumed. They have a high likelihood of containing micro-organisms or chemicals. Sewage backflows, flood waters that come from the outside in, wind driven rain.

Time is also a big factor. Over time, category 1 water can deteriorate into category 2 or 3. As a rule of thumb, water that has sat over 7 days (and is still wet), regardless of source, is treated as category 3. When dealing with cat 3 water, all porous affected materials are removed and discarded. This includes carpet and pad, drywall, insulation, and pressboard.

That is just a quick background for you, hopefully it helps when making your decisions.

Exactly TIm, and landlords that handle the rental themselves can take steps to do this. Most standard policies are written to cover "sudden or accidental" releases of water.

The issue is, if you've hired a property management company, do they have procedures in place to protect your property. Unless they have POA and the insurance information, they would not be able to file a claim in the homeowner's stead. If the tenant has a thousand dollar deposit down, and the repair bill is estimated at twice that or more, would you realistically expect them to take care of it for you?