Recent Posts

Biohazard Cleaning in Foristell, Missouri

3/1/2024 (Permalink)

Biohazard clean up SERVPRO was called out to clean up after a tragedy in an 18 wheeler.

SERVPRO is known for Fire, Water and Mold remediation. Did you know that SERVPRO also does Biohazard clean up. Our team is understanding and compassionate when we are called to do a Biohazard clean up. There was a tragedy in an 18 wheeler and our technician's dressed in full PPE and treated the scene prior to beginning the cleanup. Our team was very professional with the trucking company that called us to come out and perform the services. Our teams are experienced in disinfecting residential, commercial and industrial locations affected by a crime scene. The trucking company had several questions prior to us arriving on staff and our Production Manager walked them through the process from Start to Finish. This client was very satisfied with how quickly SERVPRO responded.

What to do after a contamination

  • Stay out of the affected areas.
  • Call emergency service personnel.
  • Treat all bodily fluids as if they are contaminated.

SERVPRO is ready to respond at any hour we are a 24/7 operation, and we are a reliable service.

Winterizing Tips and Tricks

11/30/2023 (Permalink)

Wooded house with snow fall This is your reminder that it is not too late to begin winterizing your home.

With the winter season quickly approaching we want to remind you of the importance of winterizing your home. The purpose of winterizing a home is to avoid higher energy costs and any damage caused by cold weather and snow. Here’s how to winterize your home properly so that it can weather the season.

Clean out your gutters: The purpose of gutters is to direct rainwater and snow away from your roof to prevent water seeping in and causing damage. The gutters cannot do their job if they are filled with leaves and other debris. You typically want to clean the gutters before the first snowfall.

Protect the pipes: With temperatures below freezing there is a chance of your pipes freezing and bursting causing major problems. Here are some tips on how to avoid that. Know the location of your main water shut off so that it is easily accessible in an emergency. Drain the water from your outside sprinkler systems and garden hoses. Disconnect garden hoses from the spigot and cover the spigot.

If you're going to be away from home during the winter, be sure to keep your thermostat set to 55 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent your pipes from freezing. You can also open your cabinet doors to allow the pipes that don't get direct heat from freezing while you're gone.

Don't become a victim of a disastrous frozen pipe water damage. Winterize your home!

Electrical Fire Outburst

10/31/2023 (Permalink)

Black soot on ceiling from electrical fire Black soot on the sunroom ceiling from the electrical fire. The technicians used extension poles and multiple dry sponge passes to properly clean.

This homeowner was set to close on the sale of her home when an electrical malfunction caused a fire in her sunroom causing smoke/soot damage all throughout her home. She contacted our office to help clean up the messy aftermath. Our crew was on site the same day and began packing out her contents and textiles to bring back to our warehouse for cleaning. While our content cleaners worked at the warehouse, our crew was onsite dry sponging all affected structure materials such as walls, ceilings, flooring, windows, doors, etc. Clean-up of the structure and contents took some time to complete, but our crew was sure to stay in contact with the homeowner along the way and answer any questions that she had. The sale of the home did have to be pushed back due to reconstruction needed to be done at the home. The homeowner was pleased with our quick and precise work.

Water heater leak discovered weeks later..

10/31/2023 (Permalink)

Affected adjacent room covered in mold This room was right next to the HVAC closet that contained the leaking water heater. This room was heavily affected and was demoed down to the studs.

This homeowner went to check on his vacant home after a few weeks of not being there. Upon opening the door, he was faced with an ugly sight of mold all over the home. He discovered that his water heater had been leaking and spraying the home for quite some time. Upon calling our office we were able to send out the project manager on-site to inspect and let the homeowner know the plan of action. Over the next several weeks we demoed all affected parts of the home all while keeping in touch with insurance to rule out any coverage concerns. The homeowner was very pleased that we kept his project as a main priority and kept an open line of communication during the whole process. Our team made several visits to the home and was able to complete mitigation in about a month. From there we were able to refer our subcontractor reconstruction team to help with the putback of his home.

Commercial Crisis

10/31/2023 (Permalink)

Standing water on carpeted flooring This is the front lobby of the business. The water heater leaked over night affecting the carpeted flooring.

This storage unit office had its water heater leak overnight. The manager was greeted with a nice surprise the next morning as she stepped into the office and instantly had her shoe covered in water. She quickly contacted us and needed mitigation right away so that they could resume running their business. Our crew was able to be onsite within the hour and begin extracting water from the affected carpeted flooring. Once the extraction was done and the cove base was pulled the crew set up air movers and a dehumidifier to allow for proper drying. Our crew chief monitored the equipment and structure over the next couple of days to ensure that the structure materials were drying properly and moved equipment to other areas if needed. The drying equipment was placed onsite for 2.73 days and picked up after drying was complete. Reconstruction was scheduled for the following week to ensure that this business could go back to like the water damage never even happened!

Home Renovations Gone Wrong

9/29/2022 (Permalink)

Plumbing drain tube with drill holes in it This is the plumbing drain tube that was causing the water leak causing moisture to be detected in the drywall.

This homeowner was doing renovations in her laundry room when she discovered some water damage in the laundry room but didn't know where the water was exactly coming from. She contacted our office in hopes that we could help her out.

Upon arrival, our crew chief took moisture readings and detected moisture on/behind the wall. The technician removed the baseboards, drilled holes in the baseboard line, and set up drying equipment. The technician did some investigating and was able to find the possible source of the leak. The cabinet that was installed above the washer and dryer was right where a plumbing supply would be. So the technician asked the homeowner for approval to remove the cabinet and tear out some drywall. He assured her that if he was wrong that we would repatch the drywall at no cost to her. 

Upon removing the cabinet and piece of drywall there was the source. A drain tube with multiple drill holes in it from where the cabinets were screwed into the wall. The homeowner was so thankful to have our technician be so thorough. We left the equipment onsite for 2 days to allow for the structure to dry properly.

Electrical Malfunction

9/29/2022 (Permalink)

Car in Garage Covered in Soot This is the pre- mitigation of the garage where the fire started due to the electrical malfunction in the vehicle.

This homeowner had an electrical malfunction in one of his vehicles and unfortunately had a fire start in their home. They knew of SERVPRO through their great friends (our franchise owners) Greg and Joanne. They immediately called SERVPRO of Western O'Fallon/Wentzville as soon as they filed a claim with insurance.

SERVPRO was immediately on site the next day to begin the initial inspection. They found soot throughout the main level of their home but little to no soot in the finished basement. The remediation began with packing out all salvageable contents that could be cleaned of the present soot—items such as clothing, bedding, kitchen dishes, entertainment centers, etc. Our content cleaners at the warehouse began restoring the items for the family so that they wouldn't be without them for long. Back at the home demo started with tearing out the affected carpet and pad in the rooms and hallways. The next step was to dry sponge all surface areas that were affected by soot including walls, ceilings, cabinets, countertops, light fixtures,  toilets, showers, windows, and any/all structure materials. The garage was a huge part of the home that was damaged due to the fire so the crew spent several days demoing the walls, pulling affected insulation, and inventorying all affected contents. The studs and trusses were cleaned heavily due to being the most affected by smoke/soot damage. The floor was also heavily cleaned due to having a ton of insulation and debris. SERVPRO of Western O'Fallon/Wentzville was able to get the home restored in a timely manner so that the reconstruction team could start their work and get this family back into their home soon.

Why SERVPRO?

9/28/2022 (Permalink)

Employees in front of SERVPRO box truck in full ppe Part of our great team geared up and ready to go and help a homeowner in need!

Why should you choose SERVPRO and not another restoration company?

Instead of having just two specialties like mold remediation and water damage restoration. SERVPRO offers a lot of different disaster restoration. Services including commercial and residential.

These services include:

  • Water Damage Restoration
  • Fire Damage Restoration
  • Storm Damage Restoration
  • Mold Remediation
  • Commercial cleaning
  • Air duct cleaning
  • and many more!

SERVPRO invests heavily in training for its employees. Our highly trained technicians go through extensive training which includes:

  • IICRC Training and Certifications
  • Employee Certification Training
  • Initial Franchise Training
  • E-Learning
  • and most important, In the field training with the certified crew chief.

SERVPRO also invests in state-of-the-art technology. High-speed air movers cause moisture to evaporate at a faster pace and industrial-grade dehumidifiers pull the water vapor from the air.

Think we could help you or need more information? Give SERVPRO of Western O'Fallon/Wentzville a call today!

636-856-9700

Underwater Basement

9/26/2022 (Permalink)

Standing water on basement floor affecting some contents This is a pre-mitigation photo of the basement where there was standing water that the crew had to extract in order to set proper drying equipment.

This homeowner panicked when he walked downstairs to find his basement underwater. He was quick to call SERVPRO onsite to help with the standing water. Upon arrival, the crew chief walked through the mitigation process to ensure that the homeowner was up to speed with the game plan. While the crew chief was with the homeowner, the crew began setting up the truck mount to get ready to extract water. While extracting the standing water they noticed that there was still water leaking from an unknown source. The crew chief suggested to the homeowner that it would be best to get a plumber on site to find the source and fix the leak if possible to prevent the possibility of the water rising again. The Plumber was onsite and fixed the leak within a couple of hours. The crew began the demo needed, which was the removal of wet insulation. The crew also removed non-salvageable items and made a list so that he could turn it into insurance for reimbursement. Once all demo and disposal of contents were performed the crew was able to set drying equipment. 28 air movers and 3 large dehumidifiers were set for 3.56 days in order to properly dry the structure. At the end of mitigation, the office staff took care of entering and billing the homeowner's insurance company so he could move along with his claim.

Got Water? Give us a chance to make it like it never even happened!

636-856-9700 

Sump Pump Strikes Again

9/23/2022 (Permalink)

Air movers placed after demo of moisture barrier flooring in a bathroom. This is the basement bathroom after the technicians removed the moisture barrier flooring and set drying equipment to ensure proper drying.

This homeowner had her sump pump fail shortly after having her basement finished. So, it was devastating for her to see her new flooring damaged by water.

Upon initial inspection, our project manager went through the process of what we would do in order to dry the structure properly. This included demo of the affected moisture barrier flooring and detachment of baseboards to dry the structure properly. The equipment was placed for 3 days and monitored every day to ensure that moisture was decreasing and not increasing

When mitigation was finished the homeowner decided to use our contractors for reconstruction. She was pleased that they had quick availability due to the basement being her and her husband's work-from-home space. The contractors were able to get the job done in just 3 days! Leaving the homeowner with enough time to reset her office to start her work week. She was pleased with the work all around that she left us this review!

"Just a couple of months back we had a terrible Monday morning sight! Water from our sump pump was literally fountaining in our basement. We urgently needed someone to come to remediate the water damage. Greg and his team came out quickly and promptly got to work.

Our basement had just been finished the prior fall so seeing 70% of the freshly laid flooring being ripped up was traumatic. Greg and the team were professional and compassionate to our situation. They worked with us and often around us (we both work from home, from the basement, the grossly water-damaged basement). They left no board unturned to ensure they found the full extent of the damage so there would be no surprises later.

Afterward, they worked with me to ensure full compensation from my insurance company and were flexible while I awaited my insurance checks to come in so I could, in turn, pay SERVPRO for the wonderful work they did.

For reconstruction, they recommended a phenomenal team that did a 5 day in just two days, again professional and flexible.

I now type this from my basement office. I can't recommend them highly enough because, looking around, SERVPRO truly lived up to their promise: Like it never even happened."