Rooted in Care

Nate K.: It's so easy to get caught up in making sure that we restore our home, restore our business, get it back, get our business working again, get our home, you know, working again. But what about the health effects that can occur or are related to fire? We talk about the simplest of, you know, smoke damages related to odor and soot and et cetera, but there are carcinogens.

Chantel Davis: Welcome to Rooted in Care, where we amplify the voices of our clients and dive into how tree care plays an integral role in our everyday lives.

Buddy Marshall: Whether you're familiar with a tree or new to our community, we're here to bring the service industry together to explore the deep rooted connection between people, trees, and the environment.

Chantel Davis: I'm Shantelle Davis, chief Revenue officer at A Tree.

Buddy Marshall: I'm Buddy Marshall, VP of Commercial sales at a.

Chantel Davis: We'll dig into what matters most to you. Your input shapes how tree care enhances the beauty of our communities while protecting our natural surroundings.

Buddy Marshall: Let's get to the root of thoughtful tree care for your property, your city, your home. We're going to just go right into it. Today's guest is Nate Kozloskas. Nate is the owner of Aquavac Restoration. Thank you so much for joining us, Nate. Hey, you know, just real quick, tell us a little bit about your company and the work you do in fire restoration, if you don't mind.

Nate K.: Sure. So Aquavac Restoration is primarily conducting business in Washington and Oregon. We've been in business for about three years now. However, I've been in the industry for about 30 years doing restoration from, well, the time I was about 18. And so now everybody's going to be able to do the math and know my age. But for about 30 years, I've been doing restoration. And obviously fire restoration has been a big piece of that as we have conducted several restoration projects both in multifamily commercial and residential businesses and homes.

Chantel Davis: That's awesome. Well, hi, Nate. It's nice to see you again. Long time no see, Nate. Myself and Buddy used to work together in past lives. What I think would be really great, Nate, is you mentioned that you got into restoration when you're 18. So for all of our viewers, do you want to share a little bit about how do you get into restoration? And you clearly did well because you're in it for over 30 years, so maybe a little bit of history about how you got into it and then how you ended up owning your own company.

Nate K.: Okay, well, I'll try not to take too long on that. But I got into it with the carpet cleaning business, you know, when I was 18, so we would clean carpets for different apartment communities and so forth. And in lieu of that, these apartments would all have, you know, water damage, where they would have toilet overflows and broken pipes and stuff. And so it was easy to call the carpet cleaner who had the extraction equipment to, you know, perform those restoration services. And as time went on and the need for restoration increased, especially in the insurance industry, a lot of those carpet cleaning, janitorial style businesses segued into full restoration. So then of course, incorporating fire damages and so forth into that. And I think that I just, I aspired to be a part of a team and lead a team.

Nate K.: It was always exciting for me in my career. And so it, you know, obviously led into eventually owning my own business. I will say that my entire career has been either starting a business for somebody else or helping somebody prepare for an acquisition, preparing their business for an acquisition. And so my whole career has been developing these businesses. And now I'm finally doing it for myself. And I'm very excited about that.

Chantel Davis: So I'm so proud of you. I mean, this is one person that you knew. He should run a business at some point because he's helping everybody else. So we're really excited to kind of see how it develops and grows. And you kind of teed it up really nicely. We've been doing a series on defensible space has kind of been our focus. So we had a representative from Cal Fire. We had a owner of an insurance company, which you're familiar with, and now focusing on restoration. One of the things that I think a lot of our viewers would love to know is what does the fire restoration process typically look like? Right. So from the first call to fully having a restored property, what is that process? Because I know for me and others, people don't know, right.

Chantel Davis: It's not something that's just advertised out there. They just know to call you and it gets fixed.

Nate K.: Absolutely. So, you know, there, there are three main facets of this, right? There's a homeowner, there's a business owner as well. And then there's a third party, like a property management company, somebody that's acting as owner on the particular property. I think that everybody instantly knows that they need to contact their insurance company. You know, we learn that from driving vehicles. And whenever we have a car wreck or something like that, God forbid, we know to call our insurance company. So that's fairly typical. But I think where people get lost in the initial stages of a fire restoration is they don't know who actually is going to do the work. Right. So who do they call? A lot of people will lean on contractors, like general contractors or other type of contractors. They may not know much about the restoration industry or restoration contractors.

Nate K.: So I think that may be one of the key elements in identifying how to start the process, is identifying a contractor. Of course, you can get referrals from your insurance company or other people that may have went through this before. They can also help you find somebody that can provide a service for you. But that's the inception in identifying that. And then once you identify that person, then you have the initial inspection identifying what the scope of work is going to be, but making sure that's in tune with the insurance company as well. Because you don't want your contractor to go one way and be completely opposite of the direction that your insurance company want you to go.

Nate K.: We want to make sure that the contractor and the insurance company are completely in tune with the process and the scope of work that needs to be performed. Now, the scope of work, you know, I mean, there's so many different scopes out there, right? It depends on the magnitude of your fire. So we'll just assume that this is a large fire, right?

Chantel Davis: And so very large fire. There you go. That's very large fire.

Nate K.: So if this is a large fire, you need to determine some things that homeowners or business owners may not know. And that is what type of building materials are in my building or in my home. And people that own homes that are built before 1980. You may have materials in your home like lead paint, you may have asbestos in your home. You may have other things that you're unaware of. And so you can't just conduct the restoration for the fire unless you become very aware of what the materials are so that you can properly assess and. And restore that property and do it safely. So you're not actually exacerbating the problem by now exposing yourself to these other hazards like asbestos and so forth.

Chantel Davis: No stress. As I'm looking around the walls, right, you can see buddy and I's face. We're like, what's in our walls here? But that's so important, right? Such a good question is, you know, as we talk about the process, let's take it back, right? So how do you make sure when you're building, how do restoration companies make sure that they have the right materials? You talked a lot about materials to make sure that when there's another fire they have, you know, a safe house that they don't have to worry about because that's been a big topic.

Nate K.: So, you know, most of those materials are governed by code and the city governs those materials to make sure that whatever contractor that you're using that they're adhering to the city ordinances and building codes. One, you want to make sure that the company that you're using is actually in good standing with their licensing and in good standing with the city. Right. I think that's important because if you have somebody that is in good standing and then you know that they're most likely going to generate the best materials suited for your house in reconstruction. I think the other thing is just going through the permitting process, you know, making sure that they're pulling permits throughout the process as well. We talked about a potential large fire.

Nate K.: Well, city codes are going to require fire rated drywall, for example, so that drywall has a certain burn time. So if there's another fire that happens after the construction occurs, we know that burn time is going to be whatever is relevant for that particular city, that county, et cetera, which, you know, obviously the city is going to make sure that those burn times are extended to ensure that you have enough time to get your family out. You know, if they're. Or whoever, you know, maybe it's a commercial business, get people out before that fire grows into something bigger. So there are several things. So when you do have a contractor, all of those things that I just mentioned are governed by city inspections.

Nate K.: So as you go through each step, they're going to make sure you have all these provisions in place to ensure that you're going to be safe when the construction is complete.

Buddy Marshall: As we talked, you kind of touched on insurance companies a little bit. Are there common challenges in the insurance or with the insurance claims process that homeowners should watch out for? And also the second part of that is, what would your advice be for making claims, the claims process smoother and getting the best outcome for your client?

Nate K.: You know, that's a good question. I think the very first thing is making sure that you have the right coverage. That's the first and foremost thing. So if I'm in an area that is known to have wildfires, I want to make sure that I have the right coverage in that particular area. Right. If I live in Florida, it's going to be hurricanes and so on and so forth, but make sure you have the right coverage. The other thing is I think you have to be careful when you sign up for insurance, your house is appraised in the value of your house is what you originally signed up for. Well, now, as you remodel or do other things, upgrades your home, is your insurance still the right insurance coverage for your home?

Nate K.: And I think that as we work through the challenges, I mean, just alone of one, you know, dealing with a fire, dealing with the restoration process, the construction process, but to find out that you may be underinsured because the value of a home was assessed 10 years ago, 20 years ago, when you initially signed for your insurance or bought your house, now you may be underinsured. So it's really important to make sure that you have the right coverage. The other thing is ask around. Ask somebody that's been through the process. I suggest that you ask other people so that they may talk about a circumstance where they made a claim. Relationships are key, but also making sure that communication is a key factor in any loss, no matter what it is. And especially in.

Nate K.: I mean, fires usually mean you're not going to be in your home, you're going to be living somewhere else with a relative, in a hotel, whatever, while the construction is being completed or conducted. So make sure that communication is there. You know, as painful as it is, the last thing you want is to make sure you have good communication.

Chantel Davis: I mean, that was so insightful and helpful. I think one of the things people don't think about and you really want to go back to it, what you said is making sure you have the right coverage every single year. So whether you're a resident and a homeowner and you know, upgraded your backyard, you did some remodeling in your kitchen, or if you're a multifamily and you did upgrades right to the property. Right. The challenge is if you're notifying your insurance company, when it comes to you, right. As a restoration company, you're not going to get enough money to be able to rebuild it the same way. So I think that's really important that we focus on that first, because for.

Chantel Davis: For me, I know that we want to make sure that we have the right coverage because you're going to put all your blood, sweat and tears to make it the way you want it, and then they're going to expect you to rebuild it, but you have to make sure you have that coverage. What do you think is the biggest mistake that homeowners are doing immediately after a fire?

Nate K.: I think the. One of the big things that I see is when they've. When they've kind of gotten past the loss aspect, right? They've lost certain heirlooms, they've lost certain things that they can't recover. You know, it's tough. It's very tragic when they get through that process, and it can take some time, but when they're ready to start rebuilding and start doing whatever it is to restore people, some people may automatically assume that they get a new house now. And we deal with that a lot as a restoration contractor. And that's tough for us because we want to generate the best product possible for homeowners. And so many times it's the assumption is I'm going to get to be able to finally do those upgrades or those things that I always wanted to do.

Nate K.: But unfortunately, you know, you have to remember the insurance company covers like, for, like, materials, right? And so it's either going to be like, in material or it's going to be like in terms of the monetary aspect, right? In value. And so those upgrades are still going to cost you additional money to upgrade certain things. So a quick example would be if I have carpet through my house and I have this 1970 yellow shag carpet, I'm not going to be able to have the coverage to get new LVP or plank flooring or something like that. You know, we'll be able to consider the cost of the value of the carpet. Right? And it may even be a depreciated value depending on your insurance company or your coverage. But, you know, so there's not.

Nate K.: It doesn't always mean that, for lack of better words, that there's going to be an increase in value to your home after this is done. Aside from that, if you do choose a really good restoration company, you will get good quality workmanship. And of course, with good quality workmanship, your asset will increase in value, your home, your business will increase in value just on that quality of work.

Chantel Davis: That's, that's huge. I mean, we all come from the respiration background. And how many times have we heard homeowners say, yeah, I know this sucks, the house burned down, but I'm going to get my dream home. And you go, how are you going to do that? Right.

Buddy Marshall: That's a great point. Kind of goes back to sometimes when picking the right contractor, picking the right restoration company that is going to follow the rules so that the customer is not penalized in the long run. I think that's a great, great point. I know you and I have done some work together where a homeowner Will actually try to add on or build or oh, I'm going to do this part of the job myself because I don't want to get it permitted. Well, and that's where someone like you would come in and say, well then I can't do the work for you because now you're kind of responsible at that point. So that great point.

Nate K.: We could do the work, but we have to bring it up to code and there may not be coverage to bring it up to code. So we still want to do the work. We want to put you back in your home or your business. But we may not be able to do the work based on like materials because the like materials that were conducted were not up to code. So now we have to bring it up to code and you may not be covered for that. So. Right. And fire damage is, you know that's the nature of fire damage. It's the, you know, the destruction of the structure. So many other losses like floods and so forth. The structure itself is still intact. You know, the integrity of the framing or whatever may have not been impacted by the flooding.

Nate K.: But when it comes to fire now your structural integrity has definitely been damaged. And so anything that you thought may have been code compliant or something that you may have thought went under the radar. Now it's come risen to the surface and now we're dealing with that. And it may be an out of pocket expense that you may have not, you know, obviously thought you were going to have or incur.

Buddy Marshall: Sure. Hey, just dig a little bit deeper with the different types of fire damage. Let's, let's talk a little bit about, or maybe give us a little brief explanation about the different types. So smoke, so structural since, you know, you brought framing and everything. So.

Nate K.: Yeah.

Buddy Marshall: And how they impact the restoration process.

Nate K.: I think that there are certain levels, Right. I mean, a fire, you know, we can say it's like an onion. Right. And there are certain layers to every fire. You can have a fire that maybe happened in a building next to you and didn't actually occur in your own home. But because you had the windows open or you had, there was something that was open, a vent or something, the smoke actually traveled into your home and caused soot damage and smoke damage. So we would call that, you know, it would be either an invasive odor or it would be soot damage or staining due to that soot damage. So really that would be construed as something small in terms of structural. However, I mean, if the entire house is now full of soot. You can't just go in and necessarily just wipe things down.

Nate K.: There's a process that you have to go through, right? You have to clean the areas, get everything clean. And I'm talking very rudimentary right now. But you. You then, of course, would have to prime and seal the areas, encapsulate to make sure that none of the exposure comes back at a different point in time. So there's. There's certainly still a process. Now you're talking about having maybe to move furniture and other things. So it still can be a very difficult situation and will upend your. Your life or your business, you know, contingent on that. And then, you know, of course, you have. You actually have structural damage, right? So you know, this is where the fire has gone well beyond your wallboard, drywall, whatever tile, whatever that is, and actually is now impacted the structure itself.

Nate K.: And so because it's impacted the structure, now we're dealing with, you know, conducting, you know, our calling a engineer, getting with the city to make sure that we're following the code compliance, and it's going to exacerbate the timing on the whole project as well, right? Because now went from something that may have been two to four weeks. Now we're talking maybe six months to a year when we get into structural damage. So, you know, we have your soot and smoke damage and your restoration for that. Then you have your structural damage and repairs related to that, and then you have total loss. Total loss is. Is, you know, there is just not viable for you to reconstruct your house due to monetary reasons, coverage reasons. The value of the construction, it just. It exceeds that.

Nate K.: There were fires in Colorado a few years ago, and there were people that had the right coverage for their homes, so they were able to cover the full extended, you know, the full repair. But all of the houses around them were completely to the ground. And, you know, it was going to take years, right? So even though you may have the right coverage, you know, maybe you're considering total loss just because the value of your house is never going to be the same, your neighborhood is never going to be the same, that constant odors is going to be out there looming for, you know, many years to come if it's that drastic. I think that one of the things that.

Nate K.: That homeowners and businesses don't think of either is that it's so easy to get caught up in making sure that we restore our home, restore our business, get it back, get our business working again, get our home you know, working again. But what about the health effects that can occur or are related to fire? We talk about the simplest of, you know, smoke damages related to odor and soot and et cetera. But there are carcinogens. As soon as you start getting the smoke damage or any type of fire damage, there are carcinogens. There are chemicals that now have attached themselves to walls and other places of your home. And that's really important because you don't see these things immediately. These cause long term effects that you may not see for years to come.

Nate K.: Benzene, for example, that's produced in just burning wood, you know, you don't have.

Buddy Marshall: You're talking like a scientist now, buddy.

Chantel Davis: No, no, it's really good, Nate. You know how I kind of look at it? People are probably listening right now and they said, okay, how is a tree care company and a restoration company partner together when it comes to, you know, fire devastation? And I think you built off of something that's really important, right? Not only could you have total loss and you have to think about the process of rebuilding, but we as arborists, we go out and we assess the trees because a lot of times what people don't realize is the trees also have a lot of those carcinogens that they can put out into the environment. So we have to make sure that we're going out there, we're assessing the tree. It may look healthy, but we have to ensure is it safe, right?

Chantel Davis: Is it safe in that community, Is it safe in that neighborhood? Just like you're doing within your business. And that's something people don't know. So I think the. To paraphrase it, right, I always say, like, let's. Let's make it simple for everyday viewers to understand is when you have any type of fire, you know, disaster or total loss, it's really important to contact the people that know the regulations, right? A restoration company knows what needs to be done. They can test to make sure that it's a safe place to rebuild. Versus hey, I'm going to just do it myself because I'm handy and I watch H E T V and the same thing goes for trees, right? You want to make sure just because your gardener says, oh, it looks green, or you go out and it looks healthy, well, is it healthy? No.

Chantel Davis: You probably want to reach out to your arborist to make sure that, you know, they're looking at it to make sure it's safe. So I think that's the big lesson. And Nate's worked with me for a while and I always like to do this, but it's to make sure that when something happens, go to the experts. Don't just make assumptions. Because there is so much behind the scenes that need to be looked at to make sure that it's a healthy. Right. It's a healthy environment for us to live in, whether it's within the house or outside of the house.

Nate K.: I think it's a good summary. And you know me, I can. I can easily get into the heats.

Chantel Davis: This is why you're the expert. I always say this is why you're the expert at what you do. This is why we have arborists on our side that do what they do. And then there's why there's Buddy and I, right? This is why we sit on here and talk to people all day, because we're like, hey, this is what we do. Let's make it simple for everybody to understand.

Buddy Marshall: Just because Buddy has a chainsaw does not make him an arborist.

Chantel Davis: Thank you. Yes.

Nate K.: Yeah, that's true. And, you know, it's funny, I actually looked at some of the previous podcasts, you know, and I was looking at some of the things you were just talking about, making sure the trees are a certain clearance and, you know, giving the clearance away from the house and stuff. And, I mean, for obvious reasons, right. If you have dead trees and stuff like that, it's. It is going to be a big hazard. But even trees that aren't are not necessarily dead or anything like that. They can contribute to things like animals or pests, we'll call them. And I don't know if you know this, but 20% of fires in residential homes or. Or even like residential, like, multifamily places, they stem from your dryer vent because lint is very combustible.

Nate K.: And the reason why that the two correlate is because trees bring in pests. And where do they burrow? Where do they nest? Well, in Washington and Oregon, where we live, they go to where it's warm and the dryer vents are warm. So they use the tree limbs and stuff that are close to the house, and the trees close to the house, they burrow in there, and it causes a huge issue related to fire concerns.

Chantel Davis: That's amazing, Nate, because I think a lot of times our viewers think of wildfires, right? And that's spreading to your house. But we never really just talk about an individual fire. How many times has there been a fire at an apartment complex? Just a residential home. And it does start from that. And that is so important. That's why we talk a lot about zone clearance. Right. There's zone zero, which is no hardscape on your building, versus 5 to 10ft away to make sure, like you said, those rodents aren't getting in there. And there's, you know, making those materials that could start fires. You know, we talk a lot about, like, total loss. We talk about wildfires, but then there's just the everyday fire that people don't talk about.

Chantel Davis: And so a lot of times when those happen, we call the fire department, they come out, and let's say they save part of your house. Right. It wasn't a total destruction. That was the only property that they're fighting. They're not trying to fight, you know, 50 homes on the street. How do you guys, as a restoration company, handle the water damage that comes from the firefighting efforts? Because from what I understand, that's a lot of water that they're throwing on that property. You know, there's going to be damage. So what do you do at that point when you get a phone call knowing that, hey, we saved some of the structure, but we're pretty sure it probably has a lot of water damage. Right, From. From the firefighters trying to protect it?

Nate K.: Absolutely. I mean. I mean, the two go hand in hand almost all the time. Right. And a lot of times we work with a lot of different fire ordinances, you know, throughout Washington and Oregon. And they'll call the restoration company and let them know ahead of time that they're heading to a fire or they're at a fire, because they know that they're going to be dousing these areas with a lot of water. And so you may have a simple, you know, grease fire in your kitch, but the next thing you know, this, you know, this kitchen was upstairs, and so they put water. Now it's flooded the basement or other areas. And so now you're dealing with essentially two types of losses.

Nate K.: You're dealing with not only the fire loss and the smoke loss, but you're also dealing now with the issues with, you know, the water. So it's really important that, you know, the goal, obviously, is to dry the areas out immediately. That would be our goal as a restoration company. We want to make sure that we're not going to contribute to additional issues down the road because we didn't dry it out properly. Right. And so that may mean even though this fire was related to one area, one room or whatever, we may now have to work in other areas, and we may have to open walls and other things to ensure that your insulation that may have been wet or something is now removed so that we can make sure the areas are dry.

Nate K.: Because what stems from water and water damage is of course, organic growth like mold and mildew. And so what you don't want is you don't want this to be, you know, systemic in the way that now you not only have to deal with this, but now you're also dealing with mold issues later on. So I think that's really important. And you know, and I think again, going back to making sure you have the right person or the right company, right contractor for your restoration project is important because you want somebody that's seasoned enough to see ahead, to look ahead and see that, hey, this can, you know, be an issue, problematic later, but if you get a good restoration company in there, they're going to advocate to ensure that the repair is done properly and that there's no additional issues in the future.

Buddy Marshall: You definitely answered the question. You know, one of the things we talk about Nate, a lot, you know, you're working with the customer, your client, you know, your know, you're trying to help them decide on, you know, how they're going to rebuild. You know, you mentioned carpet, you know, they have personal goods, clothing, furniture. How do you determine which items are savable and restored versus those that, you know, you just have to trash and you just have to throw them away. You know, obviously dishes, things like that. Soft goods.

Nate K.: I think for us, for a contractor, unfortunately, it's an easy delineation because we don't have any of the sentimental value. When we're coming into your property, of course, we want to share your sentiment as, you know, one of our clients, we want to ensure that we're, we share in that sentiment. But for us, you know, anything that's a textile soft good or something, and it's been involved in a fire, it has soot damage and stuff, a lot of times they, you cannot restore those back to the way they were prior to the loss, prior to the fire. And so I think that, you know, it's, you know, if it's something that's a substrate, it's a solid, you know, material, you know, we can restore a lot of that.

Nate K.: But if it comes to linens, pillows, clothing, you know, any of those items, we generally don't warrant or we usually say, hey, look, you know, these things are non salvageable. That's usually the determination that's made. But we run into a lot of clients that may have something that's an heirloom or something they've had for a long time. Maybe it was their woobie or their blanket from when they were a child, and they want to hold onto it, you know, and so determine that. But for the most part, any soft goods or textiles have to be replaced, especially if it's something that there's a lot of soot damage or smoke damage.

Buddy Marshall: Yeah. And I think one of the things that we very rarely talk about. I know, Nate, you and I have had this conversation before, is the psychological effects a fire can have on someone, even after, you know, even after a fire, even after the restoration, you know, because they're in that home and they witness the smoke and the fire, and so the psychological aspect. Maybe you could touch on that.

Chantel Davis: Yeah.

Nate K.: You know, there was a fire that I was working on that was. It was a firework. It was. So there was a family in a residential home, and they were. It was 4th of July, and they took a firework and they placed that firework in a garbage can because it looked like it was no longer, you know, lit. And a few minutes later, the entire garbage can went up in a fire. And since it was next to the house, it caught the house on fire. The. The house sustained probably 75% structural damage, smoke damage. And they were working family, and now they weren't able to. Their life was completely upended. Right. You know, so they. They no longer now live in the same house. I remember, you know, their daughter was going to a school close to the house.

Nate K.: Now she had to live with somebody else. You know, so it's. It's a. It could be a very difficult thing for a family or somebody to deal with, but this is a very tough thing to deal with, you know, and I think that it's. It's really important, especially as a contractor, to understand that and really promote a quick response to the restoration project and making sure that the timelines are being met and that you have really good communication. There's nothing worse than already dealing with all of these things. Not living in your home, everything. All the ill effects of. Of. Of severe fire damage, and then not being able to communicate, not having somebody respond to you. So I think for us as restoration contractors, our first and foremost is providing the best communication possible. It's not always going to be the best news.

Nate K.: Right. I mean, we're dealing with something. Circumstances that are not great, but either way, we're always going to communicate on a regular basis.

Chantel Davis: Yeah, that's really important. Right. Communication is key, especially during a time where you feel unsettled, we all know, right? When you're not in your routine, your house, your things, it's an unsettling feeling. So the only thing that you can do is just have constant communication. And that's kind of, I think, something that would be really important for. For all of us to understand. And I know there's different timelines, but what is the, you know, what does a full property restoration typically involve and how long does it take? Walk us through really quick. Like, what does that process look like?

Nate K.: So this is the big question. The timeline is always the big question. It's the biggest question from the insurance company and the homeowner or the business owner, whoever's in. Involved in that, whoever the client is. And large fires can take a year to a year and a half to rebuild. It sometimes can take longer than building a new house because there's so many different aspects, so many different things involved. Some of that's predicated on what the homeowner wants to do, you know, if they want to finally take advantage of this. This circumstance to actually create some additions or make some changes to the materials that they're going back with. That can certainly lead into six additional months. Right. But usually large fires, we say somewhere around a year to mitigate, fully mitigate, fully restore, get somebody back in their home.

Nate K.: The example I gave was somebody that had a home that was 75% damaged. That particular home took about a year to complete. The overall process, obviously, is going identifying the contractor like we talked about. And then, of course, the inspection, providing an estimate that the insurance company agrees on, that can take several weeks, can take maybe even more than a month, just to make sure that the scope is agreed on. A good contract will ensure that they're not putting something in the estimate that's not covered by the insurance company. So once you have that agreement, then it's boots on the ground. Right. So we're providing the structural repairs. We're going through selection forms. Selection forms are forms that we use as a contractor. Maybe they don't make a certain material, like a flooring or a countertop that you used to have.

Nate K.: So now we have to find something that's like, in value, but you need to agree on it. So we need to go through that, and we do a lot of shopping with our clients. We go down to Home Depot sometimes or whatever. They're wherever they think they need to go to try to gain that, like, material. We become very good partners in that relationship and determining what that looks like. Once we Determine that. Then we can start applying that to the job and then going through the process of inspections. You know, every step is an inspection that's required by the city. So we go through this, those steps to ensure that we get a passing inspection so we can move on to the next phase of construction. And then we get to the end.

Nate K.: You know, really, the end is really developed by the homeowner saying, hey, you know, we approve of the work. We, We've really enjoyed working with you. We feel like this has met our expectation. Our experience has been great, but we also need that from the insurance company. The insurance company has to agree that, hey, we did this to the best of our ability and it conforms with their policy. And if you don't own your home outright now, we also have to conform with the lending institution that lent you money for that home or business. They usually will provide an inspection as well to ensure that the $150,000 we did to reconstruct your home is viable. So there's a. It's a big process to get to that final point. But once that has all been signed off, then. Then the. The project has.

Nate K.: Has completed and, you know, we move on to the. The next fire.

Chantel Davis: No, that's. That's really helpful right there. It doesn't just take, you know, five minutes to get done. There's a lot of processes, you know, in that rebuild.

Buddy Marshall: So. Yeah. So after a fire, where should they start?

Nate K.: You know, their first interaction is going to be with the fire department and the city, which is, you know, a very tough circumstance to deal with. But right after that, they need to contact their insurance company right away. That's extremely important. And then, you know, if they. If they know a restoration company, then they should immediately call the restoration company as well. And the reason why that's important, too, is you got so much going on, right? You know, like security for your home, for example. Maybe your windows are broken. Maybe the fire department had to gain entry by kicking your front door in. That happens a lot, right? Their. Their immediate concern is life and preservation. So you need somebody to come out there, provide security by boarding up these areas, boarding up windows, boarding up doors.

Nate K.: You know, let's not let additional issues occur because the home is no. Or business is no longer secure. So I think the main thing is identifying somebody that has the experience. You want to make sure that you're. I mean, this is a big thing. We've talked about a lot of information, right? So you want to make sure you. You're hiring the person that knows all of these things so that your circumstance is being taken care of properly.

Chantel Davis: No, that's. That's helpful. You know me, I'm a list person. I make lists all the time. So that's where my mind goes, is, okay, what are all the steps so I can prepare? But I think what I'm hearing you say, and it was so important, is you just have to trust your restoration company to take you through the process and trust that they're going to do everything in your best interest on behalf of you, working with your insurance carrier to make it happen. The big takeaway that I have is everything's interconnected. Right. So you mentioned that the fire department will reach out to you a lot of the times if they had to go out and put out a fire and there's damage to a property. You have connections with the insurance company because you're working directly with them.

Chantel Davis: And so it all kind of ties together nicely. And you, from how I'm reading it, as the restoration company, you kind of put the pretty bow on it. Right. Not only the pretty bow with the finished product of the house, but making sure you're kind of managing that process. And that's something that I think is really important, is trusting that. Which kind of goes to my last question that I have is what should property owners look for when choosing a restoration company? What are the key things? We all know there's chatgpt that will tell you who to go to, but what are kind of the key things that we should look at when we choose the right restoration company? And we'll plug you. Nate, we know you're great up in.

Chantel Davis: In Washington and Oregon, but we've got a lot of viewers in California as well, so.

Nate K.: Sure.

Chantel Davis: Where would they go?

Nate K.: Yeah, again, I. I would use the community around you to start asking questions. I would use the Internet and gain information about different restoration companies that are local. Right. Hone into reviews, look at reviews. I mean, reviews are so crucial nowadays about selecting any contractor for anything. The other thing is get on and, you know, every state, county, et cetera, you have the ability to search up or look up a contractor. And when you look up a contractor, it's going to show you all of the information, Anything that may have been a negative thing on their record. That's all going to be public record. So you're going to be able to go through a process of research and identifying that. But I know that a lot of people out there, they may just not have any connections at all.

Nate K.: And what do they do in that Experience where they may not have a referral or whatever. Go through your adjuster. Your adjuster can make recommendations. They obviously work with restoration contractors all the time. They'll refer somebody that they know that they've worked with in the past that you guys are going to be able to conform to the process to ensure that process is timely and gets completed in a way that you would expect.

Chantel Davis: No, that was great. I mean, thank you so much. There's so much knowledge there. I mean, really, for those that are listening, you just hear the complexities of what happens, right? The whole process of rebuilding. And, you know, again, Nate has said he's done this for 30 years, right? This is the world that he comes from. And he really just shows that you need to have trusted partners and you need to do the process correctly. And so for this, you know, for me, I think the biggest takeaway is always focus and partner with people that know the rules and regulations. Because when it comes to home building, rebuilding, you want to make sure you're not only using the right materials, you're using the right contractors, but they're working with the right city officials for permits and regulations and everything that comes with that.

Chantel Davis: And so for those that say, oh, I don't know, a restoration company and are listening to this podcast, you can reach out to us. We have restoration partners across the state. So it's really nice compliment to you, Nate, that you've been able to walk through the whole process. You've done a little bit of everything, like you mentioned in your career, and so it's really exciting to. To kind of see you build your own company and really educate other people. I think that's the biggest thing that what Nate didn't touch on today is he educates his clients, right? He educates the HOAs, the homeowners, and the multifamily on what is the right steps, not only to address the immediate need, the immediate emergency, but how do we make sure it doesn't happen again? And that's what this is all about. It's.

Chantel Davis: You don't want this to happen over and over again. So, Nate, for me, this was such a pleasure to have you on. There was so much information, I almost would tell people to listen to it twice because there's so much valuable pieces of information in there that's so important as you guys are looking at your fire protection, defensible space, and that whole process. So thank you so much for doing that. We really appreciate everything that you did. As we mentioned at the start, myself buddy Nate, we used to all work together in different facets. Now we all do different things, but guess what? We also have the same clients, which is you guys that are listening right now. We're always here to help and I think that's the big thing. So thank you, Nate for being here for us.

Nate K.: Thank you buddy.

Chantel Davis: Thank you for listening to this episode of Rooted in Care.

Buddy Marshall: We have a fresh lineup of new episodes ready to drop, so tune in each week to hear people just like you share their experience and insights on how tree care impacts our daily lives. Subscribe to Rooted in Care. We're on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcast.

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