Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia: Disaster Cleanup First-Responders in SCV

By Stephen K. Peeples

Whether your home or business suffers smoke damage from a nearby wildfire or from a fire in the kitchen, or water damage from a flood or broken pipe, the pros at Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia provide immediate disaster response 24/7 and fast cleanup in the Santa Clarita Valley and throughout Southern California.

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia’s highly trained, experienced technicians use all the latest equipment and methods to clean up fire, smoke and water damage, and the mold damage that can set in on water-damaged structures and contents.

They are certified experts who clean up property damage after fires and floods and help restore damaged contents as quickly as possible.

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Part of a national network of full-service water, fire and mold cleanup and restoration specialists, Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia is on call anytime for residential and commercial customers by phone at 661-310-0884 or online at http://www.pdesvalencia.com.

The company serves Santa Clarita Valley communities including Santa Clarita, Valencia, Newhall, Saugus, Canyon Country, Acton, Stevenson Ranch and Castaic, and surrounding areas in the San Fernando Valley (Sylmar, Granada Hills, Northridge, Porter Ranch) and the Antelope Valley (Palmdale and Lancaster).

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia: Locally Owned and Operated

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia owners Joel Moss, director of operations, and his wife Susan Moss, marketing director, are longtime residents of the Santa Clarita Valley.

He is also a successful CSLB-licensed general contractor operating in Southern California since 1988, and she is a fireman’s daughter and local business owner with extensive experience and training in both fire prevention and disaster response.

Joel and Susan Moss work hard to provide excellent customer service along with disaster response expertise. Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia, part of a national network of full-service water, fire and mold cleanup and restoration specialists, recently earned the Paul Davis “Best Customer Service” award for the Southern California region, based solely on positive customer feedback.

Structural Cleanup and Smoke Damage Restoration After a Fire

Most people do not realize that smoke damage restoration after a fire in the home is not limited to just the room where the fire started.

“If you had a fire in your kitchen, for instance, there will almost certainly be smoke damage throughout the house,” Susan Moss said.

“If the air conditioner or heater was running when the fire happened, smoke also got into the vents, puffed out into the other rooms, and damaged the complete home,” she said. “Your structure and HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) system are going to smell like smoke everywhere. And every bit of your contents, from your clothes down to little things like pencils, will smell and have to be cleaned up.”

To avoid that mistake, technicians need to clean all the soot and debris out of the HVAC system’s ductwork, or replace the contaminated system altogether, before it’s restarted. Susan Moss said it’s a huge and expensive mistake to restore the rest of the house without also cleaning up the HVAC system.

“In a fire, the ducts expand in the heat, then they contract and capture all the smoke inside the ducts,” she said. “So when you turn it on again, it puffs smoke and odor into your nice, clean house. That’s why we usually encourage insurance companies to have the whole unit redone. Joel’s really good working with adjustors, and for the fires we’ve cleaned up after, we’ve put in a whole new unit.”

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Contents Restoration After a Fire

At the same time structural restoration is under way, the Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia estimators determine which damaged items can be restored and which will need replacement. Then the Mosses continue to work with their client’s insurance adjustors to get as much of the contents restoration cost covered as possible.

“We take pictures of the room or rooms, as well as all of the ‘hard’ contents – chairs, furniture – and inventory each item of clothing,” Moss said. “Then we pack the house out fully, clean all the contents then re-store them and keep them clean until the house or the rooms are rebuilt.”

Technicians store the customer’s contents in boxes tagged with barcodes. Nothing gets lost, and customers can easily retrieve something needed right away.

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia Uses Best Practices and Equipment

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia’s contents cleanup and restoration process combines the best of proven old-school methods and the latest high-tech equipment.

For starters, most clothing has to be cleaned manually. “We wash some laundry items, and take other items to the dry cleaners,” Moss said. “If needed, we’ll also clean our customer’s laundry in the first 24 hours so they can get into a hotel. We assist them through the whole process of getting temporarily resettled.”

“Certain contents will go to our Omegasonics ultrasound machine for cleaning — Barbie dolls, dishes, plates, furniture,” she said.

The ultrasound process removes soot and grime from hard objects faster than old-school methods, and helps reduce overall cleanup effort, time and cost.

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia’s trained technicians are certified by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration.

After cleaning up and restoring the damaged structure and contents, Susan and Joel Moss and Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia technicians restore the room or rooms and their contents as closely as possible to pre-fire condition. They use photos and computer software for reference.

“That’s unless the homeowner wants to change things around,” Moss said. “We’ll also be happy to work with them on that. Some companies will just bring boxes back and leave. We will go the extra mile to sit with the homeowner.”

In situations where the homeowner is not local, or for whatever reason does not want to deal with disaster cleanup and content restoration, Paul Dean Emergency Services of Valencia will handle the process from top to bottom.

“Some homeowners say, ‘I don’t want anything to do with it, I just want you to fix it and put it back the way it was,'” Moss said. “So we will put things back for them to the best of our ability.”

Industry-Accepted Xactimate Software Ensures Accurate Estimates

When they respond to a customer’s emergency, Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia technicians provide a cost estimate as quickly and accurately as possible.

The company uses a combination of Susan and Joel Moss’s front-line experience and a constantly updated software program trusted by the emergency services industry and insurance companies.

“The estimate process goes through a program called Xactimate, a third party that made up the line items, and the prices are what the contractor and the insurance companies have accepted as the fair price for each line item,” she said.

The program ensures an accurate and fair estimate, spells out the costs clearly for the customer, and helps ensure faster response from insurance companies.

The Fireman’s Daughter Adds the Human Factor

As helpful as technology is, it does not estimate the human factor in a disaster. That’s where Joel and Susan Moss bring even more value to the equation for Paul Dean Emergency Services of Valencia clients.

“Because I am the fireman’s daughter; I have that compassion and passion to help others in our community, and so does Joel,” said Susan, originally from New York and a Santa Clarita resident since 2000.

“We’ll give the estimate, we’ll talk to the client,” Moss said. “We understand it’s a really tragic time for them, so Joel or I talk with them so they feel a little more at ease under the circumstances.”

“We try to make it as easy as we can for the homeowner and their family in that tragic time by taking care of all their things,” she said. “They always have really good communication with me. I’m somebody who always answers the phone and always will call you back and do exactly what you need or help you in any way I can.”

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia’s Award-Winning Customer Service

Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia recently earned the “Best Customer Service” award for the Pacific Region (stretching from Alaska to San Diego and including Nevada, Arizona and Idaho) from the national Paul Davis parent company. Founded 45 years ago, Paul Davis sets high standards for performance and customer service.

“It’s important to us to provide excellent customer service to our clients, the homeowners, tenants, business owners and insurance adjustors,” Susan Moss said.

Customer feedback on nearly 100 cleanup and restoration projects in 2012 is the sole basis for the recognition.

“We’re accountable to our customers,” she said. After the Paul Davis crew completes their work, “The customers get a phone call (from TLS, an independent third-party evaluator) asking, ‘Would you recommend Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia again?’ On a 1 to 10 scale, we’re getting 9’s from our customers in our region.”

Joel and Susan Moss both invite Santa Clarita Valley residents to keep Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia top-of-mind in case disaster strikes.

“We can take care of everything in your home or business, from the HVAC to putting the rooms or house back together,” she said. “We will help you rebuild your life.”

For more information, call Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia at 661-310-0884 or visit http://www.pdesvalencia.com.

Photos: Courtesy Paul Davis Emergency Services of Valencia except bottom photo by Stephen K. Peeples.

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