PEA RIDGE — Calls began coming in around midnight Sunday night, April 24, said Derek Latimer of Service-Master, a disaster restoration company.
By 8 a.m. Monday, April 25, he had five appointments lined up.
By 9 a.m., two more calls came in.
“It’s been mostly groundwater, flooding, some roof leaks,” he said as he assessed a home damaged by incoming water and discussing a plan with the homeowner.
“Most people don’t have flood insurance, we try to work with them as much as possible and guide them in the right direction.
They aren’t experienced (with flooding) and don’t know where to go with this,” he said.
“As long as the rain is coming down like this, there’s just not a whole lot you can do,” said company owner Vicki Henson. “If you can’t stop the water coming in,it’s futile to spend all that money, only to have to call us next week.”
Henson said in the week following the storm, her staff has been busy doing a lot of drying.
Henson and her husband, Marshal, have owned and operated the ServiceMaster franchise for14 years.
“We started in a very small place. ... We built a shop that we thought we would work out of till the end of time. But we didn’t stay there too awful long,” she said.
The Hensons moved their business to its location west of town, on Arkansas Highway 72, two and one-half years ago.
The disaster restoration team, with a staff of six, covers Benton, Washington, Madison and Carroll counties.
In addition to water extraction, ServiceMaster also provides a contract janitorial service and performs commercial and residential carpet cleaning.
“The biggest problem is water coming in at ground level or into the basement,” she said.
“We stick with protocols we’ve been trained with. The protocol we work from is the right way for the customer’s best benefit in their home. For most people, their home is the biggest investment they make, so we’re not going to cut corners.
“We don’t sell carpet - if (the staff) is taking the carpet out, they’re taking it out because it has to come out,” she said.
Latimer deemed this home a category 2, meaning the risk of parasites and bacteria from the outside water soaking the inside carpet was high enough to warrant removal of the carpet and carpet pad.
He would then extract the excess water and coat the exposed concrete floor with an anti-microbial spray.
“The question a lot of people have is mold: It doesn’t always happen, conditions have to be right to begin growth. (Our antimicrobial spray) inhibits - will not kill mold - but inhibitsgrowth,” Henson said.
If a home does show signs of mold, Henson said the homeowner should call a licensed mold hygienist.
“If water is coming in, assess what you’ve got. Get important papers and valuables off the floor.
Call a professional that can extract the water and get it dried as quickly as possible,” Henson said.
ServiceMaster is located just outside of Pea Ridge on Ark. Hwy. 72 in Bentonville. They can be reached at 273-0059.
News, Pages 1 on 05/04/2011