The Restoration Revolution Podcast

Safety First: How Restoration Experts Navigate Large-Scale Commercial Water Damage

• Chad Mallonee • Episode 19

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When dealing with Commercial Water Damage do you have to employ different strategies for large buildings or structures?

The complexities of commercial water damage restoration demand specialized knowledge and strategies that evolve with the scale of the building. When disaster strikes high-rises, warehouses, or sprawling campuses, restoration professionals must adapt their approach to address unique structural challenges while minimizing business disruption.

Chad Mallonee, owner of Hazard Clean Restoration, breaks down the sophisticated equipment and techniques required for large-scale commercial projects. Unlike residential restoration that relies on portable units, commercial disasters often necessitate trailer-mounted dehumidifiers positioned outside the building, pumping dry air in while extracting moisture—sometimes operating alongside existing HVAC systems to keep businesses running during recovery.

High-rise buildings present particularly fascinating challenges due to what Chad calls the "stack effect"—a chimney-like phenomenon where warm air rises through the building, creating pressure differentials between floors. This natural physics principle not only affects drying strategies but can create safety hazards by making emergency doors difficult to open if not properly managed. Meanwhile, the human element adds another layer of complexity, with restoration teams coordinating between building owners, property managers, business operators, insurance representatives, and sometimes city officials—each with their own priorities.

Throughout all these variables, Chad emphasizes that safety remains the absolute priority in any restoration effort. Before developing strategies or deploying equipment, professionals must identify potential electrical hazards, structural concerns, and other safety issues. Whether you're managing a skyscraper recovery or wondering how commercial restoration differs from residential approaches, this episode provides valuable insights into the science and strategy behind getting businesses back to normal after disaster strikes.

Ready to learn more about protecting your commercial property? Visit Hazardclean.net or call 772-259-5018 to speak with a restoration expert today.

To learn more about Hazard Clean Restoration visit:
https://hazardclean.net/
Hazard Clean Restoration
772-259-5018

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Restoration Revolution podcast, where we help restore hope and put your family on the road to recovery, one episode at a time. Here's your host and owner of Hazard Clean Restoration, chad Melody.

Speaker 2:

Whether you're dealing with high-rises warehouses or campuses. When the footprint gets bigger, so does the strategy. In this episode, chad breaks down how restoration scales up for commercial giants. Welcome back everyone. I'm sophia yvette, co-host and producer, back in the studio with Chad Maloney, owner of Hazard Claim Restoration. Hi, chad, how are you doing today?

Speaker 3:

Good Sophia, good Glad to be here, looking forward to this topic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's always great to have you on Now, Chad. You are always ready to level us up with your insights. So today's topic is all about thinking bigger and smarter when disaster strikes. So when dealing with commercial water damage, do you have to employ different strategies for large buildings or structures?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, you definitely have to employ large I mean different strategies for large buildings and everything. First off, large buildings or if you have tall structures and everything else you know you're dealing with, the buildings are built differently, right? So you're building, you know a high rise is going to be built differently and have different complexities than maybe a really large structure that's one or two stories and so, whether it's a 30-story high-rise or it's 200,000, 300,000 square feet warehouse, you're going to have different complexities and you're going to change your scope and your drying strategy based on that, on that, when you think of the depending on how you. You know different commercial buildings are built differently and sometimes you can't always get into different areas. So you're going to stage your equipment and then you also have to figure out how you're going to get that equipment into the different areas.

Speaker 3:

For large buildings, we're also typically using trailer mounted dehumidifiers, so not always portables, and a lot of times it can also be a mixture of both, but we're going to usually be bringing the dry air into the building, you know, through those trailer mount dehumidifiers, and you know we also there's times where we're going to try to dry a building because it flooded out and the air conditioning that is 20 years to continue to run and we want to keep that that business going so they don't lose their income. And, you know, depending on the situation, so that way they they can, you know, stay open while we're actively drying the building. So you know, we'll bring in those dehumidifiers, we'll bring in the air conditioning units and you know they're going to be outside the building and then we'll, we'll set it up so that way it's bringing you that cold air in or that warm dry air into the building, or both at the same time. And that could be for high rises or large, large warehouse type buildings. If it's, you know, a a say, a high rise.

Speaker 3:

There's definitely different complexities to that.

Speaker 3:

You know, when you're drawing a high rise, because you think about, you know it's almost like a chimney right, and so you get something that's called a stack effect and so the warm air rises and, uh, you know it'll that high rise.

Speaker 3:

What you have to be aware of is that stack effect where, as that air is going to go up through that building, it actually is pulling from the lower parts of the building and so the higher say the 30th floor of a building the temperature could get a lot hotter right than the first floor of the building floor of the building.

Speaker 3:

And in addition to that, because of that stack effect, the first floor of the building when you're trying to open the doors to enter the building or exit the building, it can get very difficult because you have that pressure that's pulling upwards towards the top of the building and if you don't manage that pressure properly you could also run into some safety issues. Because just think if there was some kind of emergency and they had to evacuate the building or everyone was trying to get out and they go to the doors and the doors aren't opening Because it's holding them closed because of that pressure. So it's things like that you have to be aware of when you're doing high rises. You know high-rise buildings that can definitely impact that that, uh, that project I would assume so it definitely does.

Speaker 3:

And then you know you get into different complexities because you're dealing with multiple parties, usually on commercial. So you know, no matter if it's a a high rise or if it's just a large commercial project, you're going to have the owner of the building, usually the property manager, or it could be the company that's running it. As far as the property management company, you may have a couple of them that you're working with. You're also going to be working with, a lot of times, consultants on that project as well, and then you got the insurance company that a lot of times is involved, and you could also have some city officials and everything depending on the size and scope of the project. So you have a lot of communication, a lot of different interested parties, that everyone needs to be on the same page, you know.

Speaker 3:

And if you're keeping that business open as well, you have, you know the. If there's different businesses that are on different floors, you're going to make sure you're communicating with each of them and their interested parties and make sure that you're incorporating that into your drying strategy so that way their customer base can still enter and exit the building and they're not losing money by maybe closing down a certain area or whichever. So there's definitely a lot of complexities and a lot that goes into the commercial setting. When you have that water damage whether it's a pipe or it's hurricane damage or whichever you have to take a lot into building out what's going to be the scope of this project and what's the best way to get this building dry and back open so that way you're having as minimal impact to that business as possible.

Speaker 2:

Now Chad. What is the first priority when assessing water damage in a large facility like a hotel or a multi-story office?

Speaker 3:

First priority safety. It's safety. It's not even building the scope or anything else, it's always safety. When you're dealing with phone call, we're even talking about safety. We don't want whoever's calling us, the property owner or anyone on there, start to try to investigate anything. We always want to make sure everyone's safe and if they can turn the water off, that's great, but if not, safety is priority number one. And even when we show up to scope out what's occurring, we start investigating. We're focused on safety because there's just a lot that can go wrong and you don't know when you first show up if you have electrical hazards or if you have structural hazards, and there's just a lot that goes into it. And so I'd say, if there's one thing you're asking of what we focus on when we first show up to a large commercial building that's experienced a lot of water damage, it's going to be safety.

Speaker 2:

Well, chad, it's clear your company isn't called Hazard Clean Restoration for no reason. Thanks again, your ability to scale strategy without losing empathy is what makes Hazard Clean such a standout. Looking forward to next time.

Speaker 3:

Thanks, thanks, sophia, bye everyone.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Restoration Revolution revolution podcast, where recovery starts here. Let us help put your family on the road to recovery. Go to hazardcleannet or call 772-259-5018. That's 772-259-5018.