Questions about using this site

Using this site

• Are you the people who would come and do the work?

  No. This site takes the details of a job and passes them to a restoration company working in Oakland or the nearby East Bay. Everything after that first call back is between you and them: the price, the schedule, the equipment in your hallway and the invoice at the end. It is worth knowing before you send anything, which is why it is the first line on the about page as well.

• What does it cost to use this?

  Nothing, at any point. The company that takes the work pays for the introduction, so there is no fee to a householder and nothing to cancel later. What the restoration work itself costs is a separate question with a longer answer, and the published figures behind it are on the pricing page.

• Does my request go out to five companies who all ring me?

  No. It goes to one. The three-quotes model has its uses when somebody is planning a kitchen, and it is a poor fit for a wet floor at nine in the evening. Your details are not sold on as a list either, before or after the job.

• Is there a phone number?

  Yes. The number on this site is (510) 800-9636, and it is a tracked line belonging to this site rather than to any one company. Leaving a message on it carries the same details a form would.

• Do you have an office in Oakland?

  No, and there is no address anywhere on this site because there is nothing to put in one. The footer says "Serving Oakland and the East Bay", which describes where requests get passed to rather than where anybody sits. Any site in this category showing you a map pin and an address is telling you something you can check, so check it.

• How do I know the company you send it to is any good?

  Not by taking this site's word for it, because this site is not in a position to give you one. What you can do in about a minute is ask for their licence number and put it into the Contractors State License Board's own register. It will tell you whether the licence is current, who holds it, what classifications it covers, whether a bond is on file and whether complaints have been recorded. That is a public record and it beats a badge on a website, including a badge on this one.

• I rent. Can I still send this?

  Yes, and it is worth doing, but the person who signs for the work is usually your landlord or the management company rather than you. Where damp has gone as far as visible growth, California has a statute that lists it among the conditions making a building substandard, and the mold page quotes it with the section number. Send the details, say in the message that you rent, and tell your landlord the same day in writing. Two records of when it started are much better than one.

• I already have a contractor. Can I just get the drying done?

  Say so in the message. Mitigation and reconstruction are genuinely separate pieces of work that are often done by different companies, and asking for the first without the second is normal rather than awkward. The pricing page sets out where the line between them falls, since it is also where most of the confusion about a final bill comes from.

• Do I have to know which kind of job this is before I send it?

  No, and quite a few people get it wrong in a way that does not matter. A ceiling stain turns out to be a shower pan, a smell in a cupboard turns out to be a slow supply line. Pick whichever option on the form looks closest, or the last one, and describe what you can actually see. The service pages explain how the four job types differ if you would rather work it out first.

• Will somebody deal with my insurance company for me?

  Not from this site, and be careful with anyone who offers to. A restoration company can document a loss properly, which matters, and adjusting a claim or advising you on your policy is a different job with its own licensing. What the state publishes about how a residential claim runs, including the parts where claims get denied, is collected on the California claims page.

• What happens to the details I send?

  They are recorded and passed to one company, and they are not sold. What is stored, how long it is kept and how to have it removed is written out on the privacy page, including a list of the exact fields the form collects. If you want your details deleted, send that request through the same form and say so.

• Which towns does this cover?

  Oakland, and the East Bay near enough that the same companies already work there. Berkeley, Alameda and Piedmont have pages of their own. The areas page also names the neighbouring towns that are not covered yet, which is more useful than a list of every place within thirty miles.

• Why does the site publish prices when nobody else does?

  Because a site with no reviews, no address and nobody to photograph has very little else to be judged on. Published figures with a publisher's name and a date beside each one can be checked by a stranger, which is the point of them. What is not on that page is an Oakland price band, because no such thing has been published by anyone and inventing one would undo the whole exercise.

• What should I do right now, before any of this?

  Stop the water if you can reach the shutoff, get power away from anything wet, and move what is not yet soaked out of the way. Then send the details. The first steps guide goes through the rest in order, including the two mistakes that cost the most, and it is worth the four minutes while you wait for a call.