Build a clear restoration project brief.

Why each field in the brief matters

Write the brief in the order a crew will need it: the address and how to get in, what happened and when, whether the source is stopped, which rooms are affected, what the materials are, and whether anyone is living in the property. A brief that answers those six questions lets the first phone call be about scheduling rather than about collecting facts.

Restoration crews decide what to bring, how many people to send and how fast to move from a handful of facts, so the brief is built around them. The property type and the areas affected set the equipment and the size of the crew. The status of the water source matters most of all: a supply line that has been shut off is a drying job, while water that is still entering is a stop-the-source job first.

The kind of water changes everything about the work. The industry's water-damage standard, IICRC S500, sorts water into three categories: clean water from a broken supply line, gray water with some contamination such as a washing-machine discharge, and black water such as sewage or river flooding. The category, plus how long the water has been there, decides what can be dried in place and what has to be removed and discarded. A brief that says where the water came from and how long ago it started saves a diagnostic conversation.

The materials affected are the next thing to record: drywall, insulation, carpet and pad, hardwood, subfloor, cabinets. Porous materials that sat in contaminated water are usually removed, while many materials wet with clean water can be dried. Photographs of each affected room, taken before anything is moved, help both the restoration crew and an insurer, and a note on whether the power is on tells the crew whether they can run equipment at once.

Vermont adds two practical items. In cold weather, a burst pipe often means an unheated building, so record whether the heat is on and whether other pipes are at risk of freezing. Older houses, especially those built before 1980, can contain asbestos-containing plaster, flooring or insulation and lead paint, so the year built belongs in the brief because it may trigger testing before any demolition.