I do a lot of work for a construction company and ran into a situation this last week.  They are building a 4 story condo unit and had a sprinkler head cook off in a non-fire related incident.  To make a long story short, we dried about a thousand gallons of water in a non-insurance claim and spent about 30 hours in drive time going to and from the building.  What are your thoughts about charging for this and keep in mind, it's my largest account.  Just for information, the units were under construction and no private homeowners were affected.

Steve

So what you are saying you extracted the water? Did the contractor replace flooring and drywall? Who is responsilbe for the finial work order and making sure everything was dry?

Wotsy,

The Blue Book or CD may work wonders for you. Keeping you in tune with national pricing for both after hours and beyond.

You can buy it online.

Yeah,

I'm looking at the Blue Book now but I have a vendor contract with this guy and everything is done hourly.  Once upon a time everything was just down the street but as they got bigger, they started building everywhere and I guess drivetime didn't get put on the sheet.  I wrote up the bill and just left it off.  Live and learn, but the feeling is to work it in.  Trust is a hard commodity to earn in this industry and easy to lose.  I know all the Exactimate guys are tuning up their laptops but go polish your fingernails.  I'm looking for an opinion.

Doug,

I hear what you're saying.  The situation is compounded by the fact that this is originally a cleaning business.  We have always done the new home and model cleaning for this company but the water damage side came in when they got into condo units.  Multi layer floors and fire walls and the like.  They tried to do a couple jobs but ended up tearing out a lot of mold and spending big money doing it.  Their service guys aren't set up to handle the blown insulation and they don't own any negative air containment so they refuse to do the work.  Which brings us back to the original question.  What about the drive time.  I'm a salary guy but our techs punch a clock and that starts at the shop.  40 minutes each way in good traffic, 1 1/2 hours round trip but do you risk a top account to bank $500.00.  I realize thats a question that depends on your situation but its valid.  I already gave my answer and its a no.  Comparing the amount of tear out with some other jobs, I figured it came out on the high side so I'm not thinking we lost money.  Normally what should have happened is there should have been someone to blame, file a claim, build a scope and wait for approval, but the painter in the room denied touching the thing(lie) so the builder gets to eat the bill, so far.  They don't file claims for water damage and we have an hourly contract with set prices for the equipment.  Went back and read my previous post, by under construction that means painted, no trim, but 9' ceilings.