The outdoor fireplace that started the destruction.
Along with providing custom home building and custom residential remodeling projects, we also provide restoration relief. When working on restoration projects, we work as an in-house contractor, also called a captive contractor, which means we work as a consulting organization who acts as a contractor on projects for our clients. In this case, we partner with a small chain of hotels in which we do much of their new construction, remodels, and restoration work.
It’s not every day we get to participate in a project that encountered such immense devastation, but our team was ready for the challenge.
A Hotel Fire Brings Unprecedented Water Damage
One of the hotels we service is in Onalaska, Wisconsin,a sister city to Lacrosse, Wisconsin. At the end of April, an exterior gas fireplace insert located in an outdoor courtyard of the hotel started a fire. Luckily, the fire was small in size but it still ended up producing very mighty damages—both inside the facility and outdoors.
Once our team arrived on the scene, it was clear there were roughly $30K - $50K in damages. The main source of the problem? The fire set off 18 sprinkler heads in the two-floor hotel conference center producing astronomical amounts of water. There was now several thousands of gallons of water the conference rooms were reeling from. Because of the setup of this conference area encompassing both a large room with smaller rooms and a bar below it, this project provided a unique challenge for our team.
Our crew surveys the damage and starts work in one of the main conference rooms—an area with the most damage.
When encountering water damage, it’s important to first assess the damage while simultaneously salvaging all that you can. Once that phase is complete, the water restoration phase begins and in this case—we had to rip nearly everything out of this conference area. We ripped the drywall off down to the studs and then had to add new wiring, plumbing, sprinklers, trim, and cabinets. All in all, roughly 90% of this area needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.
The Water Damage Aftermath: Salvaging What We Could
While the sprinklers were going off on that late April afternoon, there were three conferences going on. There was a sewing conference, a sales conference, and a celebratory dinner for a salon who all were rushed out of the facility. Unfortunately, the beautiful arrangements and raffles each event had, as well as the personal belongings of the attendees, were ruined. People were stunned and scared at how fast the water was able to bring about such extreme damage. Because of the quick rush to get everyone out of the building as fast as possible, many people were unable to grab their personal items and belongings. Our team salvaged everything we could and a week after the incident we invited the conference attendees to browse the items on big tables, rummaging through to claim what was theirs.
In addition to the personal damage this water had done to the conference attendees, the hotel itself also suffered some undesirable consequences. Luckily, the water and fire damage was only done to the conference area, but the power to the hotel was also affected leaving the hotel out of commission for nearly a month. The management staff of the hotel had to make roughly 800 calls to notify upcoming reservations of the unfortunate situation and help coordinate new accommodations. Our team was able to get the hotel portion of the business up and running in just five weeks, quickly and effectively repairing broken power lines to get the hotel and corresponding rooms operating as soon as possible.
Some of the many tools we'll use to remedy the damage arrive and are lined up in front of the hotel.
A New Beginning
This is a project that brought on massive devastation, but our team is proud of the work we’ve accomplished. We are on track to meet our deadline of completing the restoration work by November 1, 2018—just in time for a beautiful fall wedding the hotel is proud to host. We take great pride in providing quality service for our clients, and we are so happy to have brought light back into this hotel that encountered such darkness.
The holiday season can bring upon many fire risks to your loved ones. Check out this article from our blog that gives you holiday safety tips for your home.