Home insurance – Do you need it?

If you own your home outright, did you know that home insurance isn’t mandatory? It is always a good idea to have insurance in place as you never know what is around the corner. 

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), insurance providers pay out some £8.1 million a day to reimburse homeowners for damage and loss. If unexpected events causing damage and loss didn’t happen, then they wouldn’t be paying this kind of money out every day.

That said, some home owners choose not to have home insurance because they live in areas where the risk is higher and as such, so are the premiums. Here customers take their chances on not insuring their properties and would turn to private restoration companies should they need to instead.

We work with many customers in areas of the country who choose to rectify the damage to their property privately through loss adjusters, loss assessors and of course, disaster restoration companies such as ourselves.

Our vast experience means that we not only review the damage, but the cause of the damage too. It’s our job to get the property back to normality as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary disruption or additional loss.

Our expertise, tools and equipment are state of the art and make our job much more effective – and easier! Speed and ease needs to be on our side to keep costs down too.

If you’d like to discuss your requirements, contact our team today on 0845 7626828

Protect your business during the dark hours

The autumn and winter months see us spending evenings in the dark as the daylight hours are reduced, even more so when the clocks ‘fall back’.

Unfortunately, the dark can sometimes be an excuse for thieves and vagabonds to operate in the comfort of reduced visibility hiding their every move. Below are FIVE simple tips that you can take to protect your business in the darker nights and mornings.

  1. CCTV – Most CCTV now can operate in the dark and provide clear footage both in real time and by recording. It’s important to check that the model that you choose has a clear of a picture in the dark, as it does in daylight
  2. Floodlights and security lighting – Often a good deterrent in the first place, floodlighting and security lighting can startle intruders and put them off from any wrongdoing because the area is well lit
  3. Alarm system – Whilst an alarm can’t see, it can sense any wrong doing so that an alarm is sounded should there be an intruder on the property. The alarm siren itself is often enough to scare someone away, or notify others of an issue
  4. Locks – Prevention is often better than the cure. Prevent intruders from getting in, in the first place by using security locks and security systems
  5. Monitoring – Depending on the size of your business (and budget) you could consider hiring 24/7 monitoring by security personnel to keep a watchful eye over your premises all of the time

We hope that those five tips help some way in helping you to protect your business during the darker hours, but if you are unfortunate enough to be the victim of vandalism or anti-social damage, contact our team today for our restoration help. 

Keeping premises open during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that many premises have been forced to close indefinately both due to the tier system and following a positive case of Coronavirus. 

Most establishments make the difficult decision to close for a period of time following a positive case of Covid-19 when this is simply not required, if the premises have been deep cleaned and sanitised. Often the problem is getting an employee to undertake this job whilst risking their health and it’s easy to see why most employees wouldn’t want to tackle it.

Equally, eradicating a virus needs to be done effectively, otherwise it is a total waste of time and resource. There are only certain products effective in killing certain viruses and specialist cleaning techniques need to be used to ensure effective use of the products. It’s not an easy job, particularly for an individual with no experience in cleaning and sanitising.

ServiceMaster Restore are professionals in providing deep cleaning and sanitisation services. From the products and equipments that we use, right down to the PPE that we wear to protect our employees and our customers.

We aim to respond quickly following a positive case of Covid-19 to effectively clean and sanitise the premises, making it safe for the building to reopen as soon as possible.

When bystanders see our distinctive yellow and grey branded vehicles, they are reassured that the professionals are on site to clean, sanitise and return the property back in to its previously safe condition.

Save our contact details in case you require our responsive deep cleaning and sanitisation services in the future. 

0845 762 6828

 

Keeping safe on Bonfire Night

Although Bonfire Night is likely to be very different this year, it’s still very important to ensure that you keep you, your family and your property safe on bonfire night.

We’ve put together a few handy tips for the bonfire and any fireworks you decide to let off.

The Bonfire

If you’re having a bonfire at home there are a few things that you need to consider:

  • Ensure your bonfire is at least 18 metres away from your house, any trees, hedges, sheds or fences etc. If your garden isn’t big enough to follow this rule, don’t have a bonfire
  • Make sure someone is attending to the fire from a safe distance at all times, just in case any sparks fly somewhere you don’t want them to
  • Put some kind of control in place to make sure the bonfire doesn’t get too high
  • Build your bonfire from dry materials, any wet wood will smoke a lot more. Potentially causing smoke damage to the surrounding area
  • Don’t build your bonfire too early in the day as wildlife may crawl inside
  • The most obvious one, that surprisingly still occurs and causes severe injuries and damage to homes, is putting petrol or another flammable substance on the bonfire and lighting it
  • Ensure you have a few buckets of water, and/or hosepipe to put the fire out in case of an emergency and at the end of the night.

Fireworks

You probably wouldn’t be surprised if we told that the main cause of property damage on bonfire night is the fireworks not going directly up.

Each firework you buy will have different setup instructions, therefore, make sure you read these to keep yourselves and others safe.

Remember, remember…

If the rules regarding fireworks and bonfires aren’t followed, this can sometimes affect your insurance, and you may not be covered. This usually occurs when the policyholder sets of fireworks or sets up the bonfire to close to their home.

We want you to be safe and enjoy your bonfire night, so following these simple rules is a necessity.

For all fire related restoration, contact the experts on 0845 762 6828