Restoration professionals have simple wants. They want to be able to work faster, limit structural damage and gain a competitive edge. Now those wants appear to be found in a completely new method of structural drying using thermal energy. This new process can reduce the time to dry a building from three to seven days, down to 30 hours or less.
The cost of using a thermal energy system is about the same as most traditional drying methods, but exponentially faster – and speed quickly translates into advantages. For the contractor it means he can do more jobs in less time. It also provides a potent marketing advantage. “If you are the only one in your area that can dry a building in one day, you have an advantage with the insurance companies that no one else has,” says contractor and equipment dealer Garry Moyer of Great Lakes Steamway.
Insurance consultant Dan Bernazzani agrees. “When somebody is trying to acquire business from an insurance company and says, ‘We use a thermal energy drying system,’ it’s a real bonus.”
For insurance companies, the big advantage is that a file can be closed sooner. Reduced cost-of-living expenses outside the person’s home and less structural damage can mean a big difference in the final settlement. There is another advantage insurance companies like: Thermal energy creates much less noise than fans or dehumidifiers, which can affect the residents in a building that is still occupied. “In traditional drying, there is so much equipment running that the people can’t sleep, so they turn it off – and that stops the drying process,” adds Bernazzani.
For a homeowner, when a contractor uses thermal energy, it can mean less time spent out of the dwelling while waiting for it to dry, and it has the potential to leave much less structural damage. It also means fewer odors and a reduced risk of bacteria or mold growth.
The traditional methods always made sense: blow and dehumidify till it’s dry. If you wanted it to dry faster, blow harder or make the entire structure hotter. But technology with a new approach in mind is now available. In a strategy reminiscent of lowering the water instead of raising the drawbridge, thermal energy systems (TES) heat the water in the structure to speed up drying. It’s the difference between allowing a pot of water to air-dry or putting it over a burner to boil it dry. The results have reduced drying speed from several days to overnight.
Time is money in most places, but in the highly competitive cleaning and restoration business, it can be everything. The faster you can dry the location, the faster everyone else can go back to a normal life. But tradition has not been on the side of the pros when it takes so many days to dry out most locations using a “blow or bake” method. Those methods involve days of frustrated owners, nervous insurance companies and anxious contractors while noisy fans and dehumidifiers drone away. Some contractors add heat to warm up the air. The problem is, too much heat in a building can lead to other problems such as peeling paint or wood damage.
“Lots of air movement is great,” claims Moyers, “but the problem is we don’t need to dry the air, we need to dry the structure itself.” The solution to being faster is to heat the water inside the structure. TES directs hot air into the wet area and contains the heat there, forcing the moisture to escape in the form of water vapor. It’s all a simple rule of physics: heat water up and it will evaporate faster. Think of a teapot.
Water molecules begin to move faster as the water heats. Their reaction is to break free from the water surface in the form of vaporization. This process becomes even faster when the air above it is not heated. Cooler, drier air attracts the water vapor. You can see this when you exhale on a cold, dry day. The warm water vapor rises in the contained area into the cooler, dryer air above it. Wet goes to dry. With TES, when the air reaches the point of saturation, it is evacuated via exhaust conduits.
For contractors it means applying some new techniques. “It’s been a great learning experience for me to change from the old way of doing things,” claims Moyer.
In the case of carpet, a corner of the carpet is peeled back and hot air is forced between the pad and the carpet. The carpet acts as a barrier to keep the heat on the water. Exhaust fans pull the water vapor out. For wood floors, TES uses plastic tenting to keep the hot air on the floor and heat up the water. An exhaust hole is made in the plastic that lets the water vapor out.
In one case a finished, carpeted basement was under 10 inches of water for several days before the contractor brought in TES. In less than 30 hours the building was dry. “It was one of our most successful jobs,” adds Moyer. “This guy had no insurance. The only furniture damage was a watermark on the backside of an electronic dartboard and a couple of cracks on the wood legs of the pool table. If we could have gotten in there sooner, we probably could have prevented even that. It made a believer out of me.” Moyer described another situation. “We had a wood floor that was so bad, if you stepped on it, water would ooze up between the cracks. It was a condo that also had wet carpet in another room. We were able to dry both at the same time.”
Specially designed risers allow the system to work without having to move out furniture. The entire carpet or plastic cover can float around the legs of thin metal supports that elevate any furniture out of harm’s way.
For restoration contractors, thermal energy offers a new competitive edge with insurance companies, while homeowners can look forward to less time out of the house and less time listening to the drone of drying equipment. One thing is certain: any system that works faster in this business is going to have benefits for everyone.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author : John Apgar
John Apgar is a freelance writer based in Chino Hills, Calif. Mr. Apgar wrote this article for Bridgepoint Systems.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
