A Day In The Life of a Richfords BDMA Technician

We sent our Marketing Specialist, Rosie Stevenson, out with BDMA Technician Chris Marney, so she could find out what a typical day as a BDMA Technician entails.

8am -

I meet Chris at Richfords headquarters bright and early, which enables us to be on the road and with our first customer by 9am. We start by collecting our job sheets from the office which tell us where we will be going and what work is to be done at each job. Each Richfords rapid response vehicle has a permanent kit on board which lets them respond to an incident immediately. We load the van with any extra specialist equipment needed for the day and leave the depot.

9am –

We reach our first customer which is a large hotel in St Ives that recently suffered storm flooding. Richfords had installed a large amount of specialist building drying equipment that allowed the hotel to remain open and the guests largely undisturbed during the building drying process. We took drying readings in accordance with British Damage Management Association (BDMA) guidelines using a digital hygrometer and we found the property to be dry. We were able to collect the equipment to let the painters and decorators finish their work. As we could now decommission the job we informed the hotel owner that the work has been completed. He was very pleased that his hotel was now back to its previous condition and thanked us for the work Richfords had done.

Carrying out an inspect dry using a digital hygrometer.

10am –

Our next customer lives in a traditional Cornish farmhouse in the small village of Zennor, which also suffered flooding during the same storm as the hotel. We have returned to carry out an inspect dry to the kitchen floor. This tells us that the floor is still in the process of drying out and so requires some further building drying work. We informed the customers of the progress and let them know that our next visit will be in 7 to 10 days time.

10.30am –

Our third visit is a beautiful farmhouse near Gurnards Head. This property suffered storm flooding to the ground floor. Richfords has carried out decontamination and building drying work already and we have returned to install two Surface Mounted Boxes (SMB’s) to the bedroom floor. SMB’s trap the moisture being released by the wet floor and allow us to take accurate readings to the British Standard the next time we go back to the property. They allow us to know exactly when the floor is dry and help insurance companies keep the cost of claims down by not having to pay for unnecessary drying. Chris will return to take the readings from the SMB’s in 48 hours.

Installing a Surface Mounted Box (SMB).

12pm –

Our next stop is the town of St Just in Penwith to visit a terraced cottage where the basement bedroom of the property flooded following road works nearby. We went back to carry out an inspect dry and the readings showed that the property was now dry so we removed our equipment. We also made an inventory of several bags of bedding and clothing that were affected by the flood and packed it up ready to go through the laundry at Richfords headquarters.

Removing equipment from the St Just property.

1.15pm –

We then pop over to Marazion to a job that Richfords recently completed work on. We have come back to deliver some laundry and dry cleaning to the customer and to ensure that we have met the customer’s expectations for the work we carried out. This customer was satisfied and said “Thanks to you all - from the girls in the office to the guys who did the work. You were all friendly and efficient."

2.15pm –

Chris then received a call from the office with an urgent new job to attend. As the rapid response vehicles are equipped for emergency situations we were able to drive straight to the property and we arrived within 30 minutes of the initial emergency call coming in. When we arrived on site Chris spoke with the customer to understand the incident fully and also the customers needs and concerns. Following this initial assessment Chris was able to explain what actions are needed to reduce secondary damage and begin to resolve this incident.

The farmhouse near Truro has suffered a vertical leak from the bathroom into the farm office below, damaging an antique table as well as many important documents and books. The bath has been leaking for some time without the property owner’s knowledge, and has caused damage to the ceiling, walls and floors. We carried out a risk assessment, survey and took photos of the damaged areas. We then removed some damaged carpet and lino, took down an area of dangerous ceiling and installed some KrugerAir injection drying to the bathroom wall and dehumidifiers to the downstairs office. The customer was very pleased that we were able to respond so quickly, and was happy that work was now in progress to restore her home.

Newly installed KrugerAir injection drying in the Truro farmhouse.

5.15pm –

We arrive back at the depot and fill out paperwork from the day’s visits. After unloading the van we make it ready for the following day by replacing any equipment used.

5.30pm –

We are finished for the day.

Summary –

Properties visited – 6

Miles driven – 82

New jobs attended – 1

Happy customers - 6

Tired Marketing Specialists - 1