As an industry migrates from infancy through adolescence into maturity, natural transformations are inevitable. The “Water Damage” or
“Structural Drying” industry, I believe is at this crossroad. The professionals involved in our industry are really environmental control specialists.

Controlling the project environment is imperative if we want success in providing cost effective/efficient drying of the structure. Without
this component chances of a predictable outcome are diminished.

With all the advances in understanding the building structure and vapor migration throughout, we still price our services as if we don’t really
understand what it’s going to take and how to best accomplish the task. It is no surprise that the participants who are funding the drying process
look askance and bewildered when presented with the drying bill. I have reviewed many bills and documentation in my time and I’ve
come to believe “he who is the most in-efficient makes the most money”.

In what other profession could this be deemed appropriate?

The current model of pricing refers to a list of items and a claim “we will charge you and we promise we will try to be as efficient as possible”.
That may or may not be the case with many restorers, partially due to lack of knowledge, complacency or plain ignorance. If order to deflect
or answer many of the funding mechanism questions, our industry decided to inundate them with data: temperature readings, moisture readings, humidity readings (including specific humidity and absolute humidity) and other information we deemed appropriate. We then coupled this data into a fancy package and said “Here you go aren’t we professionals?”

How did we get to this place?

The relative ease or entrée into this industry can be attained with minimal investment of capital and small amount of educational time (if even spent at all). Do you really believe any of the funding mechanisms care if you are using SOA, the new BFD 3400 or the DRI-High 7000? The answer is absolutely not. I am quite certain that someday we will be able to “microwave” a structure dry in 1 hour; cost is only 75K per use. The alternative was 23% of that, I had purchased the equipment and we need to re-coop the expenditure or even worse some 3rd party told me what and how to charge and I am doing so.

Where is the professional responsibility?
In the coming weeks, exploration of the transformations, I believe are needed and warranted, will be examined. This commentary will critique
many of the long held dogmas and beliefs that have prevailed. It will inflame some and encourage others. The ultimate goal is to start down
the path, where professionals flourish and the untrained get better or dissolve. It should be an interesting ride.

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