Our clients usually have to deal with problems that require technical (and often managerial) support. The problems usually concern damage to properties of all types and sizes and can range from Fire, Flood, Impact and Earthquake through to Mould, Biological Contamination and basic Building Safety.
Because our clients have widely variable needs, we adjust the nature and scope of our Reports, Laboratory Testing and Scopes of Work to suit. All of our Reports, however, follow basic principles, including:-
Tell a Story (with pictures). We often report to people who have had no prior involvement with the property, but who need to quickly and clearly understand the issues so they can make sensible decisions. We try to make our Reports easy to read, even though most of them concern complex matters.
Report Structure. The Report / story needs to have a start, middle – usually a collection of observations or discussion points – and a Conclusion. We know that many of the people involved only read the last section, so it needs to be comprehensive in its own right. We include many pictures and relate them to our investigations and findings.
Scope of Works Structure. Using our Building / Management experience, we organise the Scope of Works in the way that a Builder or Remediator would approach the repair work. We include warnings and references to standards and we ensure that there is full coverage so that there is little opportunity for variations
Expert Witness. We assume that the Report will end up in a court or some other environment where it will be critically reviewed by pur peers and / or a trained legal mind. It therefore has to stand as a credible, independent statement of fact. Our Reports would be the same irrespective of who commissioned us.
Verifiable Assumptions. Our conclusions are, wherever possible, supported by external verification, usually by people or organisations whose opinion would be readily acceptable to a court. We also include summaries of laboratory testing.
Drawings, Diagrams. Often we provide illustrations to demonstrate or clarify points we need to make. For Scopes of Work we often provide computer-generated drawings to show where rooms or elements are located and to clarify which parts need to be rebuilt or refurbished and which can remain as is.
Qualified to Report. We are fully qualified – and licensed – to produce Reports and Certifications in our own right.
Application. The same process is used for all sorts of application – fire, flood, earthquake damage, mould, water infiltration, biological contamination, impact, storm, vandalism, settlement, neglect – practically anything. It is, however, mostly used to highlight spurious claims that have no factual basis.
There are often several contributing causes for damage and we endeavour to establish the Proximate Cause and any underlying Root Causes or contributing factors. This almost always requires us to “step back” and put the property in its environmental, physical and chronological context. This usually provides interesting answers.
Integration. We provide a very wide range of services that can be applied individually or in combination – depending on the client’s needs. All our services and our approach are integrated with each other, ensuring that any gaps or discontinuities in the claims, damage or repair are eliminated.
Our objective is to assist our client in providing information that our client can use to make an informed decision about a claim and to direct any action required to complete repairs. We also provide certification for any repair work for mould or soot that has been completed successfully