The Restoration & Remediation Ask the Expert Podcast

Andrew Titley, owner and president of Prism Specialties of San Francisco Bay Area, shares why he sees a contents restoration franchise as a good investment.

Leighton Healey, CEO of KnowHow, shares his firm’s findings from a large-scale study on why employees leave the restoration business and what contractors can do to keep them.

Ashley Taylor, executive officer of Content Recovery Specialists, shares why she started a franchise company for entrepreneurs looking to get into content restoration.

Nicholas Hopikins, historic restoration foreman at EverGreene Architecture, discusses his experience as a rising leader in the restoration business. 

Jessica Wicks, president of Ductz, shares her experience as a female executive in the restoration industry. 

Charlie Horn, president of Paul Davis of Louisville, experienced a kitchen fire that sent him to hospital and left his family outside of their home for weeks. The incident made him rethink his approach to dealing with homeowners.

Larry Cooper, executive director of the Experience, shares what to expect at this year’s event, taking place Sept. 7-9 at the Caesar’s Forum Conference Center. Cooper explains why the Experience is more than catchy name. It reflects the convention’s educational philosophy. 

Carmen Ciricillo, owner and principal instructor, joins us to share how he combines his background in construction and comedy to present training on safety, codes and other crucial matter in a lively way. Ciricillo performs at comedy clubs across the country. He also posts videos on his YouTube channel in the persona of The Construction Comic.

Paul Huszar, president of CEO of VetCor, joins us to share the story of his company. Huszar is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He and David Howard, another former Army officer, founded the Tampa, Florida-based company in 2013 and started franchising it in 2020. Huszar discusses the challenges veterans face in finding work in civilian life and how the restoration business provides a...

R&R Editor Valerie King announces the call for 2022 Ladder Award nominations in this special message. She shares the importance of the award, now in its third year, as well as eligibility requirements and judging criteria. Click here to submit nominations or learn more about the 2022 Ladder Award and to submit a nomination by Monday, May 30, 2022.

PSA by Canam Systems provides integrated restoration management software designed to help restoration companies increase efficiency, accountability and, ultimately, profits. In this Ask the Expert episode, Sales Manager Ryan Pritchard shares practical steps restoration contractors can take to ensure the software they invest in delivers value, including integration and scaling solutions with the gr...

The American Policyholder Association is a nonprofit watchdog organization that promotes integrity, honesty and best practices in the property loss adjustment sector of the insurance industry. In this episode of Ask the Expert, Executive Director Doug Quinn talks about the APA’s work advocating for policyholder benefits and promoting solutions in insurance coverage, the insurance claim process, an...

Barry Rice, a Certified Safety Professional with over 20 years of experience, is the Environmental, Health and Safety director for Signal Restoration Services’ family of companies that includes Signal, US Roofing and PuroClean. In this episode of Ask the Expert, Rice discusses the importance of safety, as well as best practices for employee health and safety, in this particularly high-risk field o...

In this special episode, Diana Rodriguez-Zaba, president of ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba serving Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, shares her story and insights. She is the winner of R&R’s seventh annual Women in Restoration Award and rose to the top of an impressive list of 46 nominees. All nominations were reviewed by a panel of judges based on journey and experience in the industry,...

Brett Lawton is CEO of Lawton Construction & Restoration, located in Newcastle, Calif. The family-owned, second generation business has grown substantially since Lawton became CEO in 2006. In this interview, Lawton talks about scaling, growing as a leader and finding the company’s niche as a mid-sized service provider in a competitive, increasingly consolidated market. He also discusses offeri...

Mili Washington, standards director with the IICRC, joins us to provide a 101 on industry standards. She discusses their importance, the value of ANSI accreditation, the rigorous and lengthy process of developing a new standard, the business case for embracing IICRC standards, and advice on implementing standards within your restoration or cleaning business. She shares a highlight reel of IICRC st...

Brandon Donatelli, chief revenue officer with HOMEE, has amassed a great deal of useful knowledge as a fellow restoration contractor, a technology vendor, an insurance side vendor and a firefighter. Before joining HOMEE this January, he worked with CoreLogic, Next Gear Solutions and Matterport. Adopting new technology happens to be a top challenge among restorers, so we invited Donatelli to provid...

What exactly is bioterrorism, and what does it have to do with cleaning and restoration? Bioterrorism expert Dr. George Buck, Jeff Jones of the Microbial Warrior Experience, Jim Thompson of Jim Thompson & Co., and Larry Cooper of Experience events join us for a panel discussion on the role of cleaning and restoration pros in bioterrorism response. They highlight the threats we face, potential...

With CAT season coming soon, we invited Avelina Lamb, owner of PuroClean of Chandler, to discuss her franchise’s approach to growing CAT restoration services since its opening in 2018. She shares advice based on work in Louisiana following Hurricane Ida, as well as fire and smoke damage projects in Colorado following recent wildfires. Lamb covers proper preparation, adapting to the cultures of loc...

The beginning of April 2022 is upon us, which means it is Women in Restoration Award winner reveal season. In conjunction with our seventh annual campaign celebrating leading women in this male-dominated industry, we asked all six of the past winners, from 2016 through 2021, to answer one question: To what do you attribute your success? (Check back in next week for an interview with the winner of...

Kustom US, a privately held restoration and remediation company headquartered in Florida, has grown exponentially since 2000 by streamlining operations, acquiring new businesses and embracing a people-centered strategy. In this episode of Ask the Expert, Andrew Zavodney, chairman of the board and CEO, talks about Kustom’s investment in company culture, employee value proposition, corporate governa...

In honor of Women’s History Month and Women in Construction Week, we are re-airing our Real Stories in Restoration interview with Jennifer Todd, president of remediation company LMS General Contractors. She discusses her experience as a Black, woman contractor-owner in a white-, male-dominated field. She also highlights the importance of viewing the labor shortage and diversity as one conversation...

On its surface, restoration doesn’t seem synonymous with “soft.” It is a hard industry that operates in physically and emotionally tough working environments. Restoring a property to pre-loss condition requires a particular set of hard (job-specific) skills and tools. But there is a soft side that R&R Editor Valerie King discusses in her latest editor’s note. She argues that it carries more we...

Xactly byGTE finds and places talent with restoration companies across the U.S. and Canada – from startups to businesses earning more than $1 billion annually. Their team recruits for all roles, from field technicians to estimators to sales representatives to executives. In this episode of Ask the Expert, Gregg Taylor, managing member of Xactly byGTE, speaks to the unmet expectations of restoratio...

The 2022 Experience Conference & Exhibition is taking place April 6-8 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati. In this episode of Ask the Expert, Larry Cooper, executive director of Experience Events, offers a sneak peek of the upcoming cleaning and restoration event. Highlights include a two-pronged keynote on bioterrorism and microbial warfare; four educational tracks on cleaning,...