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What If We Built It Differently?

September 16, 2026 9:41 am

My dad was a roofing contractor, and growing up, I watched him fight through thousands of insurance claims.  Eventually, his company stopped doing insurance work altogether.  It wasn’t because there wasn’t demand. It was because getting paid became too much of a fight. The back-and-forth, documentation requirements, revisions, delays, and constant negotiation reached a point where they decided the work simply wasn’t worth the headache.  Years later, after leaving college during COVID and finding my own way into restoration, I started seeing the same problem firsthand.  And after talking with hundreds of restoration business owners, I’ve realized my dad’s experience wasn’t unusual.  Some contractors

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2026 Unsung Heroes Award Winners

September 15, 2026 9:04 am

Celebrating the industry’s best and brightest who often fly under the radar but embody the integrity, service, and work ethic of restorers. Every year, choosing our Unsung Heroes gets a little harder. Not because we’re short on nominees, but because we’re never short on people in this industry who show up, do the hard thing, and never once ask for credit. This year’s three winners didn’t set out to be recognized. That’s sort of the point. For many, work is slow, there have been layoffs, margins are tight, and jobs are harder to close.

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Strong Organizations Need More Than Strong Processes

September 15, 2026 7:00 am

In restoration, operational discipline matters. But so do belonging, coaching, growth, and trust. The strongest organizations are built when leaders stop treating people and performance as separate priorities. In restoration, weak systems and weak leadership rarely stay hidden for long. The pace is too fast, the stakes are too high, and too many people depend on one another for the work to move smoothly. A single unclear hand-off can affect documentation, estimating, customer communication, job progress, and ultimately the financial outcome of a project. That environment has shaped how I think about organizational leadership.

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The Changing Business of Restoration | A Roundtable Q&A with Industry Leaders

September 10, 2026 11:38 am

Publisher’s Note: Our industry is changing rapidly. Success today requires far more than technical expertise. In this roundtable, business leaders discuss a plethora of topics impacting restorers daily: navigating tighter margins, rising costs, labor challenges, evolving customer and insurance expectations, technology and AI, private equity investment, and the choice between franchise and independent business models. While there are different paths to growth, there are also common threads you’ll find woven through their answers. We hope you will learn from their journeys and insights as our industry grows together. 1. What is the biggest misconception

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The Work Didn’t Disappear. The Buyer Changed.

September 8, 2026 7:00 am

U.S. Government Accountability OfficeThe Industry Never Stops Changing. Neither Can We. Something has changed in the restoration industry. I’ve been seeing it firsthand, and I’ve been hearing the same thing in conversations with contractors across the country. Owners, estimators, project managers, business development teams, and organizations within the insurance ecosystem are all adjusting to the same reality. The market has changed. Not overnight. Not because of one event. But gradually enough that many contractors are still trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s playbook. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2026 that homeowner’s

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Restoration’s Next Wave of Competition: Why AI-Displaced Corporate Professionals Will Be Competing for Market Share Through Franchising | Part 1

September 4, 2026 8:04 am

Many restoration professionals I speak with are quick to point out how competitive their market is. Case in point: Long Island, NY, where the total population is about 2.92 million. With a slight exaggeration, I believe there may be upwards of 9.22 million restoration companies on that island. I think they build Rainbows on top of SERVPROs out there. It’s that crowded. But here’s the part most people aren’t thinking about. I also believe there is about to be significantly more competition entering the restoration space across North America in the next five years

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Ken Sandy of FRSTeam Dryy Restoration Named IFA Franchisee of the Year

September 3, 2026 10:23 am

Ken Sandy, owner of FRSTeam Dryy Restoration, has been named an International Franchise Association (IFA) Franchisee of the Year, recognizing his leadership, commitment to service and contributions to the franchise community. Sandy leads FRSTeam Dryy Restoration in Ashburn, part of FRSTeam’s network of locally owned restoration businesses serving communities across the United States and Canada. Founded in 1988, FRSTeam has grown into a leading contents restoration network specializing in fabric, electronics and personal and commercial contents restoration following fire, water, smoke and other property losses. “Ken represents exactly what we want an Empower Brands

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Nobody Told the Homeowner Category 4 Doesn’t Exist

September 1, 2026 7:00 am

AI is everywhere on a claim now. The homeowner owns the loss. You own the credibility. Earlier this summer we were involved in a discussion between an adjuster and a mitigation contractor. The usual dispute: water category, equipment run time, antimicrobial application. Nothing unusual until the homeowner, cc’d on every email, decided to insert himself. He was confident, prepared, and armed with notes from an AI tool. His email had the telltale signs — overly verbose, overly confident, formatted to look like an expert. What pushed things sideways was his insistence that the restorer

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The AI Discussion: Time to Find Traction

August 25, 2026 7:50 am

I am writing this on a Monday morning after a quick review of my inbox and a weekend spent pondering the incredible amount of AI platforms and tools bombarding our industry today. My inbox shows 15 article pitches in the last couple of weeks; 90% of those were on AI-related topics.  This issue, you’ll notice, has a special section related to AI – a carefully chosen collection of articles our team hopes will help you move the needle when it comes to AI.  According to McKinsey’s most recent State of AI survey, 88% of

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Why I Did Something Stupid (And Why You’re Probably Thinking About It Too)

August 24, 2026 7:00 am

I want to be upfront about something before you keep reading: this is not a success story. Or at least, it’s not only a success story. It’s the kind of story where the ending isn’t fully written yet and the middle was a real mess. I did not wake up one morning and decide to become a technology company. I run a restoration business. We do water, mold, and fire. We deal with TPAs, carriers, adjusters, property managers, commercial building owners and homeowners who are usually having one of the worst weeks of their

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