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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

The 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 insurance is becoming

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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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Fight Fire with Fire

August 20, 2026 7:00 am

The same technology that insurance carriers are using to shrink your estimates can—and must—be turned into your most powerful documentation and negotiation tool. There is a quiet revolution happening inside the claims departments of insurance carriers and most restoration contractors have no idea how dramatically it is about to affect their bottom line. Artificial intelligence is no longer a future-state concept in the insurance industry. It is here. It is deployed. It is making decisions. And in far too many cases, those decisions are coming at the direct expense of restoration professionals who are

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The Restoration Industry Has Changed. How We Respond Will Define Its Future.

August 18, 2026 8:33 am

After more than 20 years in the restoration industry, I’ve watched our profession evolve in ways I never expected. Some of those changes have been positive. Technology has made us more efficient, documentation has become more sophisticated, and we have better tools than ever to prove what a property needs. At the same time, however, one of the biggest changes has made our jobs significantly more difficult. Years ago, it wasn’t unusual to have spirited disagreements with insurance adjusters. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but there was usually a mutual understanding of

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Calm Is Contagious

August 17, 2026 5:01 pm

The first job on a loss isn’t the building. It’s the room. By the time the phone rings, somebody’s worst day is already underway. A kitchen fire, a supply line that let go over a long weekend, a storm that opened up the roof — whatever pulled them into it, the person meeting your tech at the door hasn’t slept, is still in yesterday’s clothes, and can’t figure out where to stand in a house that stopped feeling like theirs an hour ago. They are not thinking clearly. They are not supposed to be.

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