The Blueprint blog
Restoration
Severe weather. Leaky roofs. Bursting pipes. Backed-up sewers. Water damage can occur in homes due to multiple causes. Yet each situation requires the same initial response: a prompt and thorough water damage assessment. Here are seven reasons why you should begin that process by creating a digital floor plan.
You no longer need to manually measure and sketch a homeowner’s property to record what you see during a water damage inspection. Instead, you can accomplish those tasks right on your phone or tablet with a floor plan app. A high-quality app will automate the process, which is much quicker, easier, and often more accurate.
How It Works: The app’s smart technology will automatically sense a room’s full dimensions through your mobile device’s camera. All you have to do is scan the room with your camera, and the app will quickly capture and map the dimensions within just a few minutes.
By harnessing the power of this advanced technology, you can boost your productivity significantly. That means you can complete each water damage assessment much faster.
A good floor plan app is a handy tool that allows you to document every water-damaged jobsite with ease. Simply create a sketch as you complete your walkthrough, with a focus on the following tasks:
When you use a digital sketch instead of a hand-drawn sketch as the basis of your documentation, you don’t have to worry about protecting, saving and searching for a paper document. A digital file is much more secure, as well as easy to store and access.
A two-dimensional floor plan, by nature, is a visual that is easy to understand. It provides a bird’s-eye view that helps homeowners and insurance adjusters quickly grasp the locations, extent and interrelatedness of water damages – something photos alone cannot always achieve. Sometimes the addition of a 3D floor plan is also warranted to help aid comprehension.
Unlike paper floor plans, digital plans are easily shareable in real time from the field. Recipients will then be able to open and view your plans on their smartphones, tablets or desktop computers.
A good floor plan app will also enable you to turn any floor plan into a comprehensive, shareable field report, complete with photos you captured during your assessment. This type of report is ideal for initiating an insurance claim.
The sketch can be used to determine different tasks that must be completed during mitigation and restoration. It’s also a helpful resource for determining specific drying equipment that is required, restoration materials that need to be ordered, and the types and number of workers that have to be scheduled.
The sketch can be a beneficial communication tool for professionals who will come in after you, whether those are workers you employ or third-party contractors. It will help them get up to speed quickly, and will give them a better feel for what to expect – and which areas of the home to address – before they visit the site. This can help minimize questions and confusion before any work is started.
Be sure to choose an app that offers a versatile suite of features:
Availability for both Android and iOS platforms
Augmented reality and artificial intelligence technology for automatic detection and calculation of room dimensions
Measurements that are up to 100% accurate when the app is paired with a Bluetooth digital tape measure
Fast, easy rendering of 2D and 3D floor plan sketches
Easy assembly of room sketches when you need to create a complete floor plan of a customer’s home
The ability to add notes or pictures to any plan
The ability to add structural elements and furniture or appliance objects for more detailed results
Easy exporting and sharing in multiple formats
An optional cloud service for storing, securing and accessing plans
A digital floor plan sketch is ideal for water-damage assessment for a variety of reasons. You can create it quickly, mark it up thoroughly, save it securely, share it easily, and use it to develop work plans and guide remediation and restoration. Really, there is no better way to document water damage inside residential properties.
LEARN MORE ABOUT CREATING DIGITAL FLOOR PLANS ON-SITE
Learn how to boost your IAQ business by Marketing Inspections to Multiple Audiences.
Or read our guide on why you should be adding Indoor Air Quality Inspections to your menu of services.
Bernd Wolfram
Head of Product & Marketing