North Carolina Firm Owner: There IS Crying in Home Restoration Business

What started as a carpet-cleaning business 23 years ago has turned into a disaster-restoration company for Carol Horton and her family.

Now much of Bridgeport Restoration Services’ business involves cleaning up homes that have had fire, water, smoke or mold damage.

Each case is different, Horton said. And most cases involve a sad story.

“At almost every fire claim, people cry,” said Lindsey Poulos-Lengyel, Horton’s daughter and the vice president of the company. “They may have lost their dog or their wedding and baby photos. No one chooses this type of remodeling project.”

The company, which is based in Kernersville, serves an area that stretches from King to Lexington and as far east as Burlington. It still offers the carpet, upholstery and drapery cleaning that the business was built on. But it expanded into restoration work in the mid-1990s because much of the same equipment used in carpet cleaning is use d in cleaning up water damage.

While typically its employees work only in North Carolina, it did send people to the Gulf of Mexico area for six months after Hurricane Katrina.

Bridgeport employs master cleaners, Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification technicians and accredited mold-remediation technicians, and it has a licensed general contractor on the team. It offers 24-hour emergency service. Some of its work is covered by insurance, but some is not.

Poulos-Lengyel explained that a good portion of the company’s work comes from water damage caused by faulty gutters, downspouts that aren’t run far enough from houses, outside faucets that freeze, ruptured water heaters, or when waterproofing degrades and water seeps into a basement.

Sometimes when an oil furnace is first turned on for the season, soot can be puffed back into the home. Bridgeport cleans the soot from wherever it might have settled, which might be throughout the house.

Mold remediation requires specialization. Bridgeport is a member of the Indoor Air Quality Association. Technicians spend time creeping through crawl spaces locating mold. In August, calls increase, usually from schools that have kept the air conditioning turned off during the warm months and have mold problems.

The advantage to being a smaller business, Horton said, is that Bridgeport handles only three to 10 claims weekly and gets to know each client.

“I started using them 20 years ago for carpets and upholstery cleaning and never would use anyone else,” customer Jo Wright said. “I have a friend who used Bridgeport after they had water damage and were very pleased.”

The disaster restoration field tends to be a male-dominated field, Poulos-Lengyel said.

“We are very female-strong, but we feel that makes us more empathetic. We cry with people, have babysat clients’ dogs when they didn’t have somewhere to take them,” she said. “We have a whole crew of guys, but homeowners talk to women. It sounds stereotypical, but we have a softer woman’s touch when it comes to disaster restoration.”