Among the nightmares that give insurance adjusters sleeplessnights is the selection of a restoration company that can performcontents cleaning and repair.

"Contents pros," as they are often called today, are arelatively new phenomenon historically speaking. In days gone by,it was tacitly agreed that after a fire or flood, water-drenched orsmoke-impregnated items were simply loaded onto a truck and takento a waste disposal site.

But with the coming of the contents pros, whose motto is"restore not replace," insurance companies discovered that theywere saving massive amounts of capital by having these specialistsintervene before many items were discarded.

Using everything from cotton swabs and toothbrushes, toultrasonics and hydroxyl generators, well-trained teams repeatedlyproved their worth. The problem came when untrained, ill-equippedworkers claimed to have the same skill sets and expertise.Adjusters simply could not tell the difference until it was toolate.

For example, if the average onlooker saw restoration staffmembers shrink-wrapping an antique wooden table before transportingit to a storage facility, he might think nothing of it. But atrained professional would point out that shrink-wrap does what itis created to do — it shrinks, and as it shrinks, it tightens.Eventually, it can actually pull the joints of the furniture apart,thereby causing more repairs, not less.

When frontline personnel are seen carefully stacking bottles ofwine in the driveway of the home, then placing them in boxestightly enough so there is no danger of a bottle falling over, itmay look pretty good to the casual observer until someone who hasreceived a little training reminds the "rookies" that even if thewine inside the bottles is totally intact, if the label on thebottle is damaged, it can reduce the value of the wine byhalf! Just the label! Direct sunlight and heat (as foundon a driveway) can also turn fine wine into a $1000-bottle ofvinegar.

So, how can an adjuster know when a contents crew knows what itis doing? No individual contents professional knows everything, butthose who are trained have a pretty good idea of where to find theanswers.

Typical questions to ask might be, "What sort of storagefacility do you have?" That is a simple one.

If the answer is, "We use onsite storage pods in order to keepeverything near the site," that may sound pretty good — until onerealizes that wet contents, stored in a hot, humid, metal storageunit will create mold in a phenomenally short amount of time.

In the case of the wine, an adjuster might ask, "At whattemperature will you store the bottles at your facility?"

Before asking the question, it is important to ask the owner ofthe wine collection for the optimal storage temperature. If thecontents manager says, "Well, we'll keep them at room temperaturein the warehouse," there may be a serious problem (even though itmay not sound all that bad).

A recent response was, "In such cases we create a small chamberthat is temperature controlled, but we always ask the insured aboutthe proper storage…" The manager showed a glimmer of competence anda willingness to find answers from a knowledgeable source. That isthe kind of answer that can give an adjuster some peace ofmind.

Once an adjuster finds one of these teams, they hold on to themand use them to save money for the insurance company job after job.There was a time when many believed that the time taken to restoredamaged items far exceeded the replacement costs, but for more thana decade this myth has been replaced by solid facts.

When an antique Persian rug, valued at $10,000 can be restoredat 10 to 20 percent of the replacement cost, it is something aninsurance adjuster does not soon forget. When dozens of boxes ofsmoke and fire-damaged figurines are cleaned and restored in a weekinstead of a month, at a significant savings to the carrier, it isworth taking a second look at what this new breed of restorationprofessional can do.

How about fine art? Obviously, fine masterpieces valued in thefive- or six-figure level will require special handling by experts,but many contents companies have created relationships with some ofthe finest art conservation facilities in North America.

One story that has been retold in the industry occurred when anadjuster saw a contents professional picking up flakes of paintfrom the carpet in front of a painting that had been charred andheated so badly the paint had bubbled and some had broken off,falling to the floor. The contents team member explained that theart conservation center his company worked with had asked that eventhe flakes be gathered in such situations and placed in a smallbag.

Then the pro took pictures of the damaged art with the camera ina cell phone, sent them to the preservation experts and got anestimate for the adjuster. For decades, the contents pros werethought of as "cleaning ladies" who were a necessary evil andslowed the entire restoration process down — now they areconsidered one of the insurance carriers' most valued tools.

When knowledgeable contents restoration professionals are on thejob, insurance companies almost without exception save money on thejob.

Restoration doesn't stop with melted artworks, antiques, silvercollections and fine wine. Hundreds of contents restorationcompanies have now figured out how to restore electronics(televisions, computers, fax machines, copiers, etc.) Wetelectronics used to be considered a total loss — especially whenash, smoke and soot had penetrated the machines.

Today, contents pros are routinely claiming to restore between80 and 85 percent of water-damaged electronics at between 10 and 30percent of the cost of replacement. Some business owners andadjusters are skeptical of the results (who wouldn't be when wateris dripping out the bottom of a desktop computer's tower?)

But for those carriers who want a quick test to see if there iseven a modicum of hope in such situations, ask the restorationcompany owner, "How do you restore a wet computer hard drive thathas been exposed to soot and smoke?"

Some answers have ranged from "WD40®" to "baking soda" or "lemonjuice," (none of which have proven effective). But the mostsuccessful companies (including one that restored an estimated $4million last year at a university in Louisiana) use de-ionizedwater, high pressure spray devices (to flush out impurities) anddrying chambers.

In one situation, the contents company owner simply said, "Look,you have 34 water-damaged computers. Give me two of them and I'llreturn them in working order within one day. If I can't, you owe menothing. If I succeed, then let me have a chance with therest."

Perhaps it all boils down to their "track record." If a companycan show that they have repeatedly succeeded, the odds are goodthat they can succeed for an insurer as well. The old adage, "Trustbut verify," may work for insurance carriers the same way it worksfor most things in life.

10 Questions to Ask a Contents RestorationCompany

So how does an adjuster determine if a contents professionalreally is an expert? Here are a few key questions to ask:

1. How long have you been in business?

2. Is contents restoration your main business?

3. How many jobs like ours have you done in the past year?

4. Are you a local business?

5. Does your company do the work or is it subcontracted?

6. What kinds of cleaning methods do you use?

7. What kind of training or certifications does your staffhave?

8. Who is your specialty service provider?

9. Do you store my contents in a secure, climate controlledlocation?

10. What kind of inventory system do you use for contents?

Sources: Chicago Conservation Center, Certified RestorationDry Cleaners Network, Midwest Restoration Services