CDRG Red Team in full force at a large Montreal Hotel

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A few weeks ago on Saturday afternoon, thunderstorms converged on southern Québec. The Montreal region was hit particularly hard by the rain and many sewer-backups and water-infiltrations occurred in the space of 30 minutes.

One of the largest hotels downtown, on the last night of the world famous Montreal Jazz festival, was at full capacity and water was coming in from the sidewalk into the bar. This unfortunate occurrence was only a minor inconvenience as a nightmare was happening in the room-service kitchen; sewage and kitchen grease were coming down from the ceiling. Within minutes, the black odorous water cascaded down a staircase, down three elevator shafts and covered over 8,000 square feet of ceramic and tile floors, affecting some carpeting.

Needless to say, kitchen staff was horrified and management was on the phone to a local disaster restoration company’s answering machine! Immediate response was obtained when hotel staff were directed to CDRG member Phoenix, part of Eastern Canada’s Red Team response. Answering the call, Daniel Pellerin owner of Phoenix, was already on a job site, but told the hotel management that he would take care of them promptly. True to CDRG’S mandate, “Yes, we’ll be right there,” was the only answer possible when clients are faced with this type of loss. Already, the mess was slightly less traumatic to the hotel people.

As all Montreal members were knee deep in claims, Phoenix called in a tier 2 Red Team comprised of nearby Sinimax’s team from Granby that were on-site in about an hour as well as Phoenix’s own emergency team that arrived from Sherbrooke, with truck-mounts, drying equipment, infra-red inspection cameras and eager techs that worked throughout the night. By Sunday noon, all the category three water was pumped out, all the contents had been cleaned, and the disgusting smell was all but gone.

Monday morning, Daniel Pellerin was on-site himself, and personally oversaw the tear-out, the cavity cleaning, the disinfection and the drying of the walls as well as the re-location of the room service kitchen. Hotel management cooperated and authorized each step of the intervention as the insurance company was not yet involved.

The Phoenix team stayed on, room and board were provided by the hotel, and a second team of carpenters renovating some rooms many floors up were put to work removing drywall and wet insulation. Tuesday morning everything was dry, walls were repaired that day and life got back to normal just as the insurance adjustor made his rounds. Astounded by the celerity and quality of work done in just 48 hours, he said that normally, work of that magnitude and scope would take at least 4 business days. Truly, CDRG ’s Red Team was useful not only to the hotel staff and management, but to the guests that were not inconvenienced in their stay. Their success in dealing with a potential devastating financial loss was the perfect example of CDRG’s Red Team working together.

CDRG's strength as a coast to coast Canadian Network of Independent Restoration Specialists is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with 1540 restoration experts, an average of 18.1 years in business and 220 million in annual volume – it's safe to say our strength lies in our members. The rigorous CDRG selection process only chooses members which meet the highest industry standards. All of our 118 locations are experienced and equipped to meet all challenges put before them. No job is too big or too small for CDRG members.

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