Issue 37

RestorerFloor restored to perfection at Norwich Cathedral

ISS Restoration promotes H&S with Site Safety StationsHoarder's property – from cluttered to clear in 3 daysRainbow’s rapid response to fire clean-up Busy waterfront hotel restored to its former beautyFlood restoration technicians work quickly to avoiddisruption to school’s education programmeRecord breaking Franchisee of the Year 2017New website developments enhance user experience

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Rainbow International's customer newsletter

A local Rainbow International branch was

recently asked to restore the parquet flooring in

the Henry Suite, part of the Narthex at St John

the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich.

Continued inside...

Photograph by Robert Scarth / CC BY-SA 2.0

Inside this issue...

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Parquet flooring restored at Norwich CathedralNew Senior Management Organisation for ISS Restoration An introduction from the MDRainfall causes drainage system to flood primary school Factory downtime averted after burst water pipe disaster ISS Restoration’s commitment to BDMA accreditationNetwork coverage extended in Northern Ireland

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Parquet flooring restored to perfection at Norwich Cathedral

The Cathedral were absolutely delighted with the results, and commented “a really good job, thank you.” Some excellent feedback for the Rainbow team.

Rainbow’s specialist technicians were approached to complete this work following the celebrated results of previous restoration work they had completed at the Cathedral. When the time came that the Cathedral needed to call someone in to restore their parquet flooring, they did not hesitate to call upon Rainbow International’s expert technicians to complete the job.

St John the Baptist Cathedral is a grade 1 listed building and Rainbow’s technicians know and understand the care and consideration needed when restoring such original and prestigious items.

The parquet flooring in the Henry Suite was starting to look a little worn and dull, so Rainbow’s technicians decided the best course of action would be to strip the old polish from the flooring and apply new layers of

...continued from front page

Before work commences

The parquet flooring in the Henry Suite after completion of work

St John the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich

polish to rejuvenate the look of the flooring and restore the former high gloss shine. This was achieved by applying several new layers of polish, once these layers were completely dry the technicians then buffed the surface to achieve the required shine.

This work took Rainbow’s specialist cleaning technicians a total of two days to complete. Following the conculsion of this work the Cathedral were absolutely delighted with the results, and commented “a really good job, thank you”. Some excellent feedback for the Rainbow team.

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ISS is delighted to announce the appointment of Steve Mitchell as Managing Director of ISS Restoration, Steve will now report to Matthew Brabin, CEO ISS UK & Ireland and be responsible for overseeing the 64-strong Rainbow International network, together with ISS Restoration’s Commercial, Complex and Major Loss operation.

Phil Else leaves the business after 21 years. He joined in 1996 and following acquisition of the Rainbow brand by ISS in 2003 and successfully led the business as Managing Director.

Matthew commented “Phil has taken the decision to step away at this time and ISS owes him a great debt of gratitude for his contribution to ISS and the success of the Restoration business over the past 21 years. I am subsequently delighted to announce the appointment of Steve Mitchell into the role of Managing Director, ISS Restoration. Phil and Steve have worked closely together for the past 14 years.

Steve assumes the responsibility for the restoration business from his current role in the Commercial arm of the business where he has been Managing Director since 2010. Steve has held a number of senior roles across several restoration businesses over the past 22 years and thereby provides both a wealth of experience as well as continuity.

Steve Mitchell commented “We continue to see a tremendous amount of change both in the industry and our business. I would like to personally thank Phil for his tireless work which leaves the business on a sound footing, as the industry continues to evolve”.

“Our strategic vision sees the unique and combined strengths of Rainbow International and ISS Restoration’s Commercial operation working seamlessly as one. This will position the business to better meet the needs of the changing landscape of the UK insurance marketplace”.

ISS Restoration is confident that the business is well positioned to continue its customer-centric market leadership and look forward to further development of their world class customer service programme.

Steve Mitchell

New Senior Management Organisation for ISS Restoration

An introduction from the MDFirstly may I welcome you to this latest edition of Restorer, our customer newsletter and my first as the MD of the Restoration Business.

As a new era dawns, my primary objective and first major consideration is to ensure the full integration of ISS Restoration & Rainbow International into one single business entity, which will provide a better service for all of our customers.

The days of 2 separate teams at our insurer customers are long since gone and our own business must reflect the changing market landscape in order to continue our success. Both businesses have enjoyed great success over recent years, ISS Restoration in the Major & Complex Loss market, and Rainbow International as the leading supplier of Domestic Restoration and Specialist Cleaning Services to a wide range of commercial organisations.

However, as one team, with one business development function, one accounting operation, one central training facility, and soon to be one single business system, we can surely combine our joint strengths to not only enhance our overall service, but also provide customers with a single point of contact for all their Restoration and Specialist Cleaning requirements.

Much of the infrastructure is already in place, and our new business system, for which we are currently at market analysing the options, will provide us with the final link for a single solution business. It is fundamental to our core business moving forward that we act, think, and perform as one team. Our fantastic cNPS scores of recent months and years will only be further improved with full integration of our services, and a commitment from all of our team to make it a success.

We already possess so many critical benefits for our customers, which when integrated more robustly will provide even greater results. We have, on average a branch just 23 miles from any incident in the UK. 2 hours call out in an emergency situation anywhere in the UK. cNPS scores of over 50 are consistently achieved – a world class delivery of our services to both major loss and domestic restoration across the country. Central management and administrative function to control and allocate resources to ensure that during both claims surge and BAU times KPI’s and other performance metrics are not only met, but surpassed. All of these criteria are already in place, we just need to refine our systems and procedures and make them highly valuable for our customers.

I will be communicating with you over the months ahead as to our progress, but rest assured you will start to see greater and more effective integration of the businesses. And while we will continue to utilise the Rainbow International brand for domestic Restoration, the ISS brand will continue to be the face of our Major and Complex Loss service, quite clearly sitting alongside the Rainbow brand providing strength and guidance to maintain our position as the UK’s leading provider of DR&R services – to both Major & Complex Loss, and the Domestic Restoration and Specialist Commercial Cleaning market – all from one single source.

Steve MitchellManaging Director

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Heavy rainfall causes drainage system to flood primary school

Image Copyright Shazz. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Flooded classrooms and corridors at a West Sussex Primary School, caused by a period of heavy rainfall.

Following the completion of the restoration work, the torrential rainfall started again...

The specialist technicians at Rainbow were called in following a flood at a primary school in West Sussex. Following a period of torrential rainfall, the drainage system of the primary school became overwhelmed with the sudden excess of water. This resulted in toilets in the school overflowing with contaminated water. The resulting flooding affected an activity area and

two toilet blocks as well as multiple classrooms and corridors, leaving them under two inches of standing water throughout.

Two technicians were promptly on-site to begin their initial inspections. Their course of action was to extract the standing water from all of the affected areas and remove and dispose of the carpets and flooring that could not be restored. Once this was completed the whole area was cleaned and sanitised throughout in preparation for the re-occupation by the staff and students. Once the above had been completed, drying equipment was installed to quickly complete the drying process and restore the school back to it's pre-incident condition.

Following the timely and successful completion of the flood restoration work, the technicians were packing away all of their equipment when the torrential rainfall started again. This once again resulted in the drainage system overflowing,

and subsequently the restored areas of the school being re-affected by the flooding of contaminated water. Not to be fazed by such a predicament, the technicians set about compiling a list of work that needed to be done – pending authorisation.

Once authorisation was received the technicians returned to complete the aforementioned course of action; and once again restore the school to pre-incident condition.

Rainbow’s technicians continued to return to the site to carry out further inspections and moisture checks to ensure the drying regime had been successful and there was no risk of secondary damage to the school building.

All cleaning, sanitising and drying work was completed in 7 days – with as little disruption to the school as possible, and the students were able to continue their education programme unaffected.

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“We received a fantastic service from your company, and as a result we didn’t have a single hour of downtime.”- Robert Dunleavey Managing Director of Tanto Labels

Disaster was averted after the Tanto UK factory, in Weston-Super-Mare, experienced a burst water pipe over the festive period. Thanks to the quick actions of the expert Rainbow International technicians, the clean-up operation was completed without any factory downtime.

90% of the 6000 sq.ft unit was flooded by the water from the burst pipe, meaning the factory floor, the warehouse and the offices were all in need of being restored back to their pre-incident condition.

The local Rainbow branch received this instruction on New Year’s Eve, and proceeded to contact the customer straight away to agree upon a time for them to visit the site and promptly put together a plan of action. This would prevent further damage being caused by the standing water. Rainbow were made aware of the fact that the factory was due to begin production again following the forthcoming

bank holiday, so quick actions were needed to ensure this was achievable.

With flood and escape of water restoration being Rainbow's core service, the experienced technicians knew in preparation what their initial course of action would be upon arrival at the flooded factory. No time was wasted in extracting the water from the affected areas, uplifting saturated carpets and installing stabilisation equipment to ensure the factory could open the following day.

Thanks to the quick actions of Rainbow's technicians, the area was able to be dried and restored to pre-incident condition in time for the company's employees to return to work on the Tuesday. Robert Dunleavey, Managing Director of Tanto Labels quoted: “We received a fantastic service from your company, and as a result we didn’t have a single hour of downtime.”

Factory downtime averted after burst water pipe disaster

The Tanto UK factory in Weston-Super-Mare was able to avoid any factory downtime following a burst water pipe disaster, thanks to the quick actions and expertise of Rainbow's technicians.

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ISS Restoration’s commitment to BDMA accreditation

Network coverage extended in Northern Ireland

ISS Restoration and Rainbow International have further boosted their accredited workforce following the BDMA examinations which took place earlier this year.

A staggering 200 members of ISS staff successfully passed these exams, resulting in a further 53 BDMA associate members, and 157 BDMA accredited technicians, senior technicians and claims practitioners within their network.

This shows ISS’ true dedication to ensuring their technicians and staff are always at the forefront of technological developments, enabling them to provide the best service to the restoration marketplace.

Coverage of the UK has been further strengthened with the addition of a new branch in Northern Ireland.

One of Rainbow & ISS’ key USP's is to be on-site in an emergency situation within 2 hours anywhere in the UK. Commencing work immediately minimises the risk of secondary damage and restores homeowners and businesses alike back to pre-incident condition with minimal disruption and downtime.

This new territory covering the north of Northern Ireland is part of the commitment to grow the network and enhance the world class service already supplied to Insurers, their policyholders and to commercial organisations.

Andrew Clarkin, Rainbow International - Magherafelt

Some of the ISS Restoration employees who passed their BDMA exam.

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ISS Restoration has launched a series of Site Safety Stations to promote Health & Safety across the Restoration business. The Site Safety Stations idea, or S3 as it is known, was conceived following a trend analysis of completed site audits carried out within the Restoration business.

Following discussions between Steve Mitchell (MD) and the Health & Safety Department a market review for this type of equipment was completed and from this, a list of specifications was drawn up outlining the preferred features. As there wasn’t one straightforward option that met the criteria a modular easy fit system was considered and was found to be the obvious choice.

This allows for quantities of flammables to be adequately and securely stored, provides a work desk & back board which allows for the display of all current Company and project specific Health & Safety documentation. It also allows for the secure storage of a variety of other Health & Safety equipment appropriate to each project.

It was decided from the outset that the S3 should be easy to manoeuvre, quick to set up and to create an immediate impression by providing a designated point where Health & Safety information can be communicated and sought.

There are 20 S3 units currently available to the Restoration division to promote and enhance the Health & Safety culture within the business.

Steve Field (right) and Connor Richards with the new Site Safety Station

Hoarder's property – from densely cluttered to clear and clean in 3 days

ISS Restoration promotes Healthand Safety with Site Safety Stations

Rainbow International’s expert specialist cleaning technicians were called upon to clean, decontaminate and restore a property following the passing of the tenant.

Over many years the late tenant had hoarded and amassed a staggering amount of clutter and rubbish in the property. This resulted in an unsafe and unpredictable environment for people entering the property. It was not practical or safe for untrained cleaners or staff to enter the property until it had been properly cleared, as there was an uncertainty about what dangers could reside within the rubbish.

The experienced technicians at Rainbow are fully trained and qualified in the cleaning and handling of potentially unstable properties, materials and bio-hazards. So they got to work

right away, firstly clearing all of the rubbish and waste from the property, and then cleaning and decontaminating all rooms to restore them to their pre-incident condition. It took three technicians three days to clean, decontaminate and repair the property for re-letting, ensuring there was not a stalling of income stream for the landlord.

Due to the condition of the contents nothing was salvageable; so everything was discreetly, quickly and safely disposed of. The technicians also did a needle sweep of the property to ensure there was no risk of injury or incident to others entering the property.

Following the meticulous work done by Rainbow’s technicians, the landlord was delighted with the results.

Before and during the clean-up

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Rainbow’s rapid response to fire clean-up

Rainbow's technician working on one of the fire damaged floors of the council buildingResulting damage to one of the floors of the council building following the fire

‘Business as usual’ was promptly restored for East Sussex County Council following a fire at their offices in the early hours one morning. The resulting damage to the building affected 5 floors, and resulted in the displacement of approximately 250 members of staff.

Within one hour of receiving the instruction Rainbow had a senior technician on-site to assess the damage, identify the client’s specific problems and create a plan with realistic timescales and actions, which were agreed with the Council Facilities Management Team.

Within 3 hours, a specialist cleaning team arrived on-site prepared to begin extracting the standing water, which was there as a result of the fire service extinguishing the fire. Once this had been completed, drying equipment was installed

to ensure the speedy and thorough drying of the affected areas. A technician team also got to work cleaning and deoderising the smoke damaged areas of the building, restoring this ready for the displaced staff members to return.

Within 24 hours, three of the smoke damaged levels, including the hall, stairs and lift were ready for handing back over to East Sussex County Council for occupation. Meaning the members of staff that were located on these floors could return back to their desks within 24 hours of the first instruction being received informing Rainbow International of the job.

After 14 days the fire affected floors were handed over, dry and with all fire damage restoration completed, ready for refinement work to begin.

Image Copyright; Photo by Eddie Mitchell

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Following Rainbow's expert processes the building is back to pristine condition.

Before the clean a build up on dirt and algae was highly evident.

When Rainbow International is approached to complete any work, their priority is to ensure safety for all of their own operatives, their customers and the general public. A plan is put together to ensure they can complete the work with as little disruption as possible to their customer, neighbouring businesses/properties as well as the general public. Rainbow also takes full responsibility for all aspects of the work including dealing with local authority permits, if required.

A call was made to Rainbow from Jurys Waterfront Hotel, Brighton, regarding a request for a building clean, to remove encrusted dirt and algae deposits from the façade of their building. Rainbow’s technicians made sure, in preparation for beginning this work, all of the above points were carefully considered and planned for.

One initial issue the technicians experienced was the water supply from the hotel was not adequate for the work that needed to be done. Never to be deterred, they contacted the local water authority and arranged for the hiring of metered stand pipes, which would provide them with the adequate water levels needed.

Busy waterfront hotel restored to its former beauty

High access equipment was used to allow the technicians to pressure wash the upper levels of the building. This was a cost effective solution for the customer, averting the need to use and erect costly scaffolding. This is a very practical solution to cleaning ‘hard to reach’ areas, though this cost effective option is not always possible due to health & safety and local authority requirements – something Rainbow would always check before beginning any restoration work.

The specialist cleaning technicians also pressure washed the ground surrounding the hotel, to remove dirt & weeds, which had built up and become overgrown over time. The lower

elevations of the exterior of the hotel needed media blasting to remove the dirt and carbon deposits that had become severely encrusted to the surface. Part scaffolding was erected to complete this work to ensure the correct health and safety precautions were adhered to for both the technicians and the general public.

Throughout the whole process Rainbow worked closely with the local authorities, ensuring traffic and pedestrian controls were correct at all times, avoiding disruption and maintaining health and safety considerations.

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Cwrt Rawlin Primary School in South Wales called in their local Rainbow branch recently, following a burst water pipe at their school. It is thought a hot water pipe in one of the toilet blocks had burst, and had gone undiscovered for approximately 48 hours. This had consequently caused excessive damage to that area of the school, meaning children had to be displaced, until the area was restored.

When Rainbow’s technicians arrived on-site, they discovered that the water from the burst pipe had affected multiple classrooms and storerooms as well as the entrance hall to the building, along with the basement. All flooring coverings and furniture in these affected areas were so severely saturated they had begun to distort – resulting in these items being beyond economic restoration.

Flood restoration technicians work quickly, to avoid disruption to school’s education programme

Specialist drying equipment and tenting installed at Cwrt Rawlin Primary School.

Using tenting as part of a drying regime enables targeted drying of the tented areas, resulting in quicker drying times.

Understanding the need to work quickly on such a job, not only to stop any further damage from occurring, but also to allow the school to return to normality, the Rainbow technicians got to work right away.

Before the flood affected areas were handed back to the school for re-occupation by the pupils the cleaning technicians ensured the whole area was cleaned, santisied and restored to a stable environment for the pupils to continue with their education programme without concerns.

Thanks to the quick actions and work of the expert restoration technicians, the Primary School was able to return to normality with as little disruption caused to the pupils and their education as possible.

The specialist technician’s plan of action to restore the school back to pre-incident condition as quickly as possible was to:

• Extract the standing water from all affected areas

• Remove the saturated floor covering

• Diamond grinding of the floor adhesives, to remove them and allow the drying of the sub-flooring

• Restoration of furniture and upholstery

• Disposing of all damaged contents, that were beyond restoration

• Install drying equipment and tenting, to allow the advanced drying regime to be targeted effectively.

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Rainbow International and ISS Restoration’s annual conference was held recently at Alton Towers Conference Centre.

The annual conference is two days of networking, business updates, training and best practice sharing attended by the Rainbow International network, head office staff and ISS Restoration employees as well as suppliers, senior management and guest speakers,

who are business leaders and experts in their respective industries.

The culmination of this event is a black tie dinner and gala awards evening, where the true successes within the network are celebrated. The big winners this year, being awarded the Franchisee of the Year award for the record breaking second year running, were Tom and Helen Cox, whose territory covers the Highlands and Glasgow-West.

Record breaking Franchisee of the Year

Don Dwyer Award for ExcellenceThe Jones Family

Managing Directors AwardStacey Hough

Young Achiever AwardKatie Russell

Most Improved Franchisee AwardIan Clarke

Achieving Customer Excellence AwardMichael Parsons

Technical Employee of the Year AwardLinda McAuslan

Administrative Employee of the YearHelen Foster

Head Office Employee of the YearJon Cartledge

Supplier of the YearEdge Equipment Hire

Self Generated Work Initiative of the Year Awards

Noreen Hughes

Jonathan & Maureen Hargreaves-Townson

Huw Smith

Wayne & Chris Crossfield

Other award winners of the evening were...

(Left to Right) Franchisee Owners Tom & Helen Cox, Stacey and Jim receiving their award from Managing Director, Steve Mitchell

The UK’s leading provider of Fire, Flood, Escape of Water, Accidental Damage Restoration and Specialist Cleaning services to...

01623 422488

n Insurance industry Insurance companies, loss adjusters, insurance brokers

on domestic and commercial policyholder claims.

n Commercial & industrial institutions Banks, building societies, offices, factories and warehouses.

n Property management Housing Associations, letting, managing agents and

general facilities management.

n Local authorities & public utilities County, city and parish councils, utility companies.

n Retail & leisure Pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, conference facilities,

theatres, cinemas, retail chains and health clubs.

n Education Schools, LEA’s, colleges and universities.

n Health Hospitals, medical and walk in centres, dental

practices, nursing homes and veterinary centres.

n Construction Builders cleans.

24 Hour National Helpline:

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Rainbow International, Spectrum House, Lower Oakham Way Oakham Business Park, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 5BY

Tel: 01623 422488 (24 hour) Fax: 01623 422466Email: enquiries@rainbow-int.co.uk Web: www.rainbow-int.co.uk

Over 70 branches across the UK

Any News?If you would like to contribute material which you think would be suitable for Rainbow Restorer, or have a comment to make, please contact the Marketing Department, details below.

@Rainbow_Int_uk Company Page: Search Rainbow International UK

Rainbow International

New website developments enhance user experienceBoth Domestic Restoration services and Major and Complex Loss have recently launched new web sites which will enable a better user experience, with improved functionality and ease of use in order to find the required information.

Whatever the size or urgency of your commercial incident or claim, you can simply contact ISS Restoration and we will triage the project to the most appropriate ISS team.

Smaller commercial, property owner and SME claims are often served by our national 'property team' where multi skilled property team leaders will respond, project manage and start / complete work from the first visit to site. Policyholders, tenants and customers immediately feel supported, enjoy the benefit of immediate mitigation and recovery works and the claim is handled effectively and efficiently giving an excellent customer experience that supports Insurer loyalty and renewal.

www.iss-restoration.co.uk

This site provides details of all the Domestic Restoration & Specialist Cleaning Services provided by Rainbow International, and the 65 branches across the UK. Also available is a branch finder on each page, where you simply type in your postcode to find the branch closest to your incident address.

www.rainbow-int.co.uk

Domestic & Specialist Cleaning Services

Complex & Major Loss