I’ve Just Came Doon Fae The Isle Of Skye….

Well it’s been another interesting week. And one that reminds me how hard our staff have it getting to and from some of their jobs.

We started off in Glasgow on Wednesday. A light snow shower had just started when we left and the forecast wasn’t looking too promising for the 5 hour drive to Portree either.

We headed down the A82 towards Loch Lomond (no pics as it was chucking it down).  Thankfully the road wasn’t too busy as there are no motorways here oh no, not even a dual carriageway for most of it. It’s a twisty, bendy road but the scenery is amazing.

The roads are in very poor condition this year due to the heavy frost we have had for prolonged periods. We played dodge the pothole for hours!

Before we knew it, we were driving through the great glen, when I say driving, it was more like a crawl. The blizzards had intensified and the traffic had to slow down for safety.  There were a few gritters on the road which helped keep the roads at least passable.

Finally the snow eased and we were gaining speed again.  We drove by Ballachulish and the onto the lovely Fort William (my favourite) hugging the banks of Loch Linnhe along the way.

Once at Invergarry we began to cross to the West coast towards the aisle of Skye. It was quite surreal as there was not a drop of snow in sight, well except on the top of the hills.

Thankfully the roads were quiet and we made good time to get to Skye Bridge.  Only another 33 miles to go,  Skye is bigger than you think.

We made it to Portree, the capital of Skye just before dark and got settled into our hotel.  Later we met up with our General Manager Jim and Joey Dagnall from Corroventa who had come to join us on this large project to offer his assistance and advice on how best to undertake injection drying and help get the property back to pre-incident condition as quickly as possible.

The property is a large community hall and  is widely used by the people of this remote community. A vital lifeline for them. It was devastating to see it destroyed by floodwater following heavy and prolonged rain.

When we first arrived onsite, we undertook an inspection, took pictures, moisture readings and completed a report of Our findings for the customer’s insurance company.

Once our claims handlers received the details, they began the task of preparing a price to undertake disposal of damaged contents, flooring etc, sanitising the affected areas,installing an effective drying regime, monitoring that regime  and then once ready, providing the builders with a handover certificate to allow them to confidently reinstate the property without fear of mould or water coming back through.

Once the report was competed with the proposals, costs and photographic evidence, our administrator sent this to the relevant party for approval.

While waiting for approval, we set about planning a return trip to start the work as quickly as possible.

This Involved identifying key members of the team whom had the skills require for such a task, sourcing local services such as disposal facilities, accommodation for staff and a host of other things which required advanced planning.

One written authorisation to proceed was given, it was all systems go.  There is no time to waste with water damaged properties. Stabilisation of the property as soon as possible is essential in order to prevent further damage to the buildings or secondary damage to unaffected contents.

Vans were mobilised, accommodation booked (no mean feat as Skye is constantly full of tourists) and the teams were off.

They began the task of listing all the damaged contents so the customer could be reimbursed for these, uplifting and disposing of damaged floor coverings, contents and sanitising the affected areas.  Also listing and packing of contents deemed restorable were among the tasks completed. As you can imagine, in a property of this scale, it takes some time to do this part of the process alone.

Once all these tasks were completed we handed over to the builders to come in and strip out the areas we deemed would not respond to drying, and areas which required to be removed to assist the drying process.  I’m not going to bore you with that bit, I’m sure you get the picture.

We work closely with the builders so we can get an approximate time that their work will be completed so we can ensure availability in our diary to return and install drying equipment as quickly as possible. This saves valuable time for everyone concerned.

In this particular property we require to flush out the large sub-floor in all rooms .  This saves the insurer a fortune as they don’t need to have all the floors lifted and replaced In order to provide access to clean it properly.  This process takes time and patience.  We were required to drill holes in the floor throughout so we can access all areas with our special chemicals used on floods. It’s a painstaking process but invaluable.  A property of this size takes time so I will post updates as and when they are available.

Thankfully it wasn’t all work, work, work… we managed to fit a wee visit to the local for some refreshments for our visitor Joey who had driven all the way from Runcorn to lend his expertise.

A few “small” sherry’s and a bite to eat at a great wee Indian restaurant and we were all ready to hit the sack…there is lots more to come so stay tuned folks…. watch this space….