| Pay structure: All water damage technicians are commission based independent contractors. The water damage techs earn a 35% to 50% commission on everything they sell and on every job they close. You can negotiate with them in any way you want since they are independent contractors and NOT employees of ESR. They will tell you that they are employees and the invoices have fixed prices but that is all UNTRUE. |
| If someone buys one of the uprights I will throw in a QBert cabinet and control panel. The cabinet has some water damage at the bottom but that is all, It is empty of everything but the wiring harness. |
| E.S.R., Inc. leases their trucks to the water damage techs for $800 per month. The trucks are fully loaded with all necessary equipment. Each tech gets 40 air movers, 10 dehumidifiers, 2 air scrubbers, 5 negative air movers, a flood pump, a carpet cleaning machine, 2 sump pumps, a generator, and a very large truck mount (for sewage) with a 100-150 gallon capacity. The techs keep the trucks at their own homes since they are on call 24/7. The techs pay for gas and E.S.R., Inc. pays for all maintenance, auto insurance, etc. |
| MDF is a lot more susceptible to water damage than plywood or particle board. MDF has a lot more wicking action than the other materials, so around water it is like a sponge. |
| My question is -- what are my options here? If I manage to get all the wallpaper off, is it even going to be worth it to try to paint over all that water damage? Can drywall be installed over the existing stuff, or will I need to rip everything down and start over? (As you can tell - total house newbie here, so am hoping for a solution I can handle. ) |
