When a leaky dishwasher caused severe water damage throughout Sherry Kline’s home, she and her husband turned to Burggraf Disaster Restoration to fix the damage.
Sherry was kind enough to share her story and her experiences with the restoration project.
“It started while we were away”
Interviewer: Sherry, how did this all start?
Sherry: It started while we were away. Don’t these things always happen when you’re away?
We were in Hawaii for five weeks. Our son was in here and a cleaning person, but nobody noticed anything.
So, when we got home, I noticed a couple of boards in front of the dishwasher looked discolored.
We thought we better have it checked right away. The tech came out and we quickly found we needed a new dishwasher; he couldn’t get it to work at all.
I asked him to be sure and check under it to see if there’s water while he had it out. He checked and said, “No, there’s no water. You’re good. Everything’s fine back here on the dishwasher.” You could not tell that those boards were damp or anything.
We were lucky enough to get a new dishwasher installed right away within a couple of days. But after that, you know, I kept thinking we’ll have to do something about those two boards one of these days.
But after a few days we started noticing more boards, and they were buckling.
“That’s when we knew we had a problem”
Interviewer: Buckling? That doesn’t sound good. What happened next?
Sherry: Well, that’s when we knew we had a problem. I had a friend who was in the business of hardwood floors take a look; he’s the one who told me we had a serious problem. I didn’t think it looked all that serious, but he started talking about taking all this flooring out and testing to see how far the damage was.
That’s when I called our insurance company, and they hooked us up with Burggraf.
Burggraf, of course, told me how bad it really was. My kitchen island would have to come out, my countertops had to come off, my lower cabinets had to be removed, all the continuous flooring.
There was a large portion that had to be replaced, but the rest of it had to be sanded down to match. That included the living room, dining room, master bedroom, and office – everything on the first floor except for the laundry area. And we have a large house. It would have to be completely redone.
Meeting the project manager
Interviewer: All from that little leak? Were you concerned about handling this disruption?
Sherry: That’s when Jason Phillips came into the picture. I couldn’t believe it when he said it would be a three-month project, that we were going to have to move out of our house for three months in the middle of summer in Tulsa.
We worked with our insurance company to find a suitable place to stay. There was just literally nothing in our area. I finally found an Airbnb listing, smaller than our house, and sadly it didn’t have a pool. Even though the nightly Airbnb price was outrageous, our insurance company said yes, and it turned out to be a very comfortable situation.
Jason got these incredible movers to come in. They’re the best and they packed everything for us. We both had physical problems at the time; I couldn’t even pack my own stuff, but he got people to come and take the things we needed at the rental house – which was a lot. They even got us settled in and put everything in place.
Getting straight to work
Interviewer: That’s a great start! After the move, how did everything go?
Sherry: While we were settling in, they packed up our big kitchen and everything. It was a huge deal. And the project started on time, just like it should. There was some question as to whether or not the lower cabinets could be saved, but nothing broke. They were so careful pulling them out.
Everything was so smooth; it was just shocking really.
That was the same year as our big Father’s Day storm in Tulsa and Jason handled every issue that came up: storm damage, power outages, and flooring issues, and still moved us back into our home on time. Exactly three months to the day he moved us back in there, unpacked everything, put everything in its place.
Months later, they even came back to move all the furniture out so the flooring people could rework some issues with the finish.
Communication, Respect & Kindness
Interviewer: What would you say set Burggraf apart?
Sherry: The communication was amazing. That, to me, was just so astonishing. Jason would come to the rental house when he needed to discuss anything with us. If I called him or sent him a text, immediately I heard back. You know, it was perfection. We’ve remodeled dozens of houses and never have I had a project manager like Jason. He’s the best.
He took care of anything that came up. He never made me feel difficult or demanding ever; even during setbacks, he always had our back. The respect and kindness that he showed us was amazing. I just really think it’s important that people know the amazing experience we’ve had with Burggraf and Jason.
Burggraf is dedicated to helping you
We’d like to thank Sherry so much for sharing her story with us, and we’re so pleased to be able to help our customers cope with the aftermath of water damage.
Burggraf Disaster Restoration has been providing Tulsa area residents with water damage restoration for over three decades. Call us 24/7 for emergency support at 918-584-3737.