For 78 days, we were shut down due to a flood disaster that affected the entire building our office is located within. It was a gut wrenching experience; pouring out flood water from computers and equipment systems, and coming to grips with what scope of loss we were dealing with. But by far the worst part was to realize we would be unavailable for you, our Toledo dental families… to not even have access to patient records for an extended period of time, and to be demolishing and rebuilding the office we had only just moved into. But it is with great pride that we can finally say: We are back!
On November 3rd, 2024, the city/county sanitary sewer line (yuck!) backed up into the building at 7010 Spring Meadows West. We walked in on the event while it was happening and desperately started trying to shop-vac out as much as we could, while calling for help. The county services responded, our landlord brought in a restoration company who immediately got to work trying to remove the water and, once the county inspected and found the problem, they were able to clear it and we were able to finally see the water level dropping.
The building quickly saw relief from the water pressure and the restoration company’s efforts finally were visible as we got rid of the standing sewage. But the damage had already been done. Several inches of sewer water had covered everyone’s floors, was wicked up into the walls and cabinetry, and it had saturated electrical, structural and equipment resources all across the office. Only one wall of our office was spared – the westernmost wall closest to the Spring Meadows West Drive (the wall next to our fireplace in the reception area).
After immediately securing all of the HIPPAA protected materials and data in the office, and getting them stored securely in an off-site location, we arranged for the restoration company get right to work on mitigating the office space through demo and removal of all of the drywall, insulation, flooring and cabinetry. They continued to dry out and reset the environment and then cleaned and sanitized all of the wall framing and remaining surfaces. From there we jumped into working with our insurance and getting the plan together for a re-build.
If there was any positive at all to having only just moved into the space, it was that our builder and contractors were easy to re-connect with and re-organize to do pertinent parts of the project over again. They were obviously still familiar with their work and the specifications of what went into the build, and we were fortunate that they were able to work us into an existing schedule of commitments for reconstruction. We found climate controlled storage units in the area, had our dental equipment company, plumber and a cabinetry contractor disassemble everything, had the restoration company pack up all the supplies and contents, and then movers hauled everything we could sanitize and save out and into storage, while we re-built.
We like to call December 1st, our rock bottom. That was the last day where we were tearing out or moving things out of the office, and Monday, December 2nd, was day 1 of the reconstruction. Effectively, everything from a line 12-24 inches high and below would need to be rebuilt, replaced or reconditioned. Week by week, progress was made.
