RestoreMasters – Jacksonville, Florida

April 4, 2023

RestoreMasters

bringing properties back after damage-causing events

Whether wind, flooding, or fire impacts a property, or maintenance needs to be streamlined, RestoreMasters have the expertise and solutions in place

The unforeseen can happen. Whether catastrophic natural events occur or wear and tear require repair, restoring what has been damaged is the business of RestoreMasters, a national roofing and restoration company that specializes in damage mitigation and restoration services for commercial property owners, including hotels, resorts, condominiums, churches, universities, schools, restaurants, retail, office, medical, and industrial and, most recently, residential property owners, across the country.

The company, recognized as one of the Top 100 Roofing Contractors in America and also on INC. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies in America list, includes emergency water damage mitigation experts, public claims adjusters, building engineers, roofing engineers, interior construction experts, large-loss attorneys, general contracting project managers, and other professionals.

“We’re a nationwide commercial, and now residential, restoration contractor that specializes in the insurance side of the business through the claims process,” explains Nick Iovieno, CEO of RestoreMasters for the past three years. “A majority of what we do is working with insurance carriers and property owners to restore their properties. Our job is to be dispatched to areas that have been compromised due to weather. We do assessments on the property to let the owners know if they need to be restored.”

RestoreMasters - Jacksonville, Florida

“Typically, whenever we go into a storm environment, the first thing is to triage the building; to stop the bleeding — especially during hurricanes and tornadoes because you have to dry in the building,” Iovieno continues. “A lot of times there’s exposure; the roof is open. So, we do a temporary replacement that dries in the building. Sometimes it’s a shrink wrap or a temporary roof. Then we diagnose the structure from top to bottom and if they end up with a clean bill of health, we issue what we call a certificate of clearance. Or, we let them know that the roof, for example, can no longer be under warranty. At that point, there’s a decision to make on the claims side.”

“Legally, we can’t talk about policy because we’re a contractor, but we’ll bring in third-party experts to review their policy and let them know if there’s a course of action they can take through insurance. We don’t want to be an adversary of the insurance carriers; we want to be in partnership with them and the property owner and just make sure that that property owner who’s paid on that policy can get what’s due to them,” Iovieno elaborates.

RestoreMasters is well-known for dispatching its restoration crews to catastrophic and severe weather events, wherever and whenever they occur. “We’re very effective at that,” says Iovieno.

“Any kind of major weather event, we’re going to respond to it.” Indeed, over the past few years, the company has seen its share of natural disasters. When Hurricane Ian came barreling across the South Carolina coastline this past September, the hurricane damage restoration contractors at RestoreMasters readied emergency roofing crews, equipment, and materials to help commercial property owners make a full recovery.

“Our teams were positioned to help property owners within hours,” says Iovieno. “We brought in multiple semi-loads of roofing materials and equipment, along with crews that specialize in working disaster-type situations.”

In December 2021, RestoreMasters was dispatched to the Upper Midwest after tornados, hail, and a rare winter Derecho windstorm drove winds above 90 mph and pounded buildings with hailstones the size of baseballs. In August 2020, and August 2021, it’s commercial roofing experts responded to Hurricanes Laura and Ida in Louisiana in order to rebuild roofing systems and restore buildings. “In a major event, it’s wild,” Iovieno states. “There’s no electricity, there’s no gas, there’s no food. So you really have to come in prepared.”

RestoreMasters - Jacksonville, Florida

Iovieno explains that RestoreMasters is well positioned to ‘come in prepared’ because its nationwide footprint gives it the ability to get materials from a lot of different suppliers. It also relies on a large, nationwide network of subcontractors. “Those are third parties, and they do the majority of our work,” he notes.

“A lot of these properties are dealing with multi-million dollar transactions, so we have to be sure that we’re dealing with people that will not only perform the work but will warranty and quality-control it. When it comes to the construction/management side, it’s internal. The boots on the ground and the superintendents that are actually running the jobs – that’s all our workforce. And we probably have some of the best people in the industry. We have about 25 superintendents and about 10 project managers that handle all the scheduling and coordination of those construction crews.”

In addition to its high caliber of professional personnel, RestoreMasters also deploys the industry’s latest technological innovations. “We use a ton of drones because a lot of structures are multi-storied and not safe to be on,” Iovieno relates.

“They’ve become as essential as having a ladder. We have some drones that have thermal imaging. You can fly over a building and see moisture underneath the system, down to the studs. Then there are several apps that track weather events. So, when you’re looking at a city, it will overlay the damage, so you can see what buildings are in that damage zone. Without that, it’s the blind leading the blind. So, it’s critical to the industry.”

Over the last three years, RestoreMasters has been expanding its national footprint. “I think we’ve grown 1500% since I’ve been a part of the company,” Iovieno shares. “We just moved our corporate headquarters down to Dallas; we were based in Oklahoma. We’ve grown our corporate leadership team by 300%. We’ve invested millions just to bring in top talent to run the different departments of our company. We’ve got 15 sales locations with about 300 commercial sales reps – probably one of the most robust sales forces in the industry. The growth is controlled but pretty aggressive.”

Somewhat counterintuitively, the company even prospered during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were not impacted by COVID,” Iovieno recounts. “Because of the nature of the industry, we got a pass to do our work because we were considered an essential service. And as far as the business, we had our biggest growth year the first year of COVID.”

Going forward, Iovieno says his focus will be on getting the company’s new residential program up and running, as well as promoting its nascent repair warranty division to that market. “It’s kind of like a service department and we’ve never done it before,” he reveals.

“Most commercial companies use maintenance contracts as a relationship and then when something happens, they’ve already got that relationship. We’re mimicking that within our model. The claims process in commercial can be anywhere from six to eighteen months to two years – it depends on the carrier. When you get into the residential, everything moves like lightning – the claims process goes from months to days or weeks. So, you really have to be organized to do residential on a nationwide scale. But, that’s going to be huge for us in the future.”

Since 2006, the core values of RestoreMasters have been: serve, sacrifice, and deliver. These values, no doubt, will continue to be worthy adversaries in the ongoing battles against the forces of wind, rain, and fire.