Water Damage is No Fish Tale on Nantucket

12/13/2015 (Permalink)

This photo shows the beautifully repaired restaurant after the water damage cleanup.

Water damage comes in many forms and while some damage occurs because of the old standard issues—a frozen pipe or plumbing issues—sometimes it comes from a less likely culprit.

I remember a water damage that occurred a few years ago at a popular Nantucket restaurant. A large tropical fish aquarium imploded—dumping 110 gallons of salt water into the dining room of the restaurant along with the beautiful tropical fish.

Fortunately, the restaurant was not open for business when the tank imploded so there were no customers injured in this incident. It was one of those popular restaurants…you know…the kind where you can’t get seated without a reservation and reservations need to be made well in advance. And the timing of this damage could not have been worse—just before the island’s annual Christmas stroll. Anyone who works or owns a business on the island knows that this particular holiday tradition is extremely important. Since most businesses shut down shortly after this weekend ward and remain closed until the spring, this holiday event is a business owner’s and his employees last chance to bring in some significant revenues before closing the doors and the books for the season. So it was critical that our crew was able to come in and get this job done as quickly as possible.

I don’t remember the number of fish that came floating out of the tank with the water—or if there were any fatalities among them—but I do remember that my crew was able to swoop in and make it "Like it never even happened" in less than three days.

While 110 gallons of water—along with the fish—sounds like a massive disaster that would cause significant damage, believe it or not the clean up from this incident was a bit easier than other standard water issues. Because the water damage occurred rather quickly and we were able to respond immediately, mold had not yet had a chance to form. We didn’t have to remove walls so there was minimal restoration work in that sense. After bringing in our equipment, cleaning up and drying out the restaurant, our client was able to open up in time to welcome guests for the Christmas stroll.

As a restoration company, we often respond to calls from business owners on Cape Cod and the Islands. Some jobs are more memorable than others and this one certainly falls into the category of memorable.