Insurers and restoration professionals make up the bulk of the students in these classes and both sides walk away with an appreciation in the advanced techniques being taught.

ASD programs such as Dewald's start off by debunking the many myths and junk science that have been so prevalent in the restoration industry for years. As Chuck Dewald recently said in one of his classes " the average technician makes the determination on the amount of equipment to install in a flood damaged building based upon the amount of equipment inside his truck.

After a day or two of reeducating the students there is a course in basic psychometrics to introduce real scientific principals to technicians that probably have not sat in a science class since high school. The science section is accented by applying the principals taught in the classroom with hands on experience in the laboratory which is a specially constructed flood house.

The flood house is outfitted with scores of temperature and humidity monitors to actually see how fast a group of students can dry our a flooded structure.

I personally was so impressed with Dewald's program that I asked my company to permanently loan him over $50,000 of drying equipment for his students to use.

A property owner should not even consider hiring a company with no credentials in this day and age. improper training can mean thousands of dollars in savings not to mention a healthy and mold free environment at the end of a project.

Chuck Pennington is President of Statewide Restoration, a New York based as well as the developer of the Aquadry system of drying equipment. His website is aquadry.org.