A pack out is what happens when the contents of a room need to leave so the structure can be dried and repaired properly, or when the contents themselves need cleaning that cannot be done on site. It is a documented process rather than a removal van, and the documentation is most of the value, because contents claims are settled on inventory rather than on impressions.
The inventory comes first. Every item in the affected area is listed, photographed and assigned a condition, and items are separated into three groups: undamaged and simply in the way, damaged but restorable, and unsalvageable. That third list is the one your insurer needs, because a claim for damaged contents without an itemised inventory of damaged and contaminated items is very difficult to settle and easy to underpay.
Restorable items go off site for cleaning appropriate to the material and the water category. Hard goods are cleaned and sanitised. Textiles and soft goods go for laundering or specialist cleaning. Documents and photographs, if they are wet, need to be frozen quickly and vacuum freeze dried rather than air dried, because air drying a wet photograph destroys it. Electronics that were in the water are assessed rather than switched on.
Then storage, in a climate controlled facility, until the property is dry and repaired. Return is against the same inventory, item by item, so nothing is unaccounted for. Where clients prefer to use their own storage unit we work to that instead, though the climate control question matters for anything wooden or upholstered over a Northern Virginia summer.
Technician insight
Photograph the contents before you move anything, even if you are only shifting a sofa off wet carpet. The most common contents claim failure we see is not a dispute over value, it is an absence of any record that the item was in the affected room at all.
Content Pack Out Services Services We Offer
✓Emergency Contents Removal
Getting contents out of an active loss before secondary damage occurs.
✓Inventory and Claim Documentation
The itemised list of damaged and contaminated items that a contents claim is settled on.
✓Document and Photograph Recovery
Freezing and vacuum freeze drying for paper items, which cannot be air dried successfully.
✓Climate Controlled Storage
Secure storage during restoration, with humidity control that a standard storage unit does not provide.
How it works
- 1
Inventory
Every item listed, photographed and condition assessed before anything moves.
- 2
Sort
Undamaged, restorable and unsalvageable separated, with the third list documented for the claim.
- 3
Clean and store
Restorable items cleaned by material type, then stored in climate controlled conditions.
- 4
Return
Item by item return against the original inventory once the property is dry and repaired.