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Water damage, fire damage, mold, sewage, and biohazard cleanup are decisions people make under pressure, often in the middle of the worst day of their year. The wrong information costs money, ruins a home, or puts a family at risk.

We publish about restoration because we do it every day across Chicago and the suburbs. This page explains how we make sure what we publish is worth trusting: who writes it, who reviews it, what sources we cite, how often we update, and how we handle mistakes.

Who writes for us

Every article on this site is written or reviewed by someone who has done the work in the field, not just researched it online.

Our lead author is Diana Rodriguez-Zaba, president of ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba. Diana founded the company in 2008 with her husband Neil. She holds IICRC certifications in both water and fire damage restoration, has 15+ years of hands-on restoration experience, sits on the Forbes Chicago Business Council, and is an alumna of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.

Contributing reviewers are members of our operations team who hold the specific IICRC certifications relevant to each topic:

  • Water and flood articles are reviewed by a crew member who holds IICRC WRT (Water Damage Restoration Technician) and, where applicable, ASD (Applied Structural Drying).
  • Mold articles are reviewed by a crew member who holds IICRC AMRT (Applied Microbial Remediation Technician).
  • Fire and smoke articles are reviewed by a crew member who holds IICRC FSRT (Fire and Smoke Restoration Technician) and OCT (Odor Control Technician).
  • Sewage and biohazard articles are reviewed by a crew member who holds IICRC WRT with Category 3 water experience plus applicable trauma/crime scene cleanup training.
  • Content and contents-cleaning articles are reviewed by a crew member who holds IICRC CCT (Carpet Cleaning Technician), HST (House Cleaning Technician), or UFT (Upholstery and Fabric Cleaning Technician).

 

Our full leadership and field team is listed at About Us > Meet Our Leadership.

How we research and source information

We write from three sources, in this order of priority:

1 Firsthand fieldwork. What we see on Chicago jobs every week. When we describe how a certain type of damage progresses, what a piece of equipment does, how long a step takes, or what a homeowner should expect, we are describing work we have done.

2. IICRC standards and industry consensus documents. We reference the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) standards throughout our content. The two we cite most often:

  • ANSI/IICRC S500 — Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration
  • ANSI/IICRC S520 — Standard for Professional Mold Remediation
  • Additional standards we reference where relevant: S540 (trauma and crime scene cleanup), S700 (professional fire and smoke damage restoration), S800 (professional inspection, cleaning, and restoration of HVAC systems).

3. Government and public-health sources. We link to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Chicago Department of Public Health for anything involving health guidance, weather data, or building code.

We do not link to competitors’ marketing pages as “sources.”

We do not cite AI-generated content, aggregator blog posts, or articles that themselves cite no primary source.

When we use AI

We use AI tools to help with research, outlining, and grammar. We do not publish AI-generated articles as-is, and we do not use AI to invent statistics, case studies, or professional advice.

Every published article is:

  • Outlined and edited by a human author on our team
  • Fact-checked against IICRC standards and our own project history
  • Reviewed by the subject-matter reviewer named above
  • Read one more time by Diana before it goes live

 

We do not use AI to generate images. Photos on service pages, project case studies, and team pages are real photos of our crews and our work.

How often we update

We update articles when any of the following happens:

  • An IICRC standard changes
  • A federal, state, or Chicago-area regulation changes
  • We finish a job that materially changes what we would recommend
  • A reader flags an error or omission
  • Twelve months pass, whichever comes first

 

The “Last Updated” date at the top of every article is the true last review date, not an automated timestamp. Older dates mean the article was reviewed and left unchanged because the guidance still holds.

What we mean by “case study”

When we tell a story about a specific job on our service pages, project pages, or blog posts, we are describing real work our crews performed. Locations named at the neighborhood level (Lincoln Square, North Center, Streeterville, Old Town, Lincoln Park, Albany Park, Wauconda, Norwood Park, Glenview, and others) are real. Photos on our Projects page are photos our crews took on those jobs.

To protect our customers’ privacy, we do not publish street addresses, unit numbers, homeowner names, or images that identify a specific person or property without permission.

How we handle advertising and affiliate content

We do not run display advertising on our editorial content.

We do not accept payment to review, mention, or recommend products, services, restoration companies, or contractors.

Where we mention a specific product category (a certain type of dehumidifier, a specific meter, a particular cleaning solvent), we are describing what our crews actually use in the field. We do not receive commission on any product mention.

Our financing partner is GreenSky. We disclose this on our Financing page. We do not receive undisclosed referral fees from insurance carriers, adjusters, or contractors.

Corrections policy

If something we publish is wrong, we fix it.

If you find an error, email us at editorial@restoresvm.com or call (773) 647-1985 and ask for the marketing team. Please include the article URL and what you believe is incorrect.

Our response commitment:

  • We acknowledge every correction request within one business day.
  • We investigate factual disputes with the reviewer named on the article and, where warranted, with an outside IICRC-certified professional.
  • If a correction is warranted, we publish the correction, update the article, refresh the “Last Updated” date, and note the correction in the article footer.
  • We do not silently edit substantive changes. Typos and grammar are corrected without a note; factual changes are always disclosed.

Our commitment

We are a family-owned, woman-owned, and minority-owned business (WBENC-certified) that has been restoring Chicago homes and businesses since 2008.

Our reputation in this community is the only reason we still exist. Every article we publish carries our name and our license number, and we treat that the same way we treat a job in a customer’s home: we do it right, we stand behind it, and we fix it if we get it wrong.

Questions

Editorial questions: editorial@restoresvm.com

Restoration emergencies: (773) 647-1985 — 24/7, 60 to 90 minute response across Chicago and the suburbs

All other inquiries: Contact Us