SteamMaster Restoration & Cleaning Pulls a Bank Job

MINTURN, COLORADO – NOVEMBER 25, 2008 -- SteamMaster Restoration and Cleaning LLC professionals, including COO Adem Brooks, recently traveled to Galveston, Texas to assist in clean-up efforts after Hurricane Ike.  SteamMaster was entrusted with an important mold remediation project for Bank of America. Moldy money soaked by flood waters was emptied from bank vaults and the mold contaminates safely remediated.

  “We’ve joked around the office about money laundering and the ‘Big Bank Job,’” says Raj Manickam, SteamMaster’s CEO.  “But it is a serious, big deal for us to be involved.”

  Brooks went to Galveston for the first phase of the project which involved cleaning the main vault and smaller teller vaults for two Bank of America locations.  “In the hardest hit of the two locations we visited there was debris lining the streets and the area was empty,” He said. “We stayed outside of Galveston at the nearest hotel that could accommodate us.”  The few open hotels in Galveston were needed for displaced residents.

  Versar, a consulting, project management company specializing in classified and hazardous projects, requested SteamMaster’s involvement after Colorado CIH referred and recommended SteamMaster for the project.  “Versar was extremely pleased with the work done on the first phase, so they requested we return for the second phase,” says Brooks.  Phase two involved mold remediation at the bank processing center located in northwest Houston.

  Part of the process involved setting up a large containment area around the vaults.  Airscrubbers and a HEPA filtered negative air system were installed to safely remove contaminates and dry the vaults.  Security regulations required Plexiglas windows to be installed in the barrier surrounding the vaults so that bank employees could watch the proceedings.  A downdraft table, set up in the containment chamber was connected to a 2500 cfm air scrubber and used to capture mold spores and contaminates into a HEPA filtration system located just outside the main bank vault.    The money was safely contained in clear plastic bags which bank employees passed on to Loomis drivers.  The money was then sent to the U.S. Treasury to be destroyed.