Paul Davis Restoration named CBJ’s 2024 Fastest Growing Company

For the owners of Paul Davis Restoration, their start was marked with baptism by fire – or, you could say, by wind and water.

The southwest Cedar Rapids franchise, located at 9915 Atlantic Dr., opened its doors for business in August 2020, coinciding with the derecho that ripped through Iowa, which left a path of destruction in its wake.

“There was a lot of work, but being a new company, we were not truly positioned to help as much as we could. We just didn't have the staffing and the equipment and the training and some of the experience under our belt yet,” said president and chief operating officer Scott Cornish.

That has since changed for the full-service company, which provides emergency mitigation and restoration services to homes and businesses affected by disasters, such as storm, fire and water damage.

In just two years, the company has grown by 278.29%, a factor they attribute to their level of customer service and quick response time. This rapid growth has earned them the title of 2024 Fastest Growing Company, awarded by the CBJ.

When a property owner reaches out, the company has a 15-20 minute time frame in which to reciprocate communication, and two to three hours to arrive on site and assess the damage. It’s a 24/7, 365-days-a-year job, Mr. Cornish said.

“A year ago on Christmas, we left at 7 a.m. due to the major freezes in Eastern Iowa and worked for about 20 days straight,” he said.

‘A one-stop shop’

The business operates on a three-pronged system – the first step is mitigation, the initial emergency response. Workers assess the damage to the property and take steps to stabilize the area.

Contents affected by the situation are then assessed to determine whether or not they are salvageable, which involves detailed documentation. Items are removed for cleaning and restoration, then returned when the property is rebuilt.

The final piece is reconstruction. Workers repair and replace damaged areas, whether that entails new drywall, flooring and roofing, or a full-scale bathroom and kitchen remodel. The company subcontracts projects that fall out of their purview, such as plumbing and electrical.

“I think one of the most valuable things we can offer a homeowner or an insurance adjuster is being a one-stop shop,” said director of marketing and HR Emily Cornish. “It makes it a lot easier for them. It's one call, it's one team working on the entirety of the project, and then our experience navigating insurance claims.”

“Insurance claims can be very complex, and most people don't have an emergency ever, or maybe once before, and it's been a long time ago,” added CEO Matt Banning. “So educating them how the process works and keeping them informed and navigating kind of the behind the scenes stuff is so important.”

The company employs in-house estimators and project managers that communicate regularly with insurance adjusters. It’s not unusual for thousands of photographs to be taken during the process in order to verify the work was completed in line with the estimate, said Mr. Cornish.

“It's a very slow process. And like I said, it can take days on mitigation, and it takes weeks and many, many months on reconstruction. A bad fire can be six to 12 months, depending on the severity,” he said.

To stay one step ahead of the competitors, Paul Davis Restoration employs the latest technology to help with assessments. A Matterport camera scans a room and offers accurate measurements and 3D capabilities, giving the user the ability to engage in a virtual walk-through while offering sketchable drawings.

“Those types of technologies really help speed up that process,” Mr. Banning noting that it's all accessible from tablets or smartphones.

Growing pains, but in a good way

The company’s explosive growth means the current 9,000-square-foot warehouse is no longer adequate, and the owners are searching for something twice the size to accommodate more vehicles, equipment and employees.

Where the current location first held two vehicles, it now accommodates 14 vans and trucks. The most recent purchase, a van, has a truck-mounted heavy water extractor that doubles as a power washer and steam cleaner. The team is already on the lookout for another truck that can pull its trailers, said Ms. Cornish.

Additionally, the business is up from three to 23 full-time employees and constantly onboarding more, said Ms. Cornish, and Mr. Cornish refers to this current phase as “growing pains.”

“It's been constant hiring, constant reinvestment in vehicles, equipment training, constant investment in building relationships with our subcontractor partners – and it's been fun. It's been an exciting ride, but it's been tiring to keep up with all of that growth,” he said, adding that the growing volume of work means extra project management and insurance claims.

“When we were small, we could all do everything. And now we're having to specialize more,” said Mr. Banning. “So just people to project manage, just people that (do estimates), just people that worry about our compliance. So we've really had to be more specialized,” he said.

Current focus on Corridor, possible new locations

With their headquarters in Cedar Rapids, the company’s coverage area extends an hour in each direction, in places such as Hills, Cascade, Marengo and Williamsburg.

“Because there isn't another Paul Davis in this general area, we can go farther. We're actually doing a house fire in Waterloo right now, and a house fire in Manchester right now,” said Mr. Cornish.

Requests for help outside the Corridor area aren't unusual, the owners said.

“We got a call for assistance in Davenport,” said Ms. Cornish. “It's kind of, what's our current workload look like? Do we have time to serve? Because obviously our priority is serving the Corridor. And then if we have the bandwidth to serve out of our Corridor area, then we will.”

Even if it becomes difficult to keep pace with a sudden major workload, like after a natural disaster, the franchise sends resources to help.

“Paul Davis encourages all of us to help each other. So I know a lot of Paul Davis are down in Houston right now,” Mr. Banning said referencing the severe storm that caused widespread damage to the Texas city on May 16.

“You can flex staff and equipment in other locations,” said Ms. Cornish. When multiple homes in the Corridor experienced burst pipes on Christmas in 2022, the franchise sent 12 technicians, a project manager, and a semi load of equipment.

“There’s no job too big for us, because we have other resources,” said Ms. Cornish.

Are there plans to open more Paul Davis Restorations in other parts of Iowa? Time will tell, the owners say.

“There is a need,” Mr. Cornish said, noting how the company has who said the company has received many requests for help from insurance carrier partners and property management companies. “They need someone like us to come into these other territories to help them, so it's something we're actively looking at.

“Our goal is to get really, really good in our current territory. We do not want to get overextended to where our quality drops here in the Corridor. So we need to make sure that we have enough staff and training and backup here, so that if we do decide to go to the Quad Cities or Des Moines or the Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Dubuque areas, that we are fully prepared for that,” he said.

“No growth can lead to the detriment of the service here on the Corridor,” said Ms. Cornish.

“Obviously with our sales growth, there's been plenty to do here. So there's a need, and that's priority number one,” added Mr. Banning.