As a company that’s seen it all over the last 34 years—floods, leaks, and the occasional what- just-happened moment—we thought we’d experienced every type of water damage possible. Then came the day our team of expert carpenters were called in for something truly special: rain inside the house. Yes, you read that right. Water was literally dripping from the ceiling of a residential ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit, aka the fancy term for a detached guest house) like a bad day at an indoor water park.

Now, water damage? No problem. We deal with that all the time. We show up with dry-out equipment, ready to battle the forces of moisture. We’re pros at this. Usually, when we walk into a job like this, the game plan is simple: Cut out the damaged drywall, dry out the area, and start the restoration work as needed. But this job was different, this one had us… rained on. This is what happened, here in the Pacific Northwest we had about two weeks of overnight temps below freezing. The kind of weather that makes you want to curl up under a blanket and pretend you’re hibernating. But one brave homeowner ventured out to their unoccupied ADU to check on things. And what did they find? A bathroom frozen like a popsicle. The shower wouldn’t turn on, and, like any good homeowner, they decided to mess around with the shower valve, thinking they could fix it. Unfortunately, in a twist of fate worthy of a sitcom, they left the valve on and pointed to the hot water. 24 hours later, the homeowner comes back to check on the situation and—SURPRISE—walks into a scene that would make anyone cry. Water was dripping from the ceiling. The frozen pipes thawed, and the hot water started flowing like it was on a mission. It was all contained in the shower stall, but, oh, the humidity. The moisture from the constant showering turned the whole place into a tropical rainforest, and it was raining inside the ADU.

By the time the homeowner opened the door to the ADU, the water had been running for about 24 hours. And with that much moisture, the entire unit turned into an indoor waterfall. What started as a minor mistake, turned into a costly lesson in water management. Not only did the water bill skyrocket, but it was time for us to come to the rescue. Our team came in with multiple dehumidifiers and fans like a construction SWAT team, drying out the ADU as quickly as possible. Moisture readings were taken and we made sure to hit the soggy spots harder with equipment. The goal? To save the homeowner some money on repairs.

After a full 24 hours of fans and dehumidifiers running, we were able to prevent major damage to the drywall, flooring, and any other unlucky surfaces. Moral of the story – pipes freeze, mistakes happen, but quick thinking and a fast call to Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services turned a bad situation into a minor inconvenience. So, if you find yourself in a sticky or soggy situation give us a call, we are your team of professionals.

Until the next the episode of the Adventures of Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, be well and do good.

On many occasions we are called out to a residential project to perform a variety of projects that would fall under the category of handyman services. Several times a year, the replacement of the garage disposal is one of those “handyman” jobs that our crew addresses for a client. This was the recent situation with a repeat client of ours. We were asked to come in and replace a leaking toilet and while onsite the client pointed out that the garbage disposal was not working. When our carpenter removed the garbage disposal from under the sink, the disposal was beyond full of organic material. It looked like a full salad in the disposal.

Often times someone believes their appliance is capable of much more than it was ever designed for. We get it – life is busy, people are tired and the thought could be “I’ll just throw this in there; it’ll get chopped up, no problem”. Your professionals at Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services are here to tell you, your garbage disposal is not a salad spinner and your disposal is not a magic vortex that will transform your leftovers into dust. The garbage disposal is designed to breakdown small bits of food waste that wash off your dishes in order to go down the drain with ease.

When the garbage disposal is used beyond its design and capacity, several things happen:

1. The motor will burn up which causes
2. Overflow and flooding in the sink cabinet, and then
3. The sink backs up and strange smells will start wafting from the disposal.

Unfortunately, this is an expensive lesson to learn. With just a few things to keep in mind, the garbage disposal will work for years: don’t overload it, avoid hard or fibrous foods, only small pieces go down, run the water and give it a break when something seems not to be running correctly.

If you should find yourself in a situation like this recent client where the disposal was not working, give our team of professionals a call. At times, the existing disposal can be repaired or unclogged, but if not, then we can get a new disposal the same day and get your kitchen back to working in full order in no time.

Regardless – if you are looking to build a new house, remodel the existing kitchen, or just to get the garbage disposal working, we are your one stop construction company. Our team of highly skilled craftsmen can make your construction dreams a reality, but what we can’t do is make your garbage disposal a salad spinner. Until the next crazy story in the Adventures of Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, be well and do good.

We perform a wide variety of services for our commercial clients. One of our largest commercial accounts is a national bank with about a 150 sites around Western Washington. Our services for them range from any type of structural repair, maintenance of the facility, cosmetic upgrades, or anything else that the facility manager requests.

On occasion, a bank branch will ask for assistance in removing accumulated items from a basement or a storage room. These items no longer being used by the branch are to be donated (if possible), find a home for reuse or if needed dispose of properly. Our team performs this “clean-out” task several times a year and at many different branches. Most of the items are outdated equipment like old office furniture or outdate holiday decorations. However, every once in a while, we are asked to remove an old “day safe”. These are smaller, outdated safes about the size of a file cabinet and heavier than just about anything – four guys to move one around. The first time we were asked to remove a “day safe”, I decided to list it on Craigslist. It was old, but in good shape and it came with keys. To my total surprise there was an overwhelming response to the listing for the safe! I guess everyone could use a safe to lock up small valuable items. I somewhat had this right, everyone could use a safe, but it was a very specific group of individuals that were looking to acquire the “day safe” that I had listed. The time in history was early 2013 and here in Washington State in 2012 marijuana had just become legal to consume and sell. It was owners of “Pot Shops” that were in need of a (very reasonably priced) “day safe”. Little did I know that marijuana was legal in the state, but federally it was still illegal, therefore banks would not accept the money/cash produced from the purchase and sale of marijuana. Pot Shop owners were looking for safes for their establishments in which to keep the daily profits. How ironic, a bank would not do business with a Pot Shop, but an old “day safe” from a bank was now going to a Pot Shop for the safe keeping of the cash.

Your commercial facility may not be a nationwide bank that needs help clearing out storage areas, or you may not be the local Pot Shop that needs a “day safe”, but whatever your facility is, we are here to help you maintain your property. New builds, tenant improvement, re-branding, general maintenance – whatever your need, our team of highly skilled professionals are here to help.

Let us know how we can be of service to you. Until the next crazy story in the Adventures at Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, be well and do good.

Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services recognizes that our clients are not the only ones impacted by our work. Many times a neighboring property is also impacted. Sometimes on a residential project, we will ask permission to place a ladder in the neighbor’s yard in order to access the side elevation of the home we are working on. When working in commercial spaces, often times there are other tenants above or below the area of work and our team of professional carpenters and painters work very hard to be a “good neighbor” on all of our projects.

Before starting work, we will request that our client to communicate to the neighbors that we will be performing work and a general idea of the work. Before our team starts a job, the foreman will meet with the neighboring properties, introduce themself and hand off their business card in the event there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Clear lines of communication are established so that as our team is working the neighbors are informed and kept up to date when our work will impact them. However, no matter how much work and communication is done ahead of time, you can always count on the unexpected to happen.

Our crews were on a residential job site in Seattle, working on an end-unit townhome for the private owner. Before work began, our client and job foreman both contacted the unit owner as well as the tenant to inform them of our work and what we would be doing. At no point would we be in the neighbor’s yard, but the tenant would be able to see what our crew was doing from her living room window. At the beginning of each day, our job foreman would check in with the tenant in the neighboring unit to see if she had any concerns with the work our team was performing on the exterior of the townhome right next to hers. Every day, the tenant would state that it looked like things were going well and she appreciated our teams efforts to minimize noise and to keep her informed. You can image how surprised our crew was when 4 or 5 days after they started working on the exterior of this townhome the police showed up!

The police indicated that “a neighbor” called to file a complaint of someone working on the exterior of her home without her permission. With only one neighbor on this project as our client was the end unit, our job foreman went back over to the neighboring unit to ask the tenant if everything was ok. The tenant indicated that everything was going well and that she was enjoying watching the progress on her neighbors unit. All in all it appeared that there were no issues. The job foreman asked the tenant if she had called the police regarding our workers. The tenant answered, “No”. Strange. The team continued to perform the rot repairs on the exterior of the townhome for which we were hired.

A second time the police showed up and could see that our team was clearly working in the yard and on the house of our client. We assumed the police spoke with the neighboring tenant to ensure there wasn’t an issue and to let her know that she should not be calling the police unless there is an emergency. This was certainly a strange occurrence for our team of professionals as there was not an issue to resolve on our end.

Needless to say, after the second visit the police no longer showed up to the job site and our foreman kept in daily communication with the neighboring tenant to ensure all was well. Now we know the police will no longer show up in Seattle for complaints of tradesmen lawfully performing work on the neighbor’s (our client’s) property.

All of us here at Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services do whatever we can to take the headache out of your construction project, however we can’t control the neighbor’s need to call the police. Until the next crazy story in the Adventures at Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, be well and do good.

At Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, we’ve encountered all sorts of funny, strange, and downright unexpected situations over the past 33 years. While we never go looking for unusual experiences, offering painting and construction services in Seattle for decades naturally brings a few stories worth sharing. From curious job site surprises to fascinating encounters at the local transfer station, our team has seen it all.

One of the more interesting tasks we handle regularly is disposing of job site debris at Seattle-area transfer stations. Every visit seems to come with its own story—whether it’s about someone not following the rules, an odd item being thrown away, or just something unusual happening. Typically, one of our key employees handles these “dump runs” since he’s equipped with the truck and trailer to get the job done. He usually goes first thing in the morning when the transfer station opens, drops off the debris, then heads back to our office to pick up new supplies or assignments for the day.

But one morning, things took an unexpected turn.

A couple of years ago, one of our employees headed to the transfer station as usual, planning to dump his load and then return to pick up materials for a job site. Hours passed and I realized he hadn’t returned yet. This was unusual. I gave him a quick call—no answer. So, I sent a text asking, “Everything OK?” He replied after a short delay with, “Yep, I’ll be a few more minutes.” Not thinking much of it, I carried on with my day.

Another hour passed, and still, no sign of him. I texted again but received no response. Concerned but not alarmed, I checked with the job foreman to see if maybe he had gone directly to the site. But no, no one had seen or heard from him.

At this point, I started to worry—did the truck break down? Was there an accident? Just as I was about to dig deeper, our employee finally showed up. Both he and the truck were in good shape, so naturally, I asked what had caused the delay.

It turns out that our employee arrived at the transfer station just in time to witness an unusual event: a memorial service. The previous week, a gentleman had suffered a heart attack while dumping debris at the station and tragically passed away after falling into the trash pit. The man was of the Buddhist faith, and on that particular morning, there was a ceremony to honor his spirit’s transition to the afterlife.

The transfer station had agreed to a brief service, but it ended up being a longer process. In a show of respect, our employee stepped out of his truck and stood silently through the ceremony. Not being of the Buddhist faith himself, he wasn’t sure what to do but chose to honor the moment with quiet reflection.

This was a first for any of us at Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services—attending a memorial service at a transfer station or witnessing a Buddhist ceremony. Although the unexpected two-hour delay was puzzling at first, I couldn’t have been prouder of our team. Our employees aren’t just skilled craftsmen who take pride in their work; they’re individuals with integrity who are willing to pause and honor life’s important moments, even when it involves someone they’ve never met or a belief system they don’t personally follow.

At Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, we believe every day brings something new. As we continue to serve Seattle and the surrounding areas, we embrace these unexpected experiences, always striving to deliver the highest quality service with professionalism and heart.

Until the next story from our adventures, be well and do good.