Total Contentz Disaster Restoration Site

'We put lives back together'
Arrigo Construction leads in restoration of damaged property
By STEVE HENSON THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Have you ever wondered ...?
After "Dexter" investigates a bloody crime scene, or the "Law and Order" boys find a body that's been decaying for a week, or after local police bust and close a meth lab, who cleans up the mess?Or does someone clean it up or simply bulldoze it?"In my 30 years, there have only been a couple of times that we haven't been able to restore things," said Joe Arrigo of Arrigo Construction and Restoration.

Arrigo is one of the nation's foremost experts in property restoration. Homicide, floods, fires, mold and disease are just a few of the hazards that Arrigo and his crew make go away. "We put people's lives back together," Arrigo said. "That's really what we do."Arrigo is 66, raised in an era that was not dominated by very graphic television crime dramas. How did he get into this field? By accident. Arrigo is a musician, a cellist - he helped revitalize and still plays with the Pueblo Symphony- and went to the University of Colorado, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in music education. He was hired to teach in Pueblo School District 60; he taught three years. He also taught private music lessons for many years, and even owned the Arrigo Music Store in Regency Park for several years. "I loved it, but I couldn't make a living," Arrigo said. "It was the late ’70s, when we had a recession, and people were lined up to buy gasoline. I was selling instruments to schools, but budgets were cut, and I was struggling. "But on the side, Arrigo was doing some cabinet-making and stairway construction. And that business was going well."When I was at CU, I worked in dorm maintenance," Arrigo explained when asked how he obtained these skills. "CU is like a miniature city, and it takes a lot to keep it going. So it was like I was an assistant every day, learning from people who knew what they were doing. And I picked it up."He had previous experience, helping build his parents' eventual Westcliffe retirement cabin while he was a boy.

The skills he gained then were augmented during his time at CU.He did more and more construction-type work away from the music store, then closed it in late 1979.He had formed his construction business the previous year, but he wanted to create a niche."I had built a couple of homes, but that really isn't what I wanted to do," Arrigo said. "I got more and more into repairs of damages caused by all sorts of things- fire, mold, water, broken water heaters, dishwashers over-heating. There was a need for someone to work in these areas, so I got some highly specialized training, studied hard and that's what I did."He and his son, Andy, who works in the business, are nationally certified restorers.

There are only about 500 in the world, and as you read on, you'll see how sophisticated the business is. "It starts with odor," he said. "Humans have amazing memories. You can remember odors from your childhood."It's difficult to get rid of odors, but it's also very difficult for people to return to their homes after damages and not smell the odors they've spent their lives around."Put another way, it takes very technical measures to eliminate bad odors and yet retain the good fragrances that are familiar to homeowners.Trauma scenes - shootings, stabbings, bodies discovered several days after death- leave terrible odors."Those are very difficult for our employees," he said. "Those odors stay with you for life."How do Arrigo and his crew remove odors and repair damaged property?Here's how:"We are a complete turnkey operation. We pack up all of the belongings and store them. We send clothes to a dry cleaner and laundry- there are special dry cleaners for clothes that have incurred especially nasty odors such as in a meth lab or a fire."We clean, seal and paint all porous and semi-porous surfaces. We take up all porous surfaces- carpet, for example - and haul it to special hazardous-waste sites for disposal."Then we thoroughly clean the contents that can be cleaned, do any structural repairs that are needed, and return the contents and the occupants to the house. As you might suspect, Arrigo's equipment is far more than spray bottles of Lysol."For example, our HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) scrubbing machines will filter out up to 99.97 percent of all particulates down to 0.3 microns. A human hair is about 60 microns."We use charcoal filters, and we've been doing some cleaning and sanitizing for swine flu."The machines cost up to $3,000 each, and Arrigo said he owns "quite a few." There is quite a bit of other equipment, too, including thermal-imaging cameras.It isn't inexpensive for a homeowner - more typically, the homeowner's insurer, who sets the repair costs- to hire Arrigo to restore a property. But it's less expensive than tearing it down and starting from scratch. And Arrigo's equipment and labor costs- and his staff is highly educated and trained - are considerable. But it's not just about money, Arrigo said. He emphasized that he and his staff take a lot of pride in supporting the Pueblo community.

"We were over at the District 60 ad building seven days a week, 20 straight days, and I didn't hear a single complaint from my staff, "Arrigosaid. His company employs about 12 workers, down a bit from 20 before the economy went south.Arrigo offered two more examples that illustrate why he wants to support the community that he regards as "a great place to live".

"A tiny adobe house in Salt Creek damaged by fire. "We just restored this house in Salt Creek. Everybody wanted to tear it down. It was adobe, not very large, had been added on to three times."But the people living there were the third generation of people who lived in that home. I had coffee with the owners. And I felt that we needed to fix this home for them. And we did. And it felt good."Arrigo said his business has grown increasingly sophisticated, and there is a constant need for training. But now Arrigo is the teacher more often than he is the student.As one of fewer than 300 nationally certified water-loss specialists in the U.S., Canada and England, Arrigo has served on national boards and "chaired the building science committee that wrote the standards for water loss, water mitigation.

"With all of his emphasis on safety, which is paramount in his business, even Arrigo has experienced unexpected health issues from carelessness."Once, I went into a room just to shut off some machines and had a run-in with ozone," he said. "I had asthma-like symptoms for six months. "Another time, I opened a closet at the old Dincler's Fabrics at the Mesa Junction, all this stuff hit me in the face. I went to the eye doctor, and he put me on antibiotics that I had to put in my eyes every 15 minutes. Whatever the stuff was, it literally was eating my eyeballs.

"He looks a lot younger than his age and, although he enjoys traveling and his family- he and his wife KC have five children and 13 grandchildren between them - he has no intention of retiring. For one thing, he enjoys working with his son. For another, he still loves the work after 30 years."My dad was a barber; I shined shoes at his store, mostly so he could keep track of me," Arrigo said. "We lived right across from the main gate at the steel mill. I graduated from Central, my parents graduated from Central, my kids graduated from Central. I love Pueblo, and I love being able to specialize. It's a fascinating career."