Not Placing Enough Airmovers Is Hurting Your Business. Here’s Why

Can missing one air mover really hurt your business? 

At first thought, it might seem like forgetting to place one air mover on a job isn’t that big of a deal. But if  that keeps happening across every job your team completes over a month or a year, the numbers start to tell a different story. If your restoration company is consistently undercharging because your technicians are not installing enough air movers, that is a profit leak you cannot afford to ignore.

This article explains the importance of calculating airmovers correctly for the business’s profitability, and why not following the ANSI S500 Standard can turn into a big revenue problem.

How Much Profit Are You Losing By Placing Too Few Air Movers?

Maybe your company has slightly different rates, but for argument’s sake, let’s say your daily rate per air mover is $30. If your average drying job runs for four days, then one missed airmover equals $120 in lost revenue per job.

Now imagine this happening on 20 jobs. That adds up to $2,400 of pure profit that your business never billed. If you miss three airmovers on each job across 100 jobs, that number becomes $36,000.

To put it another way: if you’re missing airmovers on just a fraction of your jobs, you are shredding thousands of dollars every year, and doing so with equipment you already paid for.

Am I really messing up my airmover calculations, you may ask?

Many Techs Place 20–30% Fewer Air Movers Than the Job Requires

Based on years of experience in this industry, as well as honest conversations with other restorers, we’d venture to guess that 20-30% of airmovers are not utilized that SHOULD have been placed on every job. One of the main reasons for this is that restorers are not using the IICRC S500 Standard to calculate how many airmovers are needed for the job.

Let’s take as an example a job, that according to the S500 Standard air mover calculation, totalled a placement of 10 airmovers. Chances are that only 7-8 airmovers were placed, which means 2-3 air movers were not used. 

If we calculate 3 airmovers missed from 20 jobs that needed three days to dry ($120 airmovers x 3 x 20) that’s a whopping $7,200 in revenue lost. What if it was 100 jobs? Well, that’s $36,000 that we’re missing!

How Long Does It Take to Recover This Missed Profit

Now here’s the real question: how much work would it take to earn that money back? 

If we treat that missed $36,000 as 100% profit lost, then the only way to recover it is through new work. And how much work you need depends on your net profit margin, or what your company keeps after expenses are paid.

Let’s say your net profit is 20%. To make back that $36,000, you would need to generate $180,000 in additional revenue. Or, if your net profit is 10%, then you would need to bring in $360,000 just to break even on what you lost by not placing those airmovers.

That is hundreds of hours of labor, extra fuel, and additional equipment wear and tear, all to make up for money that could have already been in your account if the right number of airmovers had been placed in the first place. 

Certainly, it takes some extra time to do an accurate airmover calculation according to the S500 Standard. But it takes far longer to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue just to cover what was missed by not following it. We talk about this and about other profitable activities that are commonly overlooked in restoration in our Estimating and Negotiating class.

Instead of leaving money at the table, a better approach is to make proper calculations part of your setup checklist and reinforce it through training and by incentivizing airmover calculations.

You can print this airmover exercise for each technician and use it to guide them through the process on your next team meeting.

The Importance of Following The S500 Standard

At the end of the day, following the IICRC S500 standard isn’t just about billing accurately. It also helps your team complete jobs more efficiently and justify their work without unnecessary friction with adjusters. 

These other benefits may not be as easy to measure as lost revenue, but they matter just as much.

Improving Your Drying Time and Efficiency

The Standard explains the best drying practices. When your team doesn’t use enough air movers, the drying process will take longer to finish. 

Jobs that could be finished in three days, get finished in five. Air movers and equipment stay on-site longer than it should, and your team spends more time checking progress instead of moving on to the next job. That kind of delay adds up and slows down your entire schedule, reducing the total number of jobs you can take on in a week. 

Stronger Estimates That Hold Up Under Scrutiny

When your estimate matches the drying standard, it’s easier to explain exactly what was done and why it was necessary to do it according to the standard. If an adjuster questions your equipment charges, you can tell them that the number of air movers was calculated based on the conditions of the job, using the S500 formula. You should also document everything and avoid adding fluff into your estimate.

Without that foundation, you’re more likely to face delays, back-and-forth emails, or adjustments to your invoice. Even if the work was done correctly, missing that calculation makes it harder to defend.