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Fire & Water - Cleanup & Restoration

What Makes One Water Restoration Company Stand Out Among the Many Offering Services in San Jose?

12/22/2020 (Permalink)

San Jose If your property requires any level of water removal or restoration, you need experienced technicians. Call SERVPRO.

Emphasis on Employing Evolving Research-Based Strategies Underlies the Confidence San Jose Residents When Choosing SERVPRO Over Other San Jose Water Restoration Companies

Would it amaze you to know that long before computing and tech companies became paramount in San Jose and Silicon Valley, many other lifestyles and industries reigned supreme? A little thought makes that reality obvious, as modern electronics and software are clearly a late 20th-century development. Like many other places in the country, our city and region have worn different hats and personas over the years. Check out the following interesting facts about San Jose, and appreciate the strengths, skills, and flexibility of those who preceded current residents. It is no wonder that San Jose prides itself on openness to endless innovation.

Who Are the Muwekma Ohlone People?

Before Spanish contact, the land now known as San Jose was the hunting, fishing, and living space for the indigenous peoples known as the Muwekma Ohlone. Also called the Tamyen people, these groups were a hunter-gatherer society. The language these individuals spoke is also called Tamyen, or sometimes Tamien or Santa Clara Costanoan. San Jose's Coyote Creek was the location of sewerage villages of indigenous people who spoke these languages. After the arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1769, many changes occurred:

  • Missions built along the coast had the goal of Christianizing the Ohlone.
  • The number of indigenous people rapidly dropped to about 10 percent of their pre-contact numbers.
  • Many say the Ohlone became a "hidden" minority, indistinguishable from the Latino community to non-Hispanic settlers moving in during the 1800s.
  • An agrarian society supplanted the hunter-gatherer life, with many Ohlone toiling in the fields described in the next section.
  • Isabel Meadows, the last fluent speaker of Rumsien, an Ohlone language, died in 1939.

What Industry Thrived After Colonization for More than 150 Years in San Jose?

The Spanish colony of Nueva California, afterward known as Alt California, had a consuming need for agricultural products. El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe produced the food required. Enticed by a $10 monthly stipend, settlers also received farm animals, implements, and seeds, and grew the colony's food. Later, the San Jose area produced food for military installations in San Francisco and Monterey. Canning and drying proliferated after 1871, resulting in a boom of 10 canneries and 13 dried-fruit packing facilities into the 1920s and 1930s. A dozen fresh fruit and vegetable businesses also shipped produce immediately out of the fields. Del Monte's "Fruit Cocktail," debuting in 1938, was developed originally by Herbert Gray of San Jose's Barron-Gray Packing Company. Fruits and vegetables grown in quantity in San Jose included:

  • Plums (especially dried as prunes)
  • Grapes (raisins)
  • Apricots
  • Pears
  • Peaches
  • Broccoli 

What Type of Mining Was Prominent in the San Jose Area?

The Ohlone knew of cinnabar's presence, a mercury-bearing rock in deposits about 12 miles south of modern San Jose. When the Spanish recognized the ore as a mercury or "quicksilver" source, mining began in earnest in the mid-1840s at New Almaden Mine. Preceding the Gold Rush by just a few years, mercury mining was essential as the element can extract gold from ore. Mining at New Almaden produced $70,000,000 worth of mercury, more than any California gold stake. Cornish, Mexican, and Chinese mining families were instrumental in the success of the mines. The discovery of the cyanide gold extraction process in 1887 contributed to the eventual bankruptcy and closing of the mercury mines by 1912.

What Other Roles Did San Jose Serve in the 1800s?

San Jose was California's first major urban area. During the Gold Rush years, San Jose was a supply staging area and produced the critical mercury for gold extraction. The city also stood as the state capital from 1849 to 1852. After California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850, San Jose was the site of the initial and second sessions of the California Legislature in 1850 and 1851.

What Drives San Jose Today?

Naming itself the Capital of Silicon Valley as part of a 1988 publicity campaign, San Jose continues to look forward to further innovations. Now the headquarters of a proliferation of thousands of tech companies, the city is the third most populous in California after Los Angeles and San Diego. Companies that call San Jose home include among many others:

  • IBM
  • eBay
  • Cisco Systems
  • Adobe Systems.

Why Should You Choose an Innovative San Jose Water Restoration Company?

Just like any other San Jose industry, water restoration companies can leverage innovations to improve outcomes. We are diligent in obtaining the most up-to-date training and certification for our workforce. Our investment in evolving and enhancing water damage mitigation, remediation, restoration, and drying equipment supports our well-prepared managers and technicians. Advances in technologies and the methodologies available to water restoration professionals hasten the process and encourage success.

What Is SERVPRO's Water Restoration Standard Training for Extraction, Cleaning, and Drying Specialists?

SERVPRO promotes the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) for our managers and technicians. The IICRC is an international standards-setting and education organization promoting research-based interventions for the most efficacious results. Although new approaches offer better outcomes, the continuing focus is on restorative principles that limit disruption and save time and money. 

How Do Water Restoration Equipment Advances Enhance the Chance of SERVPRO Resolving a Water Loss?

Our promise to customers remains to make a disaster "Like it never even happened." Assisting us in this quest are improvements in water extraction, structural drying, and odor control, such as:

  • Truck-mounted and portable high-efficiency extractors
  • Adaptable negative and positive pressure systems such as Injectidry that permit moisture removal from layered materials and building cavities plus targeted drying technology
  • Evolution of different types of dehumidifiers and a knowledge base that suggests the appropriate equipment for varying conditions
  • Odor elimination technology that goes beyond masking to chemical changes in odor-bearing molecules
    • Ozone machines
    • Hydroxyl generators
    • Enzyme products and equipment for organic-based stain and smells



Seek water restoration companies that value and incorporate improving and evolving best practices like SERVPRO of NE San Jose. Call us at (408) 834-7663 to learn how we can earn your confidence.

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