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A Mitigation Tech's Manual

The damage you catch in the first hour is the damage that never gets expensive.

For 31 years I was the guy insurance companies sent out first — before the adjuster, before the contractor — to stop a bad night from becoming a bad year. Sixty-two of those field fixes are in this book, water to fire to storm to freeze, plus what actually happens on the other side of a claim.

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31 years on the job 62 numbered fixes 8 disaster categories 30-day refund
Cover of Frank's Field Guide to Home Disasters Field verified
31 yrs on call
What nobody tells you

Most disasters don't cost you in the moment. They cost you in the hours after, when nobody's paying attention.

A burst pipe isn't the expensive part. The three days it sits undried before somebody notices the wall's still wet — that's the expensive part. A small kitchen fire isn't the disaster. The smoke residue nobody wiped down before it etched into the fridge and the cabinet hardware — that's the disaster.

Nobody teaches you this. There's no class. You learn it by living through it once, badly, or by knowing somebody who already has.

I spent 31 years arriving at that exact gap, house after house, for every kind of damage this country throws at a home. The difference between a $300 fix and a $30,000 one was almost never the disaster itself. It was what the homeowner did, or didn't do, in the first hour.

This book is everything I'd tell you to do in that hour — and everything I watched insurance claims get quietly won or lost on afterward.

Read the math

Add it up for yourself.

Here's what one bad night, handled wrong, actually costs. These are the numbers I watched pile up over and over — not because the damage was unusual, but because nobody knew what to do in the first hour.

Emergency Response Log No. 0031
Unmanaged home disaster · estimated cost
Mold remediation from an undried leakA leak dried in 48 hours vs. one left for a week.$3,000–10,000
Emergency after-hours plumber or rooferVs. a planned repair once the risk is stopped.$400–900
Underpaid insurance claimFrom missed documentation or a rushed first call.$1,000–5,000
Smoke or soot damage left too longEtched metal, ruined electronics, a smell that lingers.$500–3,000
A frozen pipe that burst instead of thawedCaught in the first hour vs. found after the flood.$1,500–6,000
What one bad year can cost ≈ $6,400–24,900
Every disaster
you're ready for
Frank's Field Guide — one time, yours forever $6,400+   $37

I'd reckon that's somewhere around six thousand dollars for one bad night handled wrong — and it's not a once-a-lifetime number, because disasters don't check your calendar. The book is a one-time thirty-seven dollars, good for every disaster after this one.

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The Field Guide

One book. Sixty-two fixes.
The knowledge it took 31 years to gather.

Water · Fire & Electrical · Storm & Roof · Freeze & Winter · Mold & Air · The First 24 Hours · The Claims Process · Prevention
What's inside

Eight sections. Sixty-two numbered fixes.

Each one written the way I'd put it on the back of a work order for the next tech — what to do, what it costs, and when to stop and call somebody.

Section I

Water

  • The first hour after a burst pipe
  • How to tell if water already got into the wall
  • The small leak that turns into a $10,000 problem
Section II

Fire & Electrical

  • Why smoke damages more than the fire itself
  • What's actually salvageable after a fire
  • The electrical warning signs before it starts
Section III

Storm & Roof

  • The emergency tarp: covering a roof breach tonight
  • Hail damage you can't see from the ground
  • The attic check that catches a leak weeks early
Section IV

Freeze & Winter

  • Thawing a frozen pipe without bursting it
  • Why pipes burst days after the cold snap, not during it
  • The ice dam forcing water under your shingles
Section V

Mold & Air

  • The 48-hour window before mold takes hold
  • Building your own professional-grade drying station
  • Surface mold vs. the kind that's in your walls
Section VI

The First 24 Hours

  • A decision order that applies to any disaster
  • Photographing damage the right way
  • The $50 emergency kit you build before you need it
Section VII

What the Adjuster Won't Tell You

  • How a claim actually gets valued
  • The measurement errors that cost you money
  • Why you might not want to file a claim at all
Section VIII

Prevention & Gus's Rules

  • The pre-storm and pre-winter walkthroughs
  • The home inventory that makes any claim easier
  • Gus's Ten Rules — the whole trade in one page

Illustrated ebook · 111 pages · Instant PDF download · Reads on phone, tablet or computer

The offer

Everything, for less than one avoided service call.

What you get for $37
Frank's Field Guide to Home Disasters111-page illustrated ebook · 62 numbered fixes · instant PDF$47
The First 24 Hours ChecklistPrintable, room-tested decision order for any disaster$19
The Claim LedgerPrintable sheet to document a claim from minute one$19
Restoration Company Vetting GuideWhat to check before you ever need to call one$14
Lifetime updatesEvery future edition and every fix I add — no extra charge$21
Total value$120
Pay once
yours forever
You pay today $37
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Frank, from the cover of the Field Guide
A word from Frank
“This isn't about being handy. It's about knowing what to do in the one hour that decides whether tonight costs you three hundred dollars or thirty thousand. Nobody ever showed most people that hour. I'm just the guy who spent three decades standing in it.”

I spent 31 years as an emergency mitigation technician — the guy insurance companies sent out first, before the adjuster, before the contractor. A man named Gus trained me in my first years on the job, and I never forgot what he told me: speed is the whole game, and nobody's born knowing this stuff. You're not behind for not knowing it already. You're just starting now.

Frank · Thirty-one years an emergency mitigation technician
Fair questions

Before you ask.

Am I handy enough for this?

If you can shut off a water valve and turn a screwdriver, you're handy enough for most of what's in here. Every fix is written in plain language, in order, with exactly what to buy and where. Where a job genuinely needs a licensed professional, the book says so plainly and tells you to call one.

Is this just a home repair book?

No — that's what makes it different. This isn't routine maintenance, it's emergency response: what to do in the first hour of water, fire, storm, or freeze damage, and how to handle the insurance claim that follows. Section VII alone — what the adjuster won't tell you — isn't in any other home repair book.

What do I actually get?

A 111-page illustrated PDF with all 62 fixes, plus the First 24 Hours Checklist, the printable Claim Ledger, the Restoration Company Vetting Guide, and free lifetime updates. It downloads the moment you buy.

How do I read it?

It's a PDF. It opens on your phone, your tablet, or your computer — no app, no account, no subscription. Print any page you want to keep by the water shutoff or the breaker panel.

What if it's not for me?

Then you email me inside 30 days and I give you your money back. No forms, no hard feelings either way.

Start with the first hour

Sixty-two fixes. One PDF. Thirty-one years on the job to put together.

Get the Field Guide — $37

Most people find this book after their first bad night, not before. — Frank

Frank's Field Guide — $37, yours forever Get it now