The DIRECT Methodology is a structured forensic approach to property damage investigation. Six analytical pillars that take you from observation to defensible conclusion, without skipping steps and without guessing.
A claim comes in and everyone already knows what they want it to be. The carrier wants the cheap answer. The contractor wants the expensive one. The investigation becomes a hunt for evidence to support a conclusion someone already picked.
DIRECT flips that. You start with what you can observe, document, and measure. The conclusion earns its way out of the evidence. When two people follow the same method on the same damage, they reach the same answer. That is what makes it forensic.
Read the damage pattern like a story. Where it is tells you what caused it before the cause tells you where to look.
Document the physical alteration before you assign a cause. Morphology first, mechanism second.
Can the system be restored to its intended function, performance, and durability? Three findings: repairable, not repairable, or more evidence required.
Not all evidence weighs the same. Primary beats secondary, secondary beats context, and a weather report never outranks a fracture.
Know when documented damage activates code requirements that change the scope of the repair.
Pick the right test for the question you are actually trying to answer.
Property and casualty adjusters who want their files to survive scrutiny.
Restoration contractors who need their scope to stand up to the carrier's engineer.
Forensic consultants whose opinions have to hold when someone is paid to dismantle them.
If your report needs to hold up when someone is paid to dismantle it, this is your method.
The complete methodology in 21 lessons. Every pillar, fully worked with real case studies: hail versus blistering, wind versus mechanical damage, repair versus replacement, and the documentation standards that make your findings traceable.
21 lessons. Field-ready checklists. Final assessment with a certificate of completion.
One payment. Yours to keep.
Forensic property damage consultant, the "Claiminator™," with 38 years of architectural and construction experience. I built DIRECT because I watched too many investigations start with the answer.