Fusions Salon re-opens after flood

Fusions Salon and Spa suffered damage as the result of a major flood on Grand Avenue in Pullman from a water main break in April.

Gazette intern reporter

Fusions Salon and Spa re-opened in Pullman Wednesday, July 20, after being closed since April 19 due to a water main break on North Grand Avenue in Pullman.

“Everything was gone,” said Jessica Wolfe, owner of the business, after seeing the initial flood damage.

The business, which opened in August two years ago, had three to four inches of standing water and mud, damaging all the furniture and all electronics that were plugged into the wall circuits including hair clippers, two computers, Wolfe's son's Xbox and other important items to the business.

“The people who came in to clean up had to take out all the flooring and four feet up every wall,” said Salena Moore, a stylist at the salon.

The city paid for the clean up and renovation of the approximately 1,100 square-foot building, which Wolfe estimates would have cost at least $110,000. When the stylists came in to see the rest of the damage, furniture, dyes, nail polish and wax was sitting in the water. It took a couple days before the crew cleaning the space out could come in, and by the time all of the furniture was moved out and progress was made on taking out the flooring and walls, mushrooms had started to grow along the base of the walls.

“It was hard because we couldn't come in at any point during construction,” said Moore. “They didn't want us breathing in the plaster and mold spray.”

Replacing the buckled floor with new laminate, putting in mold spray, installing insulation and repainting the walls were the other projects.

Wolfe, Moore and Brittany Benninger worked to record everything lost because of the flood.

“We had to catalog everything that was damaged,” said Wolfe. “Although we went overboard a little bit and had to condense our 30-pages of items to about three.”

Before re-opening July 20, the business saw an overwhelming amount of support from the community and customers, who had been posting on Fusion's Facebook page for months, asking when they would re-open as well as to offer moral support.

“We're basically family,” said Wolfe. “We had to all stick together because it was so hard. I cried a lot, she cried a lot, but they (stylists Benninger and Moore) were there for me. Without them, I don't know what I would've done.”

Wolfe updated Fusions Facebook page with every bit of news, whether it was good or bad. From the initial post saying that the business would be closed due to the flood damage, pictures of all the damage, progress of the floor and walls, to even the sad news the bathrooms were not going according to plan, customers continued to show support and encourage the stylists to keep going. Somewhat to Wolfe's surprise, even the city of Pullman supported them every step of the way.

When Wolfe opened the doors on July 20, there was a line of people waiting to come in for appointments and even to just say “Hi.”

“We are so fortunate; we are just crazy busy now that we're back,” said Wolfe.