Nationwide · Restoration training & consulting
Commercial drying is not residential drying with more fans. Catalyst Training helps residential restoration operators build the technical judgment, equipment strategy and paperwork discipline that commercial losses demand.
Instructor approval in process — join the list and you'll be first to get cohort dates. Consulting is available today.
The gap
You have run hundreds of houses. Then a 60,000 square foot facility floods, the building has its own air handling logic, the electrical service will not carry what you need to plug in, and the property manager wants a drying plan with numbers in it before anyone mobilizes.
Nothing about that job is a bigger version of a basement. The structure behaves differently, the psychrometrics are less forgiving, the equipment is heavier and needs to be sized rather than guessed, and documentation is the deliverable the client actually reads.
That is the gap Catalyst Training exists to close — with certification training built on the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard, and with per-project consulting for the jobs you are bidding or running right now.
The certification
CDS is an IICRC certification. It demonstrates expertise in damage inspection and evaluation, workflow management, process administration, and the technical methods of effective and timely drying — applied to commercial, industrial, institutional and complex residential water-damaged structures, systems and FFE (furniture, fixtures, equipment).
The people who need this class are already doing the work. They just have not been handed the framework yet.Who the class is for
Why here
Parker Olsen has spent more than ten years in restoration as an owner-operator, not as a career classroom instructor. He designs and builds his own commercial dehumidification and power equipment, and he runs the commercial jobs that equipment goes on.
That means adsorption, reactivation, process and reactivation airflow, wet-exhaust routing and grain depression get taught off real machinery rather than a slide.
Custom-built. Preconditioning strategy, staging and sizing explained by the person who specified it.
Filtration and airflow budgeting on large-volume work, where CFM math stops being optional.
Temporary power generation and distribution — a curriculum topic and a daily reality on commercial sites.
Parker also runs Atmos, a contractor-support business that supplies and troubleshoots commercial jobs.
Two offerings
Five days, 32 hours, built on ANSI/IICRC S500. Psychrometrics and moisture mechanics, equipment sizing, HVAC systems, temporary power, documentation, negotiation, health and safety, and drying complex structures — with case scenarios.
WRT is a prerequisite. The IICRC exam fee is $65, paid directly to the IICRC.
Per-project advisory for contractors who have landed — or are bidding — commercial work. Scoping, drying strategy, equipment selection and sizing, temporary power and distribution, documentation, and project planning.
Useful before you price the job, and useful at hour 40 when the structure is not drying.
Status: instructor approval in process
Parker Olsen has applied for IICRC Approved Instructor status in Commercial Drying Specialist and approval is pending. Until it is granted, no CDS class can be scheduled and Catalyst Training makes no claim to be an approved or accredited school. The waitlist is how you find out first — it costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Consulting is unaffected and available today.
FAQ
Certification facts here come from the IICRC and from published CDS course listings. Anything Catalyst Training has not decided yet is described as not decided yet.
CDS demonstrates expertise in damage inspection and evaluation, workflow management, process administration, and the technical methods of effective and timely drying. It applies to commercial, industrial, institutional and complex residential water-damaged structures, systems and FFE — furniture, fixtures and equipment.
The IICRC describes CDS as intended for the experienced technician, project manager, estimator or owner/manager. In practice it suits residential restoration operators who are moving into commercial losses.
Yes. IICRC WRT (Water Damage Restoration Technician) certification is a prerequisite. OSHA-10 and HST are strongly advised.
The course is five days — 32 hours of instruction — plus exam and break time. The IICRC exam fee is $65, paid directly to the IICRC on the final day before the certificate issues. Catalyst Training has not set tuition yet; pricing will be published with the first cohort dates.
Dates are not announced. Parker Olsen's application for IICRC Approved Instructor status in CDS is pending, and no class can be scheduled until that is resolved. Everyone on the waitlist is contacted first when dates are set.
Yes. Consulting is available today and does not depend on the training approval. That covers scoping, drying strategy, equipment selection and sizing, temporary power and distribution, documentation and project planning.
Get in line for the first CDS cohort, or bring in help on the commercial job you are looking at right now.