Flooded House / Insurance Questions & Advice

[jetboatperformance]

Mine was 3 inch of water , raised foundation water was pouring out the back door Servpro had a dozen blowers (1300 sq ft) , carpet and pad up yada yada and it was 14k 10 years ago . Like said get a legit contractor involved

 

[500bbc]

Exactly what i needed to hear. Thank you

Entire house is tile. Adjuster said it is impermeable and water wouldn't damage. I don't SEE any damage to any tile or grout, but that doesn't mean there isn't a potential issue in future? Thoughts?

No doors affected

Door casing and door trim needs to come out in my opinion. Trim for sure as it's cheap MDF and you can see swelling up about 2" or so from floor level. 5 door openings impacted with trim on both sides.

Kitchen base cabinets are cheap shitty cabinets, about 10 linear feet worth. Adjuster said they would remove facing and doors, and rebuild in place after walls behind are fixed. He said he included price to sand & restrain the face of ALL lower & upper cabinets. I see no value in that, but wasn't going to argue with him. It kind of sounded like a "talking point" of something that sounded good to a homeowner, but something that would ultimately end up not getting executed.

Kitchen countertop is cheap formica. He said they would pull it and reinstall it. Its ugly, and I wouldn't mind upgrading since it's coming out, but I'm not sure that's an option unless I take the check.

The biggest thing here in my mind is #1 getting things dry and then killing any mold if it is present. #2 would be quality drywall/taping/mud/texture work. Everything else, I can do myself, and would perfer to. Wouldn't be opposed to having a contractor come in and do it all and work with them on the upgrades and pay those out of pocket.

Find loose tile, grout is permeable and without a water proof underlayment IE shower pan the moisture can affect the subfloor.

 

[Drew]

Always hire your own public adjuster

 

[evantwheeler]

Find loose tile, grout is permeable and without a water proof underlayment IE shower pan the moisture can affect the subfloor.

In all honesty, PO did a pretty shit job grouting the tile in, you can tell it was done by a homeowner and not a Pro contractor. That being said, it has never bothered me, probably nice than i could have done myself.

Im sure water could have/did also seep under all the edges of the tile at every wall. Just need to get someone on ky side that can evaluate everything. I have Delta here today, and someone from Pulido here in the AM. Demo and dryout starts tomorrow through ServePro

 

[500bbc]

Am i wasting contractors time asking for bids on rebuild before the demo and dry-out is done?

Yes

 

[Mandelon]

Is the house on a slab? Make sure they take good readings on moisture content before the dehumidifiers are removed.

We do flood restoration and occasional dryouts.

 

[evantwheeler]

Is the house on a slab? Make sure they take good readings on moisture content before the dehumidifiers are removed.

We do flood restoration and occasional dryouts.

House is on a slab. Where and how should they take moisture readings in/through the slab?

I noticed some cracks in my garage slab bleeding/sweating moisture on Monday when i came home from work and opened ip the garage. You can definitely smell that the garage has been moist. It was pretty humid in there today when i got home from work and opened the door. Ive had 3 fans in there since Friday, but no de-hy.

 

[Mandelon]

A cheap way is to tape a 24*24 piece of clear plastic visqueen to the floor, then wait a day or so, then do a visual check for obvious moisture. Using a moisture meter is easy if you have one. Another option is a calcium chloride test. They sell them online or at flooring supply stores.

You need to push your adjuster for what you deserve.

 

[colenighthawk]

Everyone's an expert on this forum, but some of you have no idea what the fuck your talking about, I should msg you guys for advice.

 

[500bbc]

So they would only be involved in the rebuild in this case since ServePro should do the dry out and demo? Lets say buildback is $25k, is it worth me getting a PA involved?

Not unless they completely deny your contractors estimate.

 

[Taboma]

Everyone's an expert on this forum, but some of you have no idea what the fuck your talking about, I should msg you guys for advice.

You ever followed an Electrical Question thread on RDP ???

 

[colenighthawk]

You ever followed an Electrical Question thread on RDP ???

No, because I'm not an electrician by trade, not going to sit here and give you my advice on something I know nothing about, unlike some of us on here.

 

[Taboma]

No, because I'm not an electrician by trade, not going to sit here and give you my advice on something I know nothing about, unlike some of us on here.

See, us damned Cole owners are just awesome that way. I don't know shit about flood remediation, but I can make a fan run.
Some day we'll have to talk Nighthawks, but I don't want to muck this thread up with boat talk.

 

[evantwheeler]

Impacted areas were flood cut thursday 2’ up and have been dried out over the weekend.

Does anyone have any good contractor contacts in Menifee/Elsinore/Canyon Lake/Murrieta/Temecula area?

I am definitely going to remodel the hallway bath, would like to remodel kitchen, and considering enclosing an area outside my kitchen to add some useful sq ft to this tiny house.

Thanks,
Evan

 

[evantwheeler]

Is the house on a slab? Make sure they take good readings on moisture content before the dehumidifiers are removed.

We do flood restoration and occasional dryouts.

I had a public adjuster stop by, the one recommended earlier in the thread. He was in the area and insisted I wasn't wasting his time. He had a fancy FLIR moisture probe and half the house he says floor is still wet (twice the moisture reading as the dry tile) and ServePro didn't do their job. Says they need to come back and tape and heat the floors. He said that floor needs to be gridded and tapped to identify problem areas before versus after.

I have not signed a contract with the PA yet. They want 35%. I can't really wrap my head around how I would benefit from them. After they write my estimate, which will definitely be more detailed and costly than the Insurance Adjusters, and assuming Ins pays out, I have 35% less money to do the rebuild than what they told me it would cost. What am I missing here? Can they just inflate the numbers to cover their 35%?

 

[evantwheeler]

Always hire your own public adjuster

Are you experienced with the industry? Let's say Ins gives me quote/check of $15k for build back. PA comes in and says its going to be $30k. Ins says, ok, we agree and I get a check for $30k. PA takes their 35%, $10.5k, and now I have $19.5k, knowing that I now have $30k in work to tackle. The PA has zero to do with the build back, they said it would be a conflict of interest. So I am still managing my own contractor here (yeah I know, a good contractor will manage themselves) and while I have 4.5k more than I would have, I still am out of pocket $10k to do it right.

I feel like I'm missing something here. The PA couldn't explain it to me in a way that made sense, hoping someone here can help me understand the numbers. Are they only beneficial when there is huge sum of money involved and their commission rate is much lower?

 

[colenighthawk]

I've worked with PA's in the past. Everyone that I worked with took 20% from the owner. They have their own mitigation companies they call out to a job, then they take 10% from the mitigation company from demo, dryout and packout, packback and storage. Since he's not getting any of that money, from the Servpro , he charging you more. I said don't use Servpro, they're going to do a shitty job to keep the invoice down, so AAA can send them more program work. Hope this helps. Get a good contractor that does insurance work and he'll boost up the recon estimate as much as he can. Insurance Companies work off Exactame, insurance program for mitigation and recon.
Happy New Year

 

[Drew]

Are you experienced with the industry? Let's say Ins gives me quote/check of $15k for build back. PA comes in and says its going to be $30k. Ins says, ok, we agree and I get a check for $30k. PA takes their 35%, $10.5k, and now I have $19.5k, knowing that I now have $30k in work to tackle. The PA has zero to do with the build back, they said it would be a conflict of interest. So I am still managing my own contractor here (yeah I know, a good contractor will manage themselves) and while I have 4.5k more than I would have, I still am out of pocket $10k to do it right.

I feel like I'm missing something here. The PA couldn't explain it to me in a way that made sense, hoping someone here can help me understand the numbers. Are they only beneficial when there is huge sum of money involved and their commission rate is much lower?

Pa gets 10% and good ones will only take the job if your going to get more money

 

[YeahYeah01]

I've worked with PA's in the past. Everyone that I worked with took 20% from the owner. They have their own mitigation companies they call out to a job, then they take 10% from the mitigation company from demo, dryout and packout, packback and storage. Since he's not getting any of that money, from the Servpro , he charging you more. I said don't use Servpro, they're going to do a shitty job to keep the invoice down, so AAA can send them more program work. Hope this helps. Get a good contractor that does insurance work and he'll boost up the recon estimate as much as he can. Insurance Companies work off Exactame, insurance program for mitigation and recon.
Happy New Year

What he said^^^^^

 

[evantwheeler]

12k means 75k
You have to find a contractor that does insurance and real time work. Key is using the most common estimating software. EXACTIMATE or even better software that's formatted the same.
Exactimate favors the carrier.

What is the software that carriers accept, but favors the homeowner/contractor Maybe I can start there with a google search and it will lead me to someone that can help me get this shack back to a livable state.

 

[Canuck 1]

What is the software that carriers accept, but favors the homeowner/contractor Maybe I can start there with a google search and it will lead me to someone that can help me get this shack back to a livable state.

Exactimate is what is accepted, it does not favor the ins co or the owner whoever is doing the estimate is the one that can slant it to one side or the other. All you should be on the hook for is the deductible and any outside costs like and independent adjuster, if you choose to use one, or betterments.

As for the tile floor/concrete they do need to spend a little more time on that to get it dry

 

[YeahYeah01]

Exactimate is what is accepted, it does not favor the ins co or the owner whoever is doing the estimate is the one that can slant it to one side or the other. All you should be on the hook for is the deductible and any outside costs like and independent adjuster, if you choose to use one, or betterments.

As for the tile floor/concrete they do need to spend a little more time on that to get it dry

Exactly this.

If serve pro is working constantly with your insurance they going to keep it cheap and wrote a favorable xactimate estimate for the insurance, they will add what the can but not much.

It's not you're responsibility to write an Xactimate estimate and there is no law stating you need that for the work to be done. It just makes it easier to push through the insurance if it's written in a program that they accept.

You don't have to use anyone they recommend. Get quotes from reputable companies for any and all damage caused by the loss and show that to the adjuster. They are going to bitch and complain and push to not covet things but keep pushing back. That's what a PA would do as well.

 

[Riverhound]

Don't have a lot of technical details or knowledge about the process but did go through a large water loss claim as a homeowner which we ended up engaging with a PA and attorney to get the recovery right. A couple of years back a pipe broke in a house we had just purchased but not moved into and pushed approximately 30k gallons of water through our home basically destroying everything in it. Insurance sent out their remediation company who handled all the cleanup and demo of the floors, cabinets, door, jams, flood cut the drywall, etc. and all went well.

Shit went pear-shaped when it came time to put the house back together. They tried to cut us a check for $89k and walk away when we had estimates well into the $150k range and they told us they could fix it for less and to pound sand. At this point, I called their bluff and handed the repairs over to their contractor which was comical, to say the least.

Fast forward to the 3rd stop work for quality and safety issues and the insurance conceded they could not fix it. Enter my attorney and his PA who helped manage the repairs and handed the insurance company a bill for $180k+ which they gladly paid.

The moral of the story is you do not have to take what the insurance offers and they are NOT looking out for your best interest. Don't be afraid to push back on things that are not right.

BTW, the adjuster who told you the tile is impervious to water is full of shit, I pulled almost 3k sqft of tile out because of moisture and potential mold issues.

 

[Canuck 1]

Send me pictures and square footage and I could ballpark it for you

 

[PaPaG]

Entire house is tile. Adjuster said it is impermeable and water wouldn't damage. I don't SEE any damage to any tile or grout, but that doesn't mean there isn't a potential issue in future? Thoughts?

No doors affected

Door casing and door trim needs to come out in my opinion. Trim for sure as it's cheap MDF and you can see swelling up about 2" or so from floor level. 5 door openings impacted with trim on both sides.

Kitchen base cabinets are cheap shitty cabinets, about 10 linear feet worth. Adjuster said they would remove facing and doors, and rebuild in place after walls behind are fixed. He said he included price to sand & restrain the face of ALL lower & upper cabinets. I see no value in that, but wasn't going to argue with him. It kind of sounded like a "talking point" of something that sounded good to a homeowner, but something that would ultimately end up not getting executed.

Kitchen countertop is cheap formica. He said they would pull it and reinstall it. Its ugly, and I wouldn't mind upgrading since it's coming out, but I'm not sure that's an option unless I take the check.

The biggest thing here in my mind is #1 getting things dry and then killing any mold if it is present. #2 would be quality drywall/taping/mud/texture work. Everything else, I can do myself, and would perfer to. Wouldn't be opposed to having a contractor come in and do it all and work with them on the upgrades and pay those out of pocket.

Be careful, 2 houses ago we had a washing machine line bust and flood our first floor. Luckily at the time my wife was in the property management business and had a water remediation team at the house within an hour of us catching it, they cut the walls up 2', brought in 6-7 dryers, made sure to let us know that the tile was more than likely going to POP in a few days to a few weeks so to make sure the insurance does not try skating by that fact. Low and behold insurance company came out, gave us an estimate and they did not include the floor tile, I told them I am going to wait until my tile guy came to the house to see if we have any tile issues. Tile guy checks the tiles and walks all around and shows us there was about a dozen tiles that were popping up that we could not see. We also had a few other issues that the insurance agent did not include but the construction crew did, finally got the insurance to cover all the damage from tear down to rebuild. Total damage was around 40k but their initial check that they wanted to give us was only 22k..glad we listened too the remediation and construction companies......

 

[evantwheeler]

I’m going to probably get drug over the coals here, but looking for honest opinions/experience.

House flooded over a year ago, and due to work/life, i took the checks and opened a new checking account and deposited them. I did not want the insurance company doing the re-build, they fucked up the flood cut and did mot trust them to rebuild correctly. I was on the road too much early last year to deal with a contractor and then got distracted buying my neighbors house as a rental later in the year. The house was still “livable” post flood cut, so i just dealt with it being in a state of partially torn apart.

Is it legally possible to get a qualified restoration contractor involved at this point for the rebuild and have any costs over the insurance companies estimate be covered by insurance? When i talked to the certified public adjuster after the flood event, he said an insurance claim is never closed in California. Im not looking for anything I’m not owed, but do feel i got shorted on the payout based on the current costs of construction/remodeling that i read about on this site.

Thanks,
Evan

 

[hallett21]

I’m going to probably get drug over the coals here, but looking for honest opinions/experience.

House flooded over a year ago, and due to work/life, i took the checks and opened a new checking account and deposited them. I did not want the insurance company doing the re-build, they fucked up the flood cut and did mot trust them to rebuild correctly. I was on the road too much early last year to deal with a contractor and then got distracted buying my neighbors house as a rental later in the year. The house was still “livable” post flood cut, so i just dealt with it being in a state of partially torn apart.

Is it legally possible to get a qualified restoration contractor involved at this point for the rebuild and have any costs over the insurance companies estimate be covered by insurance? When i talked to the certified public adjuster after the flood event, he said an insurance claim is never closed in California. Im not looking for anything I’m not owed, but do feel i got shorted on the payout based on the current costs of construction/remodeling that i read about on this site.

Thanks,
Evan

Are you saying that you spent more than what the insurance company gave you?

 

[evantwheeler]

Are you saying that you spent more than what the insurance company gave you?

I havent spent any money at all. No re-construction has taken place. The house is exactly in same condition as when ServePro left after flood cutting and drying the affected areas out. I got $25k, and i expect it to cost more than that to do it right.

 

[hallett21]

I thought that cashing the check was accepting the payout.

Maybe you could get a back dated estimate and a new estimate showing the extra work required?

Did the adjuster come up with a number with no estimates?

 

[Ziggy]

Costs have risen significantly since your initial estimates. Who knows if they'd accept a new current cost estimate since it's been a year+. Not their fault you waited to do the work. Not being negative, just thinking out loud here.

 

[evantwheeler]

I thought that cashing the check was accepting the payout.

Maybe you could get a back dated estimate and a new estimate showing the extra work required?

Did the adjuster come up with a number with no estimates?

Adjuster had their “approved contractor” come out and take some measurements and pictures and use the Exactimate software to produce an estimate for payout. Guy was there literally less than 15mins, so i didnt really get a good feeling that they were someone i should use to rebuild the damages.

I’m mostly curious if there is a way to submit additional actual construction costs when i perform the work a year after the claim. This is assuming I will be using a legit contractor. I do not want to be on the hook for out of pocket costs other than specific upgrades/changes I elect to perform and pay for, and of course my deductible.

 

[LuauLounge]

That one is going to be a tough sale. You accepted payment and waited a year to start the rebuild, for your convenience.
I would argue that the funds were adequate at the time of the check being cut. Say they weren’t….. You are the one that gets to prove it.
Good luck with this, the state you’re in might affect the outcome.

 

[C_J_J_C]

I also had a flood last year (Burst shower pipe) and AAA gave me two options;

1) Their contractor fixes back to original and they cover all costs no mater how expensive but any "Upgrades" are my expense.

2) Cash and claim is closed. There was very clear wording as CLOSED claim upon signing for the cash out request check and agaim upon receiving and cashing the check.

I also took the cash only because I wanted different finishes. Check what you signed but my guess is the claim is closed.

 

[81eliminator]

Serve Pro could / should have pulled all the wet base boards and drywall to aid drying. once open and dry there should be not mold. Insurance should cover the entire rebuild for all water damage but no or limited mold coverage.

As a retired mold inspector, this is correct!

 

[evantwheeler]

As a retired mold inspector, this is correct!

Hahaha, you know that you just quoted yourself?

I do appreciate the advice you gave. The dry-out was done well, the demo for dry-out not so well.

 

[Big B Hova]

Im going through a fire insurance claim on my mobile home right now. Currently getting bids for the work to send to insurance company. If they cut me a check and I self perform all the work. Do I need a permit to replace some of the framing in the patio that was affected?

I just want to make sure I'm. Covered if we ever decide to sell the place