Flooded House / Insurance Questions & Advice

[evantwheeler]

Was headed to the airport last Thursday in New Jersey, flying back home from a 2 week work assignment and got an email from EMWD: "We've detected unusually high flow for a long duration, please check your property for leaks". Well Fok Me. Called neighbor and he went and shut water off. Water visibly running from under my garage door (far side away from water heater) down driveway into gutter. Unfortunately with the rains you all had here last week, no one noticed the water running from my garage EMWD claimed leak started 6 days prior according to meter data. A bit puzzled why it took them 6 days to notify me, but that doesn't really change anything at this point.

About 1/2 of my house was impacted by water (its only 1000 sq ft, stick frame, slab on grade). Leak came from what looks like a cast bronze wye splitter on cold water supply to washing machine that decided it didn't want to be 1 piece anymore. Sill plates in garage and 1/2 my house, baseboard trim, drywall, kitchen cabinets and a few pieces of cheap particle board furniture were impacted. I spent all day Friday demobing the affected spaces for unimpeded access for inspection. There wasn't really much standing water so not much cleanup to do per-se. I could see where all the baseboard trim was warping/pulling from the wall where the impacted areas were so I pulled all impacted trim off wall to hopefully help dry things up quicker. I had 3 fans of my own and borrowed 6 from neighbors, cranked the heat to 80 and had all fans and ceiling fans going Friday AM & onward.

I filed a claim with AAA Friday mid morning. ServePro came to house Friday afternoon to setup a single commercial de-hy in my house, did their inspection, verified impacted walls with FLIR camera & moisture meter, and created their report. Scheduled asbestos and lead testing for this AM which happened. AAA adjuster came to my house yesterday and spent about 3 hours taking photos & measuring and creating his estimate. He said cashout for repairs would be around $12k, thats not including personal property, which was minimal.

The way I understood it, is that $$$ only includes the construction labor and materials to reinstall in kind, it does not include the costs of tear down, abetment if necessary, or remediation/drying/disinfecting to keep mold from growing. Honestly, the number seems low to me, but I deal with union civil construction labor costs, where our benefits are almost as high as the labor wage costs. I also understand they are not looking to pay for anything more than the bare minimum to get me back to where I was before the event.

My thought is to use their contractor, ServePro, to do the tearout, drying & remediation as necessary. Basically get the house to the point where they will take all liability for mold ever coming back. I would take the $12k cash out and self perform or contract out the re-install phase. Is this a bad idea? I've never filed a claim, and this being my first home, never hired a contractor to do any residential work. Is it better to just let AAA handle everything start to finish? I'm not looking to try and game the system, but given the chance now, I see an opportunity to make some small upgrades like better baseboard trim, new door casings and door trim, and a upgrade to my hallway bathroom that is all of like 35 sqft including the cast iron tub. If I have their guys do everything, they're going to put back in junk mdf trim everywhere and I won't get to control the process as much.

Ideally, I'd have them flood cut, strip/remediate and then drwyall, tape, texture, and leave me to do the rest. Any input on the process or any pointers on dealing with the adjuster?

Thanks,
Evan

 

[C08H18]

Daughter and SIL going thru this now. Bathroom leak flooded MBR and bath. Sheetrock, flooring and shower surround impacted. Ins paid $14K check to them and Ins company did the tear out and remediation during the first week. Kids decided to upgrade the shower mixing valve and some minor changes to the shower. Plumber quoted $2400 and then billed them $4400 after 'change orders'. They are arguing it now... stay tuned. Kids have laid new floors and other son did the drywall for them. I don't think the $14K will cover, but they will get some upgrades. The house is in Yelm WA. Hope this is helpful.

 

[92562]

In my experience the insurance company never has your back. When I had water damage and mold I contacted Delta Restoration and they assigned a person to me that dealt with my insurance adjuster directly and filed the claim on my behalf. They were able to get all of the work and a few improvements for the cost of my deductible. They knew the right terminology to use with the adjuster to get everything covered.

Good luck!

---Rob

 

[evantwheeler]

In my experience the insurance company never has your back. When I had water damage and mold I contacted Delta Restoration and they assigned a person to me that dealt with my insurance adjuster directly and filed the claim on my behalf. They were able to get all of the work and a few improvements for the cost of my deductible. They knew the right terminology to use with the adjuster to get everything covered.

Good luck!

---Rob

I'll reach out to Delta tomorrow and ask if it is to late for them to get involved. I'm assuming you would use them again?

 

[92562]

I'll reach out to Delta tomorrow and ask if it is to late for them to get involved. I'm assuming you would use them again?

Yes. Mine was a small job, about $10K. I used them at my neighbor's suggestion based on his experience with them. His was a $45K job.

 

[evantwheeler]

Yes. Mine was a small job, about $10K. I used them at my neighbor's suggestion based on his experience with them. His was a $45K job.

Do you have a contact that you can share?

 

[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.

 

[500bbc]

Was headed to the airport last Thursday in New Jersey, flying back home from a 2 week work assignment and got an email from EMWD: "We've detected unusually high flow for a long duration, please check your property for leaks". Well Fok Me. Called neighbor and he went and shut water off. Water visibly running from under my garage door (far side away from water heater) down driveway into gutter. Unfortunately with the rains you all had here last week, no one noticed the water running from my garage EMWD claimed leak started 6 days prior according to meter data. A bit puzzled why it took them 6 days to notify me, but that doesn't really change anything at this point.

About 1/2 of my house was impacted by water (its only 1000 sq ft, stick frame, slab on grade). Leak came from what looks like a cast bronze wye splitter on cold water supply to washing machine that decided it didn't want to be 1 piece anymore. Sill plates in garage and 1/2 my house, baseboard trim, drywall, kitchen cabinets and a few pieces of cheap particle board furniture were impacted. I spent all day Friday demobing the affected spaces for unimpeded access for inspection. There wasn't really much standing water so not much cleanup to do per-se. I could see where all the baseboard trim was warping/pulling from the wall where the impacted areas were so I pulled all impacted trim off wall to hopefully help dry things up quicker. I had 3 fans of my own and borrowed 6 from neighbors, cranked the heat to 80 and had all fans and ceiling fans going Friday AM & onward.

I filed a claim with AAA Friday mid morning. ServePro came to house Friday afternoon to setup a single commercial de-hy in my house, did their inspection, verified impacted walls with FLIR camera & moisture meter, and created their report. Scheduled asbestos and lead testing for this AM which happened. AAA adjuster came to my house yesterday and spent about 3 hours taking photos & measuring and creating his estimate. He said cashout for repairs would be around $12k, thats not including personal property, which was minimal.

The way I understood it, is that $$$ only includes the construction labor and materials to reinstall in kind, it does not include the costs of tear down, abetment if necessary, or remediation/drying/disinfecting to keep mold from growing. Honestly, the number seems low to me, but I deal with union civil construction labor costs, where our benefits are almost as high as the labor wage costs. I also understand they are not looking to pay for anything more than the bare minimum to get me back to where I was before the event.

My thought is to use their contractor, ServePro, to do the tearout, drying & remediation as necessary. Basically get the house to the point where they will take all liability for mold ever coming back. I would take the $12k cash out and self perform or contract out the re-install phase. Is this a bad idea? I've never filed a claim, and this being my first home, never hired a contractor to do any residential work. Is it better to just let AAA handle everything start to finish? I'm not looking to try and game the system, but given the chance now, I see an opportunity to make some small upgrades like better baseboard trim, new door casings and door trim, and a upgrade to my hallway bathroom that is all of like 35 sqft including the cast iron tub. If I have their guys do everything, they're going to put back in junk mdf trim everywhere and I won't get to control the process as much.

Ideally, I'd have them flood cut, strip/remediate and then drwyall, tape, texture, and leave me to do the rest. Any input on the process or any pointers on dealing with the adjuster?

Thanks,
Evan

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.

 

[Bear Down]

My parents rental home was hit by a drunk driver and they had AAA as insurance. I managed the whole deal

Servpro came out to secure home and board it up... then they cut us a $18k check to fix the house. We didn't cash it, but I tried to sub all the work out and got a ton of quotes from reputable companies. The total was no where close to the $18k.

I called AAA and told him to take the check back and they can manage the repairs, they argued that is what is should cost based on there book rates and such from the estimates, so I told them to fix it for $18k themselves... they tried and ended up paying more...which they did to the tune of $36k...

 

[endobear]

When we used to do hail damage repaints we were always 2x or more $ than what insurance esproject. I always got the $ approved.
It used to be and still may very well be the same now that you can use whatever contractors you want. You just have to get the estimate approved. Which is a little bit of work on the contractor. Also if you have more than 2 trades involved you as the homeowner could charge a General Contractor charge or hire one to manage the project.

 

[endobear]

Insurance companies always want you to take the check.

 

[evantwheeler]

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.

They wouldn't do anything until asbestos/lead testing results came in due to age of home construction. We'll have those results in the AM.

 

[DLC]

DO NOT TAKE THE CHECK

the insurance company would like you to take it and walk !

get a quote from a couple contractors to see what they would charge, There is No way to get a GOOD contractor will get that completed - patched and then repainted and base boards for that $12,000.00

there is At Least $2,000 + in just P/O on that $12 so the reality is about $9,000.00 in actual work to be done… plus supervision! Which is nothing but profit!


Commercial building I was just working at had a leak ( some dump fuck Engeneer left the DI water line going, he was filling up a small bucket / bucket covered the drain - wife called and said get home and he left with the water running ) about 60 ft of 12inch tall drywall patch, paint and cove base was $30,000.00 NOT including dry out ….

 

[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.

I don't see it being $75k for rebuild. The adjuster did use the Xactimate software, he created a 3d model of my house in like 1 hour. I was blown away as I have some 3D modeling experience and that was unreal to see how quickly that came together. I have no doubt that the software favors them, they wouldn't use it if it didn't.

 

[Joker]

Do you have a contact that you can share?

Contact Anderson Group International. ServPro is nothing but franchised bs.

 

[evantwheeler]

Ok, so do I just go to town ripping out drywall and trying to dry this thing out myself while I look for contractors? My biggest concern is mold and structural damage to the sill plates. Silly to sit back and wait while fighting with ins. Don't really want to fight, not a good fighter when it comes to money. Just want things to be done correctly, and want liability of mold remediation on someone elses insurance policy.

 

[evantwheeler]

Contact Anderson Group International. ServPro is nothing but franchised bs.

These guys? I see their closest office is Burbank, with another in Bakersfield. I'm in Menifee.

Water Damage - Core AGI

agi.gowithcore.com

 

[Joker]

Ok, so do I just go to town ripping out drywall and trying to dry this thing out myself while I look for contractors? My biggest concern is mold and structural damage to the sill plates. Silly to sit back and wait while fighting with ins. Don't really want to fight, not a good fighter when it comes to money. Just want things to be done correctly, and want liability of mold remediation on someone elses insurance policy.

Pull the drywall 2’ up, rent some drying machines and call it a day if the cabinets aren’t going to cost a fortune to replace

 

[Joker]

These guys? I see their closest office is Burbank, with another in Bakersfield. I'm in Menifee.

Water Damage - Core AGI

agi.gowithcore.com

They’ll go anywhere.

 

[DLC]

So let’s take each item and review….

what about flooring?
doors?
Door Jams?
what about wall insulation?

your stated -
baseboards
door casing (trim ). Do these both match? Are these wood or press board can you find the same style size?
drywall. Need to match existing texture so you don’t notice a cut line
kitchen cabinets ( I assume base cabinets) if these need to replaced then countertops need to addressed
paint. Wall paint is different than trim

 

[NicPaus]

To far from me but I have 12 blowers and a few dehumidifiers for issues like this but I am in Torrance. Like mentioned remove baseboard and cut out drywall 2' up. Chalk line it and cut it nice and straight. Blowers and dehumidifiers for 10-14 days. Bill them per blower and dehumidifier by the day.

 

[DLC]

What area ?

 

[Joker]

What area ?

Menifee

 

[evantwheeler]

So let’s take each item and review….

what about flooring?
doors?
Door Jams?

your stated -
baseboards
door casing (trim ). Do these both match? Are these wood or press board can you find the same style size?
drywall. Need to match existing texture so you don’t notice a cut line
kitchen cabinets ( I assume base cabinets) if these need to replaced then countertops need to addressed
paint. Wall paint is different than trim

View attachment 1075650

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.

 

[TimeBandit]

I've been through this twice. the second time with Safeco, they were easy to deal with. Both time home insurance premium doubled for 3 years.

The first estimate will be garbage, tear it all out 24" up from the slab, all of it, flooring, drywall, cabinets, bathtub.. then dehumidify for at least a week.

Tons of people in the remediation business, easy to do tear out and place dehumidifiers for a large chunk of change.

Rebuilding? not so easy, a contractor with the right software is the key, nothing hand written will fly.

 

[evantwheeler]

To far from me but I have 12 blowers and a few dehumidifiers for issues like this but I am in Torrance. Like mentioned remove baseboard and cut out drywall 2' up. Chalk line it and cut it nice and straight. Blowers and dehumidifiers for 10-14 days. Bill them per blower and dehumidifier by the day.

I can bill the Ins Co myself? Basically say I self performed the work? How can I put liability of getting house completely dry on someone else? I can do the cut and dry, but I need someone to say its OK to cover back up. I don't want that liability on me.

So for all of the garage and bedroom demobe I did this weekend, can I bill them my time?

 

[evantwheeler]

I've been through this twice. the second time with Safeco, they were easy to deal with. Both time home insurance premium doubled for 3 years.

The first estimate will be garbage, tear it all out 24" up from the slab, all of it, flooring, drywall, cabinets, bathtub.. then dehumidify for at least a week.

Tons of people in the remediation business, easy to do tear out and place dehumidifiers for a large chunk of change.

Rebuilding? not so easy, a contractor with the right software is the key, nothing hand written will fly.

Did you do the tear out yourself?

Would you tear out ALL flooring impacted, even if it was all tile?

Damn, even the bath-tub?

My master has a huge walk-in shower on the slab. Pretty sure it should be good, i mean, it's meant to get wet in there!?!

 

[NicPaus]

I have only done one where insurance paid. It was for a regular customer of mine I am a GC. There HOA hired a plumber that flooded there condo. HOA called a remediation company that never showed up. I was actually first on scene along with my Realtor she had the keys. It was vacant and for lease.
They ended up hiring a lawyer as the amount insurance offered was so low. They settled for over 100k in the end. I can get lawyers number tomorrow. I invoiced them for everything. It was sewage so anything touched was replaced. They pretty much got a whole remodel out the deal. I went and bought a package that had 12 blowers and 2 dehumidifiers to dry it out. Had a 3rd party testing company come in after 2 weeks and test everything. No mold , no bacteria etc.

Not sure how it would work with you doing the work. I would get a company to remediate then get estimates to replace everything. Use the estimates to settle and do it yourself. Don't accept the first check for 12k. Get all the estimates and then present them to adjuster.

 

[TimeBandit]

Did you do the tear out yourself?

Would you tear out ALL flooring impacted, even if it was all tile?

Damn, even the bath-tub?

My master has a huge walk-in shower on the slab. Pretty sure it should be good, i mean, it's meant to get wet in there!?!

I had the tear out done by a remediation company that billed the insurance company directly. The bathtub and flooring may not apply in your case because you are on a slab... I had water damage to the second story with wood subfloors that got wet. flooring, subfloors, bathtub, vanities and drywall all came out.

Shit, I have been through this 3 times, I forgot about the wind blowing the roof off during a storm in 2012 and the ceiling falling in the master bedroom! Safeco there too, no problems. All drywall and insulation was removed from MBR, walls and ceiling.

 

[DLC]

I don’t think you can do it all your self. I may be wrong! My uncle ( he us a GC ) had a water damage claim on one of his homes and had me do a lot of the work as they wouldn’t allow him to do it… Maybe they wouldn’t allow him as a contractor to do it, but maybe as a home owner…. Gray area

you can get anyone to bid it! Make sure you get 3 bids. Take notes ask questions find the best way not the cheapest !

call around for a Dehumidifier - depot in Escondido rents em ( although not the really good ones)

janitorial supply, flooring supply should have a contact/ referrals for a dehumidifier rental probably get 2 or 3 and scale back ( return them ) as needed

if in a hurry measure up 12 inch off the floor snap a line then cut i, you want to open the stud bays to dry out.

when you get more time you can snap a new the line at 2ft and recut going slow to make a nice straight cut line. It’s double the work but speed counts!

use a multi tool to make the final cut it’s more precise. Sawzaw works but the cuts aren’t as straight typically

it’s going to rain get the dehumidifier going asap! The dehumidifier will suck moisture from the outside after the rain starts. Set the discharge tube in a trash can / 5 gallon buck may fill up and over flow.

 

[mjc]

I had this happen at my havasu place 18 years ago. Water ran for 28 days after 3/4 broke in the attic, biggest water bill city had ever seen at that time. Most of the drywall was bad with mold if not water destroyed, all furniture, cabinets were replaced. I did all the work myself. Claim came to 62k on a house I paid 44k for.

 

[Flatsix66]

We are in the Lake Elsinore area and had a similar issue with an upstairs bath leak. Our insurance (USAA) recommended Pulido restoration (https://teampulido.com/). They and the insurance company have been great. We took the opportunity to fully remodel the master bath and upgrade the two slightly affected guest baths. We paid out of pocket for the upgrades but Pulido did all the work, it all seemed very reasonable on professionally managed.

 

[c_land]

I had this happen too. Mercury was a pain in the ass and tried to low ball me initially too.

The key for me was everything was matching prior to the leak, so it needed to match afterwards.

Just so happens that my flooring didn’t exist any longer and my lower cabinets were damaged. Couldn’t match the lowers so uppers needed replaced as well.

$16k estimate turned into a $35k bill.

 

[colenighthawk]

To far from me but I have 12 blowers and a few dehumidifiers for issues like this but I am in Torrance. Like mentioned remove baseboard and cut out drywall 2' up. Chalk line it and cut it nice and straight. Blowers and dehumidifiers for 10-14 days. Bill them per blower and dehumidifier by the day.

There's no way in hell AAA is going to pay you for your dehu and 12 air movers for 10-14 days. If you remove drywall and expose framing it will dry in 3 days, NO MORE.
I do water mitigation every day, AAA is a piece of shit insurance company. Get a Public Adjuster and fuck AAA, $ 12k for build back now days it ain't shit. If you need someone to do the mitigation work, let me know, I'm in OC
I'll help you with the deductible. If AAA sent out Servpro, that means that it's a program job and Servpro is going to cut corners to keep the mitigation invoice low.

 

[evantwheeler]

There's no way in hell AAA is going to pay you for your dehu and 12 air movers for 10-14 days. If you remove drywall and expose framing it will dry in 3 days, NO MORE.
I do water mitigation every day, AAA is a piece of shit insurance company. Get a Public Adjuster and fuck AAA, $ 12k for build back now days it ain't shit. If you need someone to do the mitigation work, let me know, I'll help you with the deductible.

Do you service Menifee? Can you PM with contact info?

No interior drywall has been removed yet. I took baseboard trim off on Saturday. A single de-hy has been running in my master since Friday night.

With x-mas weekend coming up, im thinking i just rip out cabinets and do the 1’ drywall rough cut as suggested earlier. At least get things exposed and air on them.

 

[evantwheeler]

There's no way in hell AAA is going to pay you for your dehu and 12 air movers for 10-14 days. If you remove drywall and expose framing it will dry in 3 days, NO MORE.
I do water mitigation every day, AAA is a piece of shit insurance company. Get a Public Adjuster and fuck AAA, $ 12k for build back now days it ain't shit. If you need someone to do the mitigation work, let me know, I'll help you with the deductible.

What is a Public Adjuster? Can you recommend one (or more)?

 

[evantwheeler]

I don’t think you can do it all your self. I may be wrong! My uncle ( he us a GC ) had a water damage claim on one of his homes and had me do a lot of the work as they wouldn’t allow him to do it… Maybe they wouldn’t allow him as a contractor to do it, but maybe as a home owner…. Gray area

you can get anyone to bid it! Make sure you get 3 bids. Take notes ask questions find the best way not the cheapest !

call around for a Dehumidifier - depot in Escondido rents em ( although not the really good ones)

janitorial supply, flooring supply should have a contact/ referrals for a dehumidifier rental probably get 2 or 3 and scale back ( return them ) as needed

if in a hurry measure up 12 inch off the floor snap a line then cut i, you want to open the stud bays to dry out.

when you get more time you can snap a new the line at 2ft and recut going slow to make a nice straight cut line. It’s double the work but speed counts!

use a multi tool to make the final cut it’s more precise. Sawzaw works but the cuts aren’t as straight typically

it’s going to rain get the dehumidifier going asap! The dehumidifier will suck moisture from the outside after the rain starts. Set the discharge tube in a trash can / 5 gallon buck may fill up and over flow.

I ran discharge tube on de-hy to my master shower drain. Wasnt thinking about keeping an eye on how much water was being removed/discharged.

 

[colenighthawk]

What is a Public Adjuster? Can you recommend one (or more)?

Don't let Servpro do any work until you talk to Darren. Tell him you got his info from Marius with Servicemaster

 

[DLC]

I ran discharge tube on de-hy to my master shower drain. Wasnt thinking about keeping an eye on how much water was being removed/discharged.

If you still have the dehumidifier.
Set a 5 gallon bucket in the shower ( don’t cover drain ) to see how much moisture your getting. Move dehumidifier around the house as it will pull moisture out from different areas faster

 

[colenighthawk]

Do you service Menifee? Can you PM with contact info?

No interior drywall has been removed yet. I took baseboard trim off on Saturday. A single de-hy has been running in my master since Friday night.

With x-mas weekend coming up, im thinking i just rip out cabinets and do the 1’ drywall rough cut as suggested earlier. At least get things exposed and air on them.

Here's my number
714.728.7563

 

[SixD9R]

Slightly off topic but anytime I leave the house overnight or longer I always shut the water and water heater off. I also have 2 vacation properties that are not occupied full time and the water is always off when nobody is there.

 

[evantwheeler]

Slightly off topic but anytime I leave the house overnight or longer I always shut the water and water heater off. I also have 2 vacation properties that are not occupied full time and the water is always off when nobody is there.

I'm out of town a lot, and this has been my SOP. I got a call that we had a significant issue that needed to be addressed, and instead of packing my truck and driving across the country, I had to book flights and catch the red eye to be there next morning. Threw my whole routine off and I don't do write down checklists, so I forgot about the water in the chaos. I've spent 18 of the last 24 months on the road, and all 18 of those months except for this 2 week short trip, the water was shut off as my house sat vacant

Thing is, this would have happened regardless as some point it was just a matter of time. Had it happened 3 mins after I left from work, its likely the same damage would have occurred unfortunately.

 

[500bbc]

I don't see it being $75k for rebuild. The adjuster did use the Xactimate software, he created a 3d model of my house in like 1 hour. I was blown away as I have some 3D modeling experience and that was unreal to see how quickly that came together. I have no doubt that the software favors them, they wouldn't use it if it didn't.

When you find a contractor it really helps justify the actual cost of the repairs if you use at least a similar software. They delineate every action by quantity and different price levels down to outlet covers, extra trip charges for small job, final professional cleaning of the house, drywall dusts everything.
I bid a job where they denied a claim, we settled for $400,000.00.

 

[500bbc]

What is a Public Adjuster? Can you recommend one (or more)?

PA's take 20% off the top, job has to be substantial before you hire one or you'll be left short. They need room to cover their 20%.

 

[500bbc]

Ok, so do I just go to town ripping out drywall and trying to dry this thing out myself while I look for contractors? My biggest concern is mold and structural damage to the sill plates. Silly to sit back and wait while fighting with ins. Don't really want to fight, not a good fighter when it comes to money. Just want things to be done correctly, and want liability of mold remediation on someone elses insurance policy.

Don't do anything yourself until you've settled! They'll claim you jacked everything up worse than it was. Dryout company should be one THEY referred. Everything they touch then is covered, dryout demo can fuck a lot of things up.

 

[evantwheeler]

Don't do anything yourself until you've settled! They'll claim you jacked everything up worse than it was. Dryout company should be one THEY referred. Everything they touch then is covered, dryout demo can fuck a lot of things up.

Exactly what i needed to hear. Thank you

 

[evantwheeler]

PA's take 20% off the top, job has to be substantial before you hire one or you'll be left short. They need room to cover their 20%.

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?

 

[Mandelon]

I'd let them go ahead with the dryout, then get bids for the rebuild. Don't take the money yet, until you know that budget is enough to cover it.

 

[evantwheeler]

I'd let them go ahead with the dryout, then get bids for the rebuild. Don't take the money yet, until you know that budget is enough to cover it.

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

 

[Done-it-again]

Like others have said...Don't take the $12k as its going to be more. Have you priced out contractors, material hikes lately?

I'll wager its going to about double that payout