Need CPs help pls... Flooding in house

[spiteface]

Hello all

I was just wondering if anybody knows how to deal with a flood that occurred on the 2nd floor of our house, entered the furnace system, and also entered the walls/floors. As a result, about 40% of our house is affected. What is the protocol besides notifying the insurance etc.. Where do we live? Can we immediately find another place to live and not really have to worry about the rental expense as long as it's a reasonable cost? What kind of timeline are we looking at for repairs? Any advice would help, thank you.

[psyang]

That sucks!

We had a bit of flooding in our house recently due to a leaky water line to our fridge. Hardwood floor warped and basement ceiling under the fridge collapsed.

Insurance has treated us really well. They got a recovery team in the same day to cut our wet ceiling and wet basement floor, then set up fans and dehumidifiers to dry things out. These are left running for three days. Over that time, the adjuster, a renovation company project manager and a flooring guy came out to assess damage and within a week we had a full estimate to repair the damage. I also repaired the leak with a couple hundred in parts. This was not covered - only damage due to the leak, not cause of leak, is covered in our policy.

We were then given a choice to have the reno company do the repairs, or to take the money and be responsible for the repairs ourselves. We are currently getting an estimate from another reno company and will decide when we get their estimate.

I think it will be up to your policy whether alternate living expenses are covered, and if so, to what degree. We will have to move out for 2-3 days when the floor gets refinished, but until then the house is livable so we are lucky in that sense.

Bottom line, insurance company will be able to answer all your questions. Good luck!

[llwhiteoutll]

Best advice? Talk to your insurance company as these are all questions only they can answer. Someone on here saying you can go get a hotel that's under $x/night will do you no good when your insurance company denies payment. Same goes for repairs, we have no idea of the extent of repairs or contractor lead times or the route insurance plans to take fixing things

[spiteface]

Of course, ultimately the insurance company will determine what will be provided, however im wondering based on previous experiences as psyang mentioned. it's a bit of a shock and getting a few different opinions can help ease the way. thanks to all.

[pseudoreality]

Sorry to hear. I had a flood in my house five years ago shortly after I got married. The flex connector the sink busted apart and water sprayed everywhere for hours before we came home to the mess. I called my insurance company, who was Intact at the time. An adjuster was over in 15 minutes and a fire/flood crew was over in 20 minutes. It was kind of surreal as they just started boxing up my house, ripping up floors and putting fans everywhere. I felt like I totally lost control of my house. We stayed a few days at a hotel before moving into a friends basement suite for a month and then went on our honeymoon. It was stressful and I had to take a hard line with the repair contractor on a few shortcuts they tried to get away with, but when it was all done we ended up with a better house. I think the total insurance hit was about $75k and my premiums went up by like $100/year. I also got all the asbestos out of my house as part of the project, so bonus there. Good luck and hang in there. My only advice is to be on the repair contractor and let him know even though the insurance company is paying, they are working for you.

[Locke]

I'm going through this right now, really all you can do is call your insurance company.

Its a massive pain, we had to live in a hotel room for a week and I've been bringing my dog with me to work because our house is basically unlivable. All of my appliances are in my living room because my kitchen is poly'd off and the stain they use on hardwood literally makes me sick. And on top of that the water went down so all of furnace/storage room stuff is in my basement so I cant even watch TV, I've had stuff on my deck outside.

Insurance pays for our meals, hotel, you name it. They're doing a great job, I cant fault them, its a hard process for the family but theres really nothing you can do but grin and bear it.

Your insurance company and restoration workers are doing the best they can as fast as they can but theres limits to how fast they can go, no sense getting uptight about anything.

It sucks. This is the very first time I've ever made an insurance claim. I'm pretty impressed overall, but its water. It takes forever to fix this nonsense. I'm just glad it didnt happen in the dead of winter.

[Dion]

The restoration company will tear out what they need and install dehumidifier fans to remove all humidity in the air from the water and to dry things out.

It's very important that the house is dried out properly. You don't want mold appearing later on because you started the rebuilding phase too early. This happened a lot after the flood of 2013 in High River.

After that they will give you a list of approved contractors or you can take the money upfront and choose your own.

Last but not least keep an eye on the contractor and make sure they don't try to cut any corners. It's your home and you have the right to the job being done right. The one I had after the 2013 flood in High River was an ####### and his work had to be checked on a regular basis.