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In case you hadn’t heard, on Wednesday night, B and I came home to a flood in our house. Not, surprisingly, from the flood that happened two weeks ago, but actually from a burst water pipe in our laundry room.
As of now, we are still waiting for our insurance to send out someone to assess the damage, which means it’s nearly been a week that we’ve been dealing with a completely torn up house. The insurance company at least sent out a company to clean up the soaked carpets and furniture, so we’re living in limbo of a (hopefully) clean house, but we’re missing carpet and the house still smells funky. All in all, it’s rough.
However, there is always a silver lining in cases like this! You can learn from my mistake – lucky you! Here is how to survive a flood in your house, at least financially. You’re on your own if you need swimming lessons, though. 🙂
Before it Happens
1. If you haven’t already, review your home insurance policy and know what it covers. Make sure your homeowners insurance covers flooding and water damage. Note: pipes that burst can be different from flooding caused by Mother Nature. Check your home insurance policy and call if you have questions.
2. Document anything worth over $100 in pictures (and receipts, if possible). Even if you hate that old couch, take pictures of it and try to keep receipts for everything over $100 item you own. It sounds tedious, but I promise it will come in handy.
When it Happens
3. Obviously, turn off your water. Don’t let it get worse. Do some research about Water Damage Clean Up and make sure you do things like get ventilation into the house to help dry the water out.
4. If there are two of you, have one person document the damage and the other person call the insurance company. Both are equally important, but if you have to choose, call the insurance company first. If they don’t offer, request they provide you a company to clean up the water damage. This company should directly bill the insurance company, so no money out of your pocket.
5. Try to clean up as best you can so you can get around your house, but don’t do too much. Now is a good time for further documentation, to take pictures of exactly where the damage is and what is damaged. If the clean-up company isn’t coming to your house until the next day, try to wall off the area with tarp if you have any, or just stay away from the flooded area as best as possible.
6. Start estimating how much the damage will cost you. The clean-up company should take care of treating the walls and baseboards for mold, plus dry out the carpet, but you may want to replace the carpet entirely. Our carpet was absolutely drenched, and we ripped it out some of it as soon as we could (too soon, because we didn’t document the damage our mistake!)
7. Estimate EVERYTHING. Cost of paint, cost to replace lost/damaged shelving, carpet, wood floors, furniture, paintings/art on the walls, appliances that got wet. Leave no stone unturned.
Dealing with the Aftermath
Depending on your insurance, the appraiser may assess the damage and give you a check based on what s/he sees and the evidence (in the form of pictures, receipts) presented. Your insurance company, on the other hand, may want you to get bids from companies to fix the damage and replace lost items, and have you submit receipts to them. If you are unsure where to find a flood cleanup company then start at https://waterdamageroundrocktx.com/flood-cleanup/ and get their bid.
However, your insurance company chooses to pay, follow it to the letter and try to maximize the amount you get. Your insurance company may try to give you less, based on wear and tear, but argue your case if you think they are not being fair. This is your stuff, and you pay insurance every month for precisely this reason. It is to ensure your stuff.
Your insurance premiums may go up after this. Ours has not, yet, but it’s pretty much a given, so expect that. You could use this opportunity to shop around other homeowners insurance companies, if you think the price has gone up too high.
Start the cycle all over again! For anything that is replaced, document, document, document. Keep receipts, invoices, and take pictures. You will be better prepared next time!
Have you ever weathered a financial ‘flood’ in your house? If not a flood, what happened and how did you handle it?
This is something I need to be better at – taking pictures of our items for documentation and keeping the receipts! It’s so simple, but I haven’t done it.
It’s so easy! You can do it whenever you go into the kitchen for food, or living room to relax, etc. If you have your phone anywhere near you, just grab it and snap. You can upload the pictures later, but just take them! I wish I had taken more.
Oi, what a disaster. I would immediately call my spouse’s uncle, who is a retired adjuster, and ask what to do to ensure we have everything sorted out. Taking pictures of our crap and storing them in the cloud somewhere is one of those “I keep meaning to do that” things. *sigh* Stories like this should get my butt in gear, but never seem to do so.
Like I said to Brandy, it doesn’t have to be a chore 🙂 If you keep your phone on you, or have it handy, you can just take some photos while you’re making food, or relaxing in the living room and upload them later. Low maintenance but soooo necessary! I’m jealous you have an adjuster in the family 🙂
I NEED to put together a document of photos and estimated value for our things — thanks for the reminder! It’s kind of shameful how long I’ve been putting it off…
Good luck! I hope everything gets sorted out quickly and smoothly.
Thank you! Having a document and estimated value on a spreadsheet is an even better idea! I know that any work we have done, I will definitely keep receipts of and probably start an Excel tracking doc – just in case!
I’m so sorry the insurance company is still dragging their feet on this! I think flood insurance is a tricky one. You never want to hear, “Well, that’s not covered!” So I agree on reviewing your policy and getting the particulars.
For a second I thought we weren’t covered (until I realized it’s flooding from Mother Nature that isn’t covered) and I about had a heart attack. You don’t realize how expensive water damage can be until it happens, and you start tallying everything, like the dryers, wall repair, cost of replacing paint, carpet, furniture, shelving… it adds up FAST!
I’ll keep you posted on the saga! 🙂
Ugh, that bites. I had no idea that the insurance company would send someone out to clean that up though. That’s a nice perk.
Yeah, we were pretty excited about that too! You should have seen us before we realized that was an option… we put all the fans we own (like, 4) on one area, then we would rotate them to another wet area… we also soaked a bunch of towels trying to get it cleaned up. Now we know better! 🙂
Wow, so sorry you had to go through this. We had a feeder line to the dishwasher come loose once, but thank goodness I was in the kitchen at the time so there was only a teeny bit of damage — I can’t imagine coming home to the flood you did. Very glad your insurance is helping resolve it.
Thanks for the reminders to help us prepare.
Thank you, Jean! Everything is slowly coming together, but I definitely wouldn’t wish this hassle on anyone. That’s why if people are prepared, they can at least avoid some of the headache! I’m glad your leak wasn’t too bad, and you were able to catch it!
Good thing our home is in a very high area. But better prepared than sorry, right?
Very true! But burst pipes can happen in any house 🙂
I love the way you presented this blog with (Before it happens, When it happens, and Dealing with the aftermath). A creative way of pointing things clearly.
I do agree with you on this one, and I would really like to give emphasis on the “Before it happens” phase. This way we don’t get to burden ourselves with no assurance of some support of some sort once unfortunate events occur.
So very true! Before terrible things happen in your home, it’s easy to think “oh, it will never happen to me” and under-insure yourself. It’s better to pay a little extra each month for a ‘worst case scenario’, even if you never end up needing it. Better safe than sorry!
Thanks for sharing this advice on surviving a flood in your home. I agree that it is important to have a good health insurance policy, especially if you don’t want to pay for repairs yourself. Documenting everything you own is the best way to secure all the funds you need for replacing ruined things, too. I also think it is good to get a good flood cleanup crew to take a look at the damage and give you an estimate for repairing absolutely everything. They would be able to give you an accurate estimate since they deal with flood frequently.
I hated dealing with water damage at our home. We had a leaky fridge that caused us to have water damage in our walls. It led to multiple different problems. It has now been a few months and we are still cleaning up the mess from the wall. I wish that water leaks were easier to spot.
My aunt also had a flood in her home that ruined most of the basement. Your tip to review your home insurance policy is a great one because many times when something like this occurs, people do not know their coverage and they are unprepared. Taking pictures is also a great tip because you need to accurately document the damage. Thanks for the tips!
The tip that was mentioned about having one person document the water damage and the other to call up the insurance company sure is a neat idea to do. At the moment, my wife and I are dealing with a flood that occurred in our basement. We are also looking to find a water damage restoration company that can help us to fix the walls and to find out how the basement over flooded with water.
Melissa, recently a friend of mine experienced some home flooding from a burst pipe. Their experience made me realize that I wouldn’t be prepared if something like that happened in my house! The tip about reviewing our homeowners policy seems like a good idea. It is so nice that there are companies that can help restore a home from water damage!
That is great advice to clean up what you can, but don’t do too much. When you need to make an insurance claim, sometimes it is just better to leave things as they’ve happened and then call the experts. If you have coverage that can pay for your water damage, why wreck that “warranty” by trying to fix the problem yourself.
I really like the suggestion you give to make sure to call the insurance company first. As much as documentation is important, the insurance company does this on their own anyway. Thus, calling the insurance company as soon as possible will allow you to get the help that you need and your home restored back to its original condition. Thank you for the insight!
Some really good friend’s of mine were just flooded out of their home. Now that the water has been cleared out, there is a lot of damage that needs to be fixed up. I’ll have to show them this and see if it can help them on the financial aspect of it all.
These are some great tips for surviving a flood. Our home was flooded when I was a young boy, and I remember how stressful it was on my parents. I like how you talked about estimating how much EVERYTHING will cost to restore or replace. That really is a good idea.