Earlier this year, I started writing a series of blogs about a mysterious puddle that appeared on the floor. This led to my husband and I filing an insurance claim. Today, I am delighted to say that the repair work on the wall that was damage by rain has been completed. No more puddles on the floor!
This all started with a puddle on the floor. It appeared in the corner of a room, and was fairly easy to mop up with a couple of hand towels. My husband and I figured that the puddle had something to do with the severe amount of rain we had been getting at that time. It was strange, though, because the puddle wasn’t located under a window.
We filed a claim with our homeowners insurance company. The insurer sent out some workers from a particular repair company. The workers used a moisture meter to determine how badly the wall was damaged. The good news was that there was very little moisture in the walls. The workers could not make the repairs yet, though, because we still needed the insurer to do some things first.
Next, a claims inspector came to the house. He took a look at the wall, which was slightly warped at the bottom due to the rain. The claims inspector got out a ladder, and walked around on our roof, checking it out. He declared that the roof was fine.
Our homeowners insurance comes with a deductible that must be paid down before the insurer will provide financial assistance. The claims inspector figured out the total cost of the damage, subtracted the deductible, and wrote us a check for what was left. The amount of money on the check was what we could use in order to pay the repair company that comes over and fixes the wall.
We called back the original repair company, but, they said that they could not do the work because they didn’t work with our insurance company. I’ve no idea why that was so. This left us with the money to pay for the repair work, but, without a repair company to come do it.
Today, I am happy to say that the repair work to the walls has been completed. We hired an excellent carpenter to come do the repair work. This carpenter was someone we had worked with before. He rebuilt our back steps for us a while ago.
He works quickly, and does high quality work. He was able to inform us that the inside of the wall was not covered with mold – something we had concerns about. He removed the damaged part of the wall, replaced it, and added a nice moulding that will prevent water from forming another puddle on the floor.
The amount of money we paid to the carpenter fit within the amount of money that the insurance company gave us for the necessary repair work. This part is done. Next, we need to have someone come take a look at the roof, because the insurance company now thinks we need to repair it.
Image by Patrick Fitzgerald on Flickr