Water heater leaked, water went under walls and seeped under laminate floors in dining/living room. Insurance sent out restoration expert 1.5 weeks ago - they ripped up flooring, baseboards, tested water levels, and we had to do 4 days with fans/humidifiers going nonstop.
Insurance sent out contractor last week who measured all the space that needed flooring. He said the insurance company would be in touch in 3-4 days.
We haven't heard back (we'll call Tuesday) but in the meantime, we're wondering what the next step is. Do they send you a dollar figure to work with when choosing flooring? Or do they send you to a partner flooring store to choose? I know the contractor is going to be doing all the work but they don't sell flooring.
We have time tomorrow to look at flooring options but didn't want to bother if we weren't going to get the option to look at major brands.
Would love insight if anyone has been there/done that! In the meantime, we're living on half laminate planks/half concrete with all our furniture spread around. It's so random HA!
I had an insurance claim once for my upstairs neighbor's whirlpool tub that leaked and ruined our ceiling. They just sent someone out and cut us a check we used to pay servicemaster to come out and dry everything out. Sounds like yours might work a little differently.
Post by kitchenreno on Sept 1, 2014 8:43:10 GMT -5
we had a leak from our 2nd floor bath into our 1st floor kitchen. We had an insurance person come out - they told us they'd give us X amount to repair. We then had them come out again with our contractor who explained what other things needed to be done and why that amount was too low. Insurance company agreed, new reimbursemet amount was (original X they offered) x 3. Then contractor started work. He found more damage hidden in walls/floor and advised us to call an independent adjuster. That adjuster came out and provided a new estimate to the insurance company. After several weeks (months?), we got X x 10 reimbused to us...literally 10x what they originally told us.
I would hire a private adjuster if I were you. In our case, their fee was 10% of the reimbursement. It was WELL worth it for us.
We had a similar leak last year with our washer. Our insurance (Allstate) gave us a replacement amnt and recommended a flooring store. That store then gave us the special insurance job rate so it really was the best deal and they had experience working with insurance. I got another quote and it was quite a bit higher.
So basically Allstate cut the check to the flooring store.
We lived half concrete/half laminate for about a month...it was a mess. But I love my new floor!
We did have to keep on insurance to keep the process moving.
Also, they investigated our washer and went after the manufacturer due to a defect so that covered our deductible.
We also had a water heater leak, but it took a while to catch so unfortunately we had mold involved too. Our contractor was essentially preapproved by State Farm so they worked pretty directly with insurance and submitted a budget for review. We got the final check that we then signed over to the contractor once we were satisfied.