If you've been following my stories on Instagram then you probably remember that last month we had a leak upstairs which lead to our home being turned upside down. It was a fiasco for what I thought was just a simple leak. Let me either remind you or let you know what went down last month.
We have our water heater upstairs in the hallway inside a water heater closet. I know you're probably thinking why anyone would put a water heater upstairs and yeah I agree - it's a really dumb place to put one because water heaters leak! But, that's how all the homes in my neighborhood were built and I didn't really think anything of it when we first bought our home. Anyway, the water heater leaked and ended up damaging the carpet, some walls, the flooring upstairs and the ceiling downstairs. There were no gushes of water or anything...it was just a small leak that I think happened throughout the morning hours but it was enough water to really saturate the carpet upstairs and the wood in between the top and bottom floors.
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| you can see that the water damage spread pretty far. View from downstairs. |
At first I thought "no big deal, we will just let everything air dry, install a new water heater and call it a day. But every time I spoke to anyone about our leak, they all looked really concerned and recommended I get a restoration company to come out to dry and possibly restore the water damage in our home because where there's moisture, there will probably be mold in the future if the water damage isn't treated properly. AND WE ALL KNOW THAT MOLD IS EVEN A BIGGER ISSUE IN A HOME! After being scared out of our wits, my wife (which happens to be an insurance agent) and I decided to call our insurance broker over at BFI Insurance to get her perspective on the situation. After she answered a few questions, my wife and I decided to make a claim with our insurance. Thank God we did.
Fortunately our insurance covered all the cost to repair and restore our home back to how it was before the leak. The total cost for restoration was well over what we would have been to afford to pay out of pocket and I really don't know how we would have done it if it wasn't for the wonderful team at Safeco Insurance! Our insurance adjusters from Safeco were AMAZING. When they came to visit our home to assess the damage they were very adamant that they would get our home to the state it was before the water damage happened. I really felt like we were really taken care of and that everything was going to be fine.
Along with Safeco Insurance, we were also fortunate to have found a very good Restoration company that so far I have been SO IMPRESSED WITH! They were recommended to me by the plumber that installed the new water heater and what a blessing that was. So far, Mission Restoration has done a great job with drying and restoring our home after the leak. Sean from Mission Restoration has made us feel secure and confident that we would get our home back to how it was. He's also very involved with our insurance company and pretty much takes care of all the details with them which means less work and worrying for us! It was still a shock coming home to see part of my house taken apart, though!
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| living with these noisy fans and de-humidifier really sucked (no pun intended). They worked so well that they even sucked all the moisture out of my skin. I think I aged 10 years with these things. |
So what has been done so far?
- Damaged carpet ripped out
- Damaged drywall ripped out
- Wet wood dried with fans for about 5 days
- New drywall added
- New paint added
- New water heater installed
And it's all been done perfectly. I'm happy to say that you can't even tell where the new drywall was installed :) Even though things went smoothly, it still sucked to be living with those noisy fans and running out of hot water because of the temporary water heater but hey, it had to be done. A small price to pay for getting my home back to normal.
All that's left is new carpet and baseboards and we're done! We will be visiting Rayo Wholesale Carpet in a couple days to choose new carpet and I'm super excited about it! Will be sharing soon :)
Water damage, or really ANY type of damage to a home is a very scary thing. It's been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. Our home is our safe little sanctuary and it's crazy how any little defect can disrupt our everyday lives! We were so scared that our home wasn't ever going to be the same. There were so many questions running through our head! Questions like: will we get mold?? Will insurance even cover this? If not, how will we pay for all this? Will the restoration work turn out okay? Fortunately we were in good hands with our restoration company and our insurance.
Speaking of insurance, going through this I have learned that I am clueless to how insurance works. And the embarrassing part is that my wife actually has 20 years experience in insurance! She obviously knew what was covered and how this was all going to play out, but me..? Nope! Not a clue. My life pretty much revolves around design so I don't really make time to learn much else, haha!
I thought it would be a good idea to share some information about home insurance with you because it can be very beneficial for homeowners to understand how insurance works and how you can be sure that you have the right coverage for your home. I'll be collecting some valuable information from those in the insurance trade including my wife and our insurance broker. Stay tuned for that post, which should be coming out next week :)
Till next time!
Oscar
Thanks for the info, & did you move the water heater downstairs?
ReplyDeleteWe thought about moving it to the garage, but unfortunately the cost for that was way over our budget since we would have to move pipes, ect. But we did get a sensor on our water heater to let us know if its malfunctioning
DeleteGreat detail and not a boring read. So glad things are working out. When we built the home I decided in. Tankless water heater because I heard the horror stories. Thank God y'all caught it quickly.
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