My Joy My World

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the crazy week we had, which included our basement flooding from the monstrous storm that submerged much of Chicagoland in water. We were lucky enough not to get it as bad as many others did in our area, but it was enough to cause damage to our entire finished basement. We were shocked and overwhelmed when it happened, to say the least, but in asking advice from other homeowners, we were surprised to find that no one we knew had ever experienced putting in a homeowners insurance claim for flood damage before. We ended up figuring it out and getting everything taken care of but not without learning some important lessons along the way.

The worst of the storm happened in the very early morning hours Thursday, April 18th, while we were asleep. After getting over the initial shock and cleaning up as much as we could, we called our insurance company that afternoon to put in the claim and found we have a $5000 limit for flood damage. They gave us the name of the restoration company they usually go through but said an insurance adjuster wouldn’t call us until the next day to set up an appointment. Our entire basement is carpeted and we did not want mold to start growing so we rented a Rug Doctor to suck up the water while we waited to hear from the insurance adjuster to advise us what to do next. We also had some friends come over to help us bring up the boxes that were in our storage area so we can get through the ones that got wet from sitting on the floor.

Lesson Learned: If you cannot afford shelving in the storage area of your basement, lay down 2x4s to stack boxes on top of so they are not sitting on the floor in case of a flood. We actually learned this lesson in our previous house, but for some reason did not think of doing the same thing when we moved into our current house.

That Friday came and went, and despite leaving multiple messages for the insurance adjuster, she never called. After hours of trying to suck up water with the Rug Doctor and our carpet cleaner, the carpet in the basement was still soaking wet, so we decided we couldn’t wait anymore for someone to come clean it up.

Lessons Learned: Call your insurance company as soon as the damage to your home happens. If you’re not able to speak to an insurance adjuster right away, do not wait to hear back from them to call a company to come clean up the damage.

We called the restoration company our insurance company recommended Friday afternoon. They gave us a general quote of $10-$15 per square foot for clean-up, but couldn’t send someone out to our house for an actual estimate until the next day. That weekend was very busy for us, so we called the restoration company multiple times to find out when someone was coming out to our house. Each time, they told us the call was dispatched out so we should be hearing from someone “very soon”. We never heard from them that Saturday and no one ever came. They finally called late Sunday morning as we were getting ready to leave for a family event. Apparently, by this time, the water had not only soaked the carpet in the basement, but it also started going up the drywall so they were going to have to cut out at least a foot of drywall from the floor. They estimated close to $10,000 just to rip out the carpet and cut out part of the drywall in our basement, and they would not have been able to come out to start the process until that Tuesday or Wednesday.

Lessons Learned: $5000 is not even close to enough money to clean-up flood damage, let alone repair it too. We need a higher limit! Water in the basement will not only damage the flooring, furniture, and other items on the floor, but also the walls.

That night, we were panicking a little thinking about how we were going to afford the basement clean-up. We thought about doing it ourselves, but more than 800 square feet of finished basement is too much for just my husband and I to do and we didn’t know the first thing about cutting out drywall. We decided to call around other companies even though it was a little difficult for us to find since we weren’t sure what to search for. The person at one company we called did not have their pricing information with them and said they would call us back the next day (we were not going to go through that again). The other company we called quoted $4-$6 per square foot for clean-up and said they would be at our house the next morning to start, so we took it.

Lesson Learned: Do not just call the company your insurance company recommends. Call around to different companies to get quotes, and do this as soon as the damage happens.

The restoration company came Monday morning and estimated $5500-$7500 to rip up the carpet and vinyl flooring in the bathroom, cut out the drywall, and dry everything out with big dehumidifiers and fans. When I asked how we would pay for it, they explained that we would owe $2000 at that time and when they were finished, we could work out the rest with our insurance company. He was very vague as how we would do that, but I did not think anything of it. Meanwhile, an insurance adjuster FINALLY called us (a different person than who was originally assigned to our claim)! Luckily, he was very nice. He set up an appointment to come by that Friday.

The entire process lasted Monday to Saturday. It took about 2 1/2 hours for them to rip out all of the carpet and put in 6 fans and 2 dehumidifiers that Monday. They came back Wednesday afternoon to remove the baseboards and cut out the drywall, which took about 3 or 4 hours. They ended up finding pre-existing mold behind some of the baseboards in my office, probably from my office being flooded almost 2 years before (we thought we had gotten all the water at that time).

Lesson Learned: Even if it’s just a little bit of water in a carpeted basement, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get all the water out and prevent mold from growing. Rip out the carpet right away!

I work from home in the basement, and not knowing what cutting out drywall entails, I asked if I would be able to work when they came back on Wednesday. They assured me that they would be able to work around me and it would be okay if I had to be on the phone. That surely was not the case as even with my office door closed, they were very loud, and they ended up asking me to leave my office for an hour because of the dust from the drywall. I thought that would be the last time I would see them, but they left with the loud machines (dehumidifiers and fans) still in our basement and said they would be back in the next couple of days.

Lesson Learned: If the clean-up affects your normal day to day activities (ie, work), ask exactly what they are going to do and how long the whole process will take.

The insurance adjuster came Friday morning, and, luckily, approved us to receive the entire $5000 limit for the flood damage. He was actually very surprised when we told him how much the restoration was going to charge us without replacing any of the flooring and drywall. He thought they were taking advantage of us since so many people needed help in our area and admitted they should not be charging that much. He also said the company should be able to invoice us so we can pay them once we get the check from the insurance company, and advised to call the restoration company right away to remove the machines from our basement so they would not charge us anymore for the dehumidifier and fan rental since our basement was completely dry by then (we did not think about rental fees). We were to expect the insurance check to come within the next week.

Lesson Learned: Before a restoration company starts any clean-up, ask for a list of charges and how much they charge per square foot, per day or per hour, and/or per machine so you know what to expect.

The restoration company ended up coming to remove the machines and finish everything up that Saturday morning. We told them they would need to invoice us and we would pay them as soon as we received the check from the insurance company or bill our insurance company, but they said they would not be able to do that (even though their website highlights that they have insurance direct billing available). We ended up having to pay another $2000 right then and write a post-dated check for the rest. Luckily, our insurance check came in before the date of the post-dated check the Friday after.

Lesson Learned: If you ask about how the service will be paid and they give you a vague answer, ask more questions until they specifically tell you how exactly they expect you to pay for it.

As you can see, just getting our basement cleaned up from flooding has been quite a process, but I’m glad all of that is over! Now, we just have to finish cleaning up what’s left and work on replacing the flooring and drywall. I will be updating you on our progress here, so stay tuned!

Are there any lessons you have learned from any similar experiences? Do you have any advice for some novice DIYers trying to figure out how to fix up our basement? Leave me a comment below

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