Home repair....

So, the owner of our remodeling company was finally able to make it out today to assess our damage. If you go back a blog entry or two, you'll see the pics from the big storms that came through. Our street got flooded. We thought we made it without any water since our basement was dry, but soon discovered water upstairs in the living room. We had someone come out and look at the chimney who said it wasn't the chimney. I assumed if it wasn't the chimney, then it was the roof. Our 5 year old roof. Our roofers are out of business. I called them first. Great.

Then, we had our remodeling/repair company come out. The first guy that came out said that he was 80% sure he knew where the leak was, but wanted the owner to come out with the thermal imaging camera to make sure they weren't missing anything. The spot that he was thinking was the culprit was the siding, not the roof. Phew....that's cheaper to fix. (if that was the leak)

After that, the insurance "catastrophe recovery team" came out to give us an estimate on what they'd cover. I was cautiously optimistic after that because he came to the same conclusion about where the water came in, and made it sound like they'd cover most of the expenses. I didn't feel like I had to fight him at all for what they'd cover. He even said they'd have to cover the cost of painting the entire upstairs because we have an open floor plan and there wasn't any good "break" in the room. Then, we got the packet from the insurance company in the mail. Let's say I almost laughed at the little amount they said they'd cover. We're going to try to get more after the repairs are done. We didn't have an actual estimate from our re-modelers yet.

Today, the owner of the remodeling company came out with all the specialized equipment. He had called ahead of time and had us clear out our closet so he could get up into the crawl space if he needed to. He showed me with the camera where the water damage was inside the wall. It was bad enough that he felt he needed to get inside. After he came back down, he said he had some bad news. Great. There are two leaks, both due to the roofer's job around the chimney. Not only did the drywall get soaked in the last storm, but we have rotten wood around the chimney that needs to come out. That means ripping a hole into our relatively new roof, repairing the drywall and a few 2x4's, and re-shingling. Oh how I wish the roofers had left us a pack of shingles, but no. At the time, we didn't know any better, so we didn't question it. Oh yeah....also have to pull the siding off around the chimney to seal it. That's just the outside work.

Inside, the drywall from ceiling to floor on the fireplace wall has to come down (we have vaulted ceilings). And on the ceiling, it has to be ripped out to about a foot from the wall. The mantel and the trim around the fireplace are buckled, as is the baseboard in the corner. That all has to come out. Oh....and since the drywall behind the fireplace has to come down, that includes the tile around the fireplace. The floor is also buckled in the corner. We do have some flooring left....they should be able to use that. We don't have the actual estimate yet, but we're looking at about $2000 for the outside work and $3000-$4000 for the inside. So much for the painting that was included by the insurance company.....the total amount of what they sent us would pretty much only cover painting, if we painting everything. However, the re-modelers can color match the existing paint and only paint what is needed if we need save a bit. Oh, and we had a picture hung above the mantle what was ruined. The water soaked through the wall and saturated the picture. I discovered the damage when I sat down on the couch to talk on the phone....looked up, and saw the picture covered in mold. The frame was okay, so I'm going to try to reuse it with either the family pictures we just had taken, or pictures that I've done.

As bad as it sounds, and as much of a headache as this will be....it's kind of a blessing in disguise. If we didn't have the bad storm that soaked the wall, we never would have known that we also had a leak that was continually happening. If he hadn't gone up into the crawl space, we wouldn't have known that the wood was rotten until we had a HUGE problem and had to redo the chimney. It was caught soon enough this time. And....if the bulk of the water that came in didn't happen during a storm like that ("wind driven rain" they're calling it), the insurance company wouldn't have covered much of the cost since it was a builder error that probably caused the leak.

This is the wall that is damaged.



This is where the picture was hanging.



This is the buckled baseboard.