Did you see the story in the news in February about the property owner in St. Petersburg, FL, who was suing an insurer for breach of an insurance contract alleging they refused to provide coverage for water damage?
As the story goes, the property owner sustained a covered loss due to damage on her property on 70th St. N., St. Petersburg. According to her, the insurance company then refused to pay for all her losses under the insurance policy, despite its initial assignment of a claim number and compliance precedent to entitle her to recover under the policy.
Dealing with a disaster is already overwhelming. Whether the nature of your loss is due to water, fire, mold or wind, you are left figuring out how you should proceed with the cost of the damages.
Cleanup: What You Should Do First?
Typically, water damage is only covered by insurance policies when a sudden event, such a bursting pipe, occurs. There are many unexpected or sudden causes for a water disaster:
- Bursting or leaking pipes
- A faulty or broken plumbing system
- Buildup in areas prone to collecting water, such as crawl spaces, attics, and basements
- A flat roof
- Blocked or broken gutters
- Malfunctioning household appliances
- HVACs issues
Living along the Gulf Coast of Florida, we are at a higher level of risk for flooding and storm damage as well, but natural and weather-related disasters are not usually covered by standard property insurance policies.
When it comes to cleanup, insurance is confusing, and the moment you get your insurance provider involved, you’ve opened a case you may not have wanted to open. You need to act fast, but you also need to act in your own best interest.
Calling a disaster relief company, like Master Restoration, is an ideal way to take the stress off of yourself in this difficult situation. We have a 24-hour emergency response line, and we’ll come quickly guide you through the entire process. It’s our job to make an assessment, gather evidence, work with your insurance company, and, ultimately, help you clean up and restore your property to a condition that is better than it was before.
You’ll get the best possible result from your water damage insurance claim with our expert guidance.
Using the latest technology in disaster recovery, Master Restoration can provide complete loss management and restoration services to residential and commercial properties in Florida.
Insurance Guarantee
When faced with water damage, you need peace of mind that someone is looking out for you. We’ve got your back. If after Master Restoration’s thorough investigation of your water damage and property you determine to make an insurance claim, we will not charge you if your iinsurance carrier denies the claim. Think of the stress that would have brought the St. Petersburg property owner. We don’t want you to have to face the additional stress she incurred.
How to Manage Cleanup
Now that you know someone is on your side, let’s look at what happens when the Master Restoration team shows up.
The first, and most important, step you can probably do yourself. When dealing with water damage, you need to stop any active leaks in the home immediately. This can be done by shutting off the home’s main water supply. If you don’t know how to shut off your home’s water supply, we can help you as soon as we arrive. This is one reason you want to call our 24-hour emergency response line quickly.
Once any active leaks have been addressed and all water has been turned off, it’s imperative to start the cleanup process as quickly as possible to minimize damage.
All restoration jobs are unique and the amount of work required for cleanup and restoration depends on a variety of factors, such as the amount of area in the home that’s been damaged and how long the water has been present. Once our professional water damage cleanup team arrives and has a chance to inspect the commercial or residential property, we’ll be able to put together a detailed project timeline specific to your job.
Common Phases of Restoration
Inspection: During the initial damage inspection, we will test surfaces like floors, baseboards, and ceilings in the water damage rooms to get an accurate reading. The moisture content readings will help us assess the drying equipment needed for your cleanup and restoration.
Additional Damage Prevention: The longer damage sits untreated, the more likely it is that additional damage can occur. We need to act quickly to prevent further damage like mold growth. Commercial-grade dehumidifiers can be used as long as necessary, depending on the length of time the water has been present and the source of the leak.
Water Removal: We need to suck out any standing water as soon as possible. The removal process itself is actually not complicated, and the amount of time this phase takes varies depending on the type of substrate that is being dried, the size of the room, and the total amount of water that’s present.
Drying: Once any standing water is removed, it’s time to start drying out the property. We may need to lift up a section of the carpet or position air movers at certain sections of the walls to ensure air is getting to the most saturated parts of the room. Some of the drying cleanup and restoration methods may appear to be extreme, but it’s necessary to make every effort to fully dry the property so we can prevent demolishing and rebuilding.
Containment: The containment and drying phases happen simultaneously. While drying out space, wet areas are taped off in order to concentrate the heat and suction to the rooms that need to be dried out. Containment is critical as it enables our team to maintain the environment of the room and dry the home as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Renovation: Once the damaged property has been returned to its previous dry state, the cleanup process is considered complete and the restoration process can begin. This is our chance to bring your property back to a beautiful, functioning state. At Master Restoration, we don’t want to just leave you feeling “back to normal”–we want to leave you Better Than Before.
Property owners, don’t start with a call to your insurance agent. Start with a call to the Master Restoration team first. You need assurance that your building is structurally sound and safe, and left looking better than they were before the water damage. Master Restoration’s team is always ready to respond to property emergencies resulting from water or other disasters. Our team is comprised of trusted and licensed professionals that bring experience and expertise to every job, no matter the size.
We are on-call and prepared with our 24/7 Emergency Response line.