Episode 1842
Flooded Home? Expert Tips to Restore and Recover!
Dealing with the aftermath of a flood can be daunting, especially for homeowners who are faced with the immediate challenge of water damage. The podcast meticulously outlines a step-by-step approach to managing flood-related issues in one's home. It emphasizes the importance of initial actions such as ensuring the exterior of the house is waterproofed to prevent further damage. Homeowners are advised to secure their roofs with tarps or repairs against ongoing weather threats. The discussion then shifts to the critical need for removing wet materials from the home, as lingering moisture can lead to mold development, which poses additional health risks. The host, Eric G., stresses the importance of documenting the damage for insurance claims, advising homeowners to take photographs and keep records of their cleanup efforts to facilitate the claims process later on. He highlights the distinctions between types of water damage—differentiating between flood water from external sources and water damage due to internal leaks—which can significantly affect insurance coverage.
Takeaways:
- Preparation is essential for dealing with natural disasters like floods and hurricanes.
- Document all damage with photos and notes for insurance claims processing.
- Remove all wet materials from your home to prevent mold growth and further damage.
- Utilize dehumidifiers and air conditioning to lower humidity levels inside the house.
- Be cautious when filing insurance claims to ensure proper coverage and understanding of policies.
- Consider hiring a public adjuster to help navigate dealing with insurance companies.
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Transcript
It's around the house.
Eric G.:What happens when you have a house that is flooded and what are you going to do to take care of it?
Eric G.:Now on our midweek special this last week, we talked about something really important that, that was making sure that you're prepared for these kind of things.
Eric G.:And we're starting to see that with Asheville, North Carolina, with them not having water for five, six, seven days.
Eric G.:You're seeing all of these situations where places are cut off.
Eric G.:And it's a great remark for all of you that listen on the radio that didn't catch on the podcast to really make sure that you're prepared for that next natural disaster.
Eric G.:We're on the house shows brought to you by pyramid heating and cooling serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.
Eric G.:They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.
Eric G.: pyramidheating.com Oregon CCB: Eric G.:When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered.
Eric G.:This is around the house.
Eric G.:Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric G.:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric G.:I'm eric G.
Eric G.:We've got a great episode coming up here for you.
Eric G.:But first, we are brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grill.
Eric G.:If you're out there looking around, trying to figure out what you need to replace that barbecue that didn't make it through the summer, best place to go to save some money.
Eric G.:Montymcgrills.com dot they've got some best barbecues out there for under $900.
Eric G.:There's a lot of great features and you can check it out there.
Eric G.:Now to track us down here in the studio, you can find us at aroundthehouse online.com dot.
Eric G.:And when you're over there, make sure you check out because we have our own YouTube page and stuff.
Eric G.:Now, outside of what we've been doing on the tv show, and that is getting more and more content over there.
Eric G.:And you can find that all at aroundthehouse online.com dot.
Eric G.:Today I wanted to make this a very topical subject because I think it's very important.
Eric G.:We have got a large section of the country here in the south that really got hit by Hurricane Helene.
Eric G.:And I want to talk today about what you can do if you have water damage in your house.
Eric G.:This is going to be try to be this hour kind of an end all, be all to get you the most information that you can.
Eric G.:So there's a lot of people out there that are hurting anybody that can donate to the Red Cross or other charities that would be really good to help these people out.
Eric G.:Anything does help and they're in a pretty bad situation down there.
Eric G.:And because some of these areas are, are less populated, that story doesn't get out if it was in another big metropolitan area.
Eric G.:So these are areas that just get hammered and these people are out fending on their own.
Eric G.:So the first thing I really want to talk about is what happens if you have a basement or your house got significant water damage?
Eric G.:The first thing I'm going to say is when you've got a hurricane like this many times, it's not only water damage, maybe it's a tree roof that, you know, tree went through the roof or there's branches or a roof blown off.
Eric G.:So the first thing im going to say is lets get the top, make sure you get the outside weather proofed so we dont get any more damage inside.
Eric G.:So lets make sure and get that roof repaired or some tarps up there, something dialed in to keep that a little bit under control because we dont want to be cleaning up and having the mess keep creating itself over and over again.
Eric G.:Now heres the thing.
Eric G.:If its saltwater flooding, many times there'll be sand with that and everything else.
Eric G.:So the first thing is, and let's talk about some, some general rules of water damage.
Eric G.:If you've had water in there for over 30 hours, 48 hours, you are now dealing with a mold abatement issue.
Eric G.:So you're going to have to take care of that as well.
Eric G.:But the first thing we need to do is get all the wet stuff out of the house.
Eric G.:If you've got a flooded basement, get the water out of there and then start removing everything that was wetland.
Eric G.:Now if you've got asbestos or lead, I recommend doing the right test for that to make sure that you don't have asbestos flooring, you don't have asbestos drywall compounds.
Eric G.:You don't have lead paint on moldings or trim or even walls.
Eric G.:Make sure that you get that so you know what you're doing and you're doing it safely.
Eric G.:And you can dispose of it safely later.
Eric G.:But you're going to want to get in and get all of this wet stuff out because our next job is clean up and get the humidity down inside the house.
Eric G.:So tricks you can do, if your air conditioner is running, you can cycle that to help reduce that water in there by really keeping it cool, keeping that going.
Eric G.:And then what I do is I turn the heat back up again, I cycle back and forth.
Eric G.:And if you do that for a few hours, heat it back up again, cool it back up again, heat it up again, cool it.
Eric G.:That will start to get some of that condensation out of the air.
Eric G.:That's one of the only ways, because the hard part is, is in, when you're in an area like this that has been damaged, you need to plug in everything.
Eric G.:You got to keep that stuff, for instance.
Eric G.:Great example.
Eric G.:If you have some dehumidifiers, great.
Eric G.:But most people, you're not going to go into the store and rent them because those things are going to be rented out in the first hours, so those are going to be gone.
Eric G.:So you're not going to have that resource around you.
Eric G.:So our next job is to get that cleaned up.
Eric G.:So if you've got mud in there from a, from a river that overflowed, get in there and get that stuff shoveled out.
Eric G.:Let's get all of that dirt out of.
Eric G.:And then what you're going to want to do is start helping dry this out, which means if you had twelve inches of water in your house, I'm going to go up at least two or 3ft up.
Eric G.:So you get into clean drywall and you're going to have to remove all of that down below and just get it out of there, because when you have a great example sheet of drywall, it will wick up moisture.
Eric G.:So if you've got it down there, twelve inches, 24 inches of it is going to be wet for sure.
Eric G.:And you're going to want to get up until where it's solid, depending on how long it was wet, and go around and just run a straight edge and a knife around there and you're going to want to take all of that off down below.
Eric G.:Now, here's the thing.
Eric G.:This is one thing that I would stop here and say before you get into this, I always recommend going around, shooting some video, taking some pictures, documenting the situation of what you have.
Eric G.:So that way, if you're working with your insurance company or anything else, you have an idea what's going on.
Eric G.:And also with that, if you are insured, make sure you've called your insurance company and started the process of a claim, because that's going to take a long time.
Eric G.:So you're going to want to make sure and get that process going so you get that paperwork started as quickly as possible.
Eric G.:Many times, these natural disasters like this, you're going to see them flying in people and they'll have their disaster response teams coming in.
Eric G.:And so you're going to want to see what you can do on that claim.
Eric G.:And be very careful of the claim.
Eric G.:If it's a river flood, it's a flood.
Eric G.:If you had a hurricane and heavy rains and the basement flooded, you have water damage, not a flood.
Eric G.:So be very careful.
Eric G.:If you claim water damage that wasn't literally a flood from a river, you might not get covered.
Eric G.:So you want to make sure that you claim that correctly.
Eric G.:A flood is when the water around you gets up so high that it comes into the structure.
Eric G.:That's what traditionally would be a flood.
Eric G.:If you have water from a hurricane, 15 inches of rain, 20 inches of rain, and it comes around and leaks into your basement, that's not a flood.
Eric G.:So just make sure you understand what's going on there and you have that.
Eric G.:So you're not going to get in trouble with filing a claim that could hurt you later.
Eric G.:So you're going to want to do that.
Eric G.:So make sure you get all that stuff done.
Eric G.:But as you're cleaning up here, you're going to get shovels.
Eric G.:If you've got wet carpet, get it out of there.
Eric G.:Get all that stuff out of there.
Eric G.:And you're going to try to really, really take some time and get this as cleaned up as you can and just get that stuff out of there.
Eric G.:Get the building materials, rescue your stuff that's damaged and really take lots of pictures and notes as you're going on and what it is.
Eric G.:Now, if your insurance company has it covered, talk to them.
Eric G.:If you're going to be doing this as a DIY project and you want to get after it and you don't want things to get ruined even more, then you're going to want to do some of this stuff yourself.
Eric G.:And if you've got the time to do it, maybe you want to do it or maybe you're not covered because you didn't have flood insurance and you actually had a flood.
Eric G.:So in that case, this is what we're going to do.
Eric G.:We're going to talk through this whole process here because really you've got to, especially with potentially other storms coming in the area, we need to really get you taken care of as soon as possible.
Eric G.:And I want this to be that.
Eric G.:Since some people will have data plans out there, I really want this to be something that's going to help you out.
Eric G.:So, so far, just to recap, call your insurance company.
Eric G.:We're going to make sure that you get the outside of the structure so that you're not getting water inside anymore so we can start to dry that out.
Eric G.:Three, you're going to document everything you can in there.
Eric G.:In four, we're going to take all of that wet stuff out of the building and get it good and gone.
Eric G.:And then if it's something that's damaged, that could be repaired, that's a whole other story.
Eric G.:But really this is where having some blue tarps and some stuff to really help get this stuff taken care of, you can stack it out in a dry spot in the lawn, even if it's muddy or what, you can put down a tarp.
Eric G.:You can put down a tarp over the top of it so the insurance company can come take a look at it and you can start getting that dried out.
Eric G.:Now this is where it's going to get interesting because many times you've got a lot of things going wrong at the same time.
Eric G.:So you're going to have all this wet stuff and it's going to be really tough and it's going to be really emotionally hard on you.
Eric G.:And I, I feel bad for everybody out dealing with this because it is a tragedy that you're working with.
Eric G.:And we come back, we're going to talk about the next steps here on the way to get this taken care of because we need to start figuring out here as soon as you get some services back.
Eric G.:What came into your house?
Eric G.:Was it seawater?
Eric G.:Was it mud?
Eric G.:Was there sewage mixed in?
Eric G.:What are we working with so we can make sure that your house gets taken care of correctly and in a healthy way around the house?
Eric G.:We'll be right back after these important messages.
Eric G.:Don't change that.
Eric G.:Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric G.:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric G.: -: Eric G.:It's a newer one that we've got going that we've actually putting stuff up in now.
Eric G.:It's something we're going to be putting a lot more content in and you can check that out.
Eric G.:Just look on YouTube at around the house.
Eric G.:Eric G.
Eric G.:And you'll find it all right there.
Eric G.:We've been talking today about really making sure how you navigate after the storm.
Eric G.:What happens when you've had a hurricane that flooded out?
Eric G.:Maybe its some kind of other storm, but really what happens when you have a house that is flooded and what are you going to do to take care of it?
Eric G.:Now in our midweek special this last week, we talked about something really important that was making sure that youre prepared for these kind of things and were starting to see that with Asheville, North Carolina, with them not having water for five, six, seven days, youre seeing all of these situations where places are cut off.
Eric G.:And it's a great reminder for all of you that listen on the radio that didn't catch on the podcast to really make sure that you're prepared for that next natural disaster, whether in your hurricane or it's a tornado or it's an earthquake, it takes days.
Eric G.:And depending on who you've got running your governor, who your governor is and how prepared your state is, it could take a week or two for people to get out there.
Eric G.:Some states are better than others.
Eric G.:Some people are more prepared.
Eric G.:Sometimes storms are so big that they can't handle it all.
Eric G.:And so give them a week or two to come help you.
Eric G.:So just make sure that you're prepared enough to last that week or two without somebody coming to help you.
Eric G.:You probably might not, you might not have water, you might not have food, you might not have cell coverage.
Eric G.:You might not have anything.
Eric G.:It could be 19 hundreds out there where you're on your own and you're going to have to figure it out.
Eric G.:So make sure that you're prepared.
Eric G.:And I know it's super expensive to do it, but there are some great things you can do.
Eric G.:And we talked more about it this last week in our midweek special on the podcast.
Eric G.:If you are a radio listener now, we're going to talk about here we've been talking about in the last segment here, we were talking about, all right, how do we start cleanup and really getting that cleaned up?
Eric G.:Now, if you've got dust masks, rubber gloves, respirators, I want you to get this cleaned up.
Eric G.:But there's also some things, if you've got the services and if you've got the, the mail coming in now and if they've got roads opened up and maybe you don't have power, but if you can get some samples of what you got, and this could be nearly impossible at this part of the game.
Eric G.:But if it's a luxury, if you can do it, if you can get some sample sent off to find out what's in that or pay attention to your news in your local area, what's on the aim radio?
Eric G.:What's your local station talking about?
Eric G.:If they're saying, hey, upstream of the river, you know, the, the, uh, a bunch of sewage got in the water.
Eric G.:Now, you need to really make sure what youre probably going to have to assume in many cases that that mud is pretty contaminated.
Eric G.:So youre going to need to get in there and get that cleaned up.
Eric G.: particle board subfloor in a: Eric G.:But thats a bigger thing.
Eric G.:So what I would be doing right now is, and if you've got water, great.
Eric G.:Some of this you can't do until you have some utilities to be able to get in there and clean up, like running water and things like that.
Eric G.:Cause sometimes things inside that can survive, things that are plastic and stuff, you can get cleaned up, disinfectant, spray it down to the hose, and you've got stuff cleaned up.
Eric G.:So think about how you want to do that.
Eric G.:Now, I've also seen people, you know, go rent a trailer or go get one of those pods and put it out there so you can start putting someplace, putting stuff away that you've cleaned and get it out of there.
Eric G.:Now, at this point, if you have insurance, really, this is where I would let them take the ball and run with it because you really need them to come in and start putting in the dryers.
Eric G.:They need to get this.
Eric G.:But here's the thing.
Eric G.:It's probably going to be months before that happens.
Eric G.:So your insurance company is probably going to put you up someplace.
Eric G.:It's either going to be a temporary trailer, some of those FEMA type trailers.
Eric G.:It's going to be an apartment, a hotel.
Eric G.:It's going to be something in the, in the interim, and it's going to be tough.
Eric G.:So make sure that you've rescued your clothes, any toiletries that you've got.
Eric G.:You have to probably go out and buy new stuff.
Eric G.:But you see where I'm getting at.
Eric G.:And then you're going to need to let them come in with their people and do it, and then you can get back to living.
Eric G.:Life is awkward and as hard as that's going to be, but really that's going to be that next step to get that going.
Eric G.:Now, as we talked about, a lot of people don't have insurance as well.
Eric G.:So this is where that lack of coverage is going to be expensive.
Eric G.:Now you're going to have to get in there and figure out how this is going to be probably your largest DIY project you've ever taken care of.
Eric G.:So like we talked about last hour, you're going to go through and take out all of the stuff that is soaking wet.
Eric G.:And your job is to get that really dry in that house.
Eric G.:So once you get it cleaned out, once you get the bad drywall out, the rotten, nasty, wet subfloors, if it's plywood, sometimes that can dry out.
Eric G.:But the next phase is, is how are you going to disinfect something that is porous like plywood?
Eric G.:You're probably better off to take that down if you can and just put new in.
Eric G.:So that's going to be the next step depending on what your, if you've got a basement now, you've got to work on that.
Eric G.:And the next things might be just getting utilities in there where you have an h vac system that's working.
Eric G.:The first thing we got to do is get this thing dried out.
Eric G.:And that's where you're going to really have to figure out.
Eric G.:Maybe you're going to have to jump on Amazon and order some dehumidifiers to try to help get that down.
Eric G.:But this is where getting that dry is really, really important.
Eric G.:So once you get that down and once you get it cleaned up and you've got some water now you're going to start working on putting things back into this.
Eric G.:But again, we want to make sure that we understand what happens.
Eric G.:So let's do a little bit of, a little bit of a, now let's break this down, I guess is probably the best way to put it.
Eric G.:Let's break this down and see what happened.
Eric G.:So did you have a dam break?
Eric G.:Did you have 20 inches of rain?
Eric G.:What happened here that caused this flood?
Eric G.:Is there anything you can do during the construction phase of this?
Eric G.:As you're working outside?
Eric G.:Can you landscape maybe to help create a berm from water coming up this way?
Eric G.:Now this is where it can get a little sketchy.
Eric G.:This is where this, the, the government mightn't get involved because I tell you what, many times if you're along a creek or a river, they do not like you raising up a bank to try to protect your house because that's going to displace water to your neighbors or someplace else.
Eric G.:So that could be an issue for that.
Eric G.:But make sure if you're in a floodplain or if it's just rainwater and you just have damage, then maybe there's not much you can do about it.
Eric G.:But there are some great products out there that are really good for those temporary rare floods that you can put around your house that'll stop three, four, five inches of water.
Eric G.:And that can be the difference between a flooded basement and not.
Eric G.:So something to consider and something maybe to be planned for ahead.
Eric G.:Now, the thing I want you to do is you're going to have some, some mold and stuff in here.
Eric G.:So wherever you get this cleaned out because you probably didn't get it dry in time.
Eric G.:Once you get that down, you're going to want to go in.
Eric G.:And here's what I would recommend.
Eric G.:And there's a great product.
Eric G.:We talked about it last week, actually two weeks ago, and we talked with Andy Pace.
Eric G.:And take a look at Callowell paint.
Eric G.:This is a great paint that you can paint on the studs, the framing, anything that had gotten wetland.
Eric G.:And if you're trying to keep mold from growing on it, this stuff when you paint it on, actually is basically made, it's made out of lime.
Eric G.:So what happens is, is when you paint that paint on there, mold can't grow on it for five years because the alkalinity of the product.
Eric G.:So it's something that's good preventative and it will also kill anything that's on it because mold's not going to grow on it.
Eric G.:It's too harsh of an environment.
Eric G.:The last thing I want to see you do is go around and don't do what people have done out there.
Eric G.:And we'll talk about the biggest mistake people make when they're cleaning up water damage in your house.
Eric G.:We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.
Eric G.:Don't go anywhere.
Eric G.:Welcome back to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric G.:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric G.:You know, all of the people out there that are in our listening audience down south that are struggling through the damage after the hurricane.
Eric G.:This show is for you here.
Eric G.:The ones that are dealing with water damage, the ones that are trying to figure out how do I get through this now, the biggest mistake that I see people make when they're trying to clean up mold from water damage or just stop it from coming in is grabbing that bottle of bleach.
Eric G.:Theres no reason to do that.
Eric G.:And heres why.
Eric G.:Bleach causes some significant problems.
Eric G.:Now if you had a white piece of the side of your refrigerator and theres mold growing on it, yeah, technically, you could take bleach and wipe it down, but you dont need all those chemicals in your house.
Eric G.:Youre trying to get cleaned up.
Eric G.:And two, on a porous surface like wood, drywall, things like that.
Eric G.:Bleach doesnt work.
Eric G.:And actually what happens is it might kill a little bit on the top, but what its doing is its bleaching out all that mold thats dark green, black, brown, whatever.
Eric G.:And what its doing is its making it harder to find in three the water thats in bleach.
Eric G.:Because bleach is mostly water.
Eric G.:Its actually feeding the stuff it didnt kill.
Eric G.:So youre not doing yourself any good.
Eric G.:So when it comes to dealing with mold, take the bleach, put it away.
Eric G.:It's not the right product for it.
Eric G.:Now there are a ton of mold cleaners from concrobium to a lot of different products out there that you can get at your home improvement retailer that will work a lot better and they're going to be better off for you.
Eric G.:And then the other thing that I don't really want you to do is just go in there with Primer and try to encapsulate that.
Eric G.:I want to see, like we talked about earlier, I want to see everything get cleaned up, disinfected, killed, and then after it's dry, this is one of those things.
Eric G.:And if you need to jump on Amazon or wherever and have a moisture meter for wood sent over to you, you just want to get everything really, really dry.
Eric G.:And you want to get that as dry as you can because that way you've got that house dialed in.
Eric G.:Now, when we dealt with the house that we had out at the coast with the water damage out there, we ran a dehumidifier after we got, and this thing had a, a leaky roof for 20 years.
Eric G.:And so it literally had water running inside of it, much like a flood house would be.
Eric G.:And it took that thing with a dehumidifier running in that house.
Eric G.:It took us a couple months to get everything really dried out.
Eric G.:And for us, we weren't living in it.
Eric G.:So it wasn't that big a deal.
Eric G.:But it really took that long to get that dried out.
Eric G.:It takes a while.
Eric G.:And we didn't have a lot of good electrical in there, so we had a lot of work to do in that place.
Eric G.:But it is not a really quick process to get that dried out.
Eric G.:Now what you'll see is, is when a flood restoration company comes in, they come in with those big fans, they will move the air around, they will bring in big dehumidifiers that will put, take out all of that moisture and get it out of there.
Eric G.:But it still takes weeks for that to happen.
Eric G.:Now here's one thing I want you to be really careful of, and this is where I want you as a homeowner to be asking questions if your insurance company's coming in, because you probably have an insurance policy that says, hey, we're going to spend up to x, y or z to cover this.
Eric G.:And this happened to my buddy with his house that had a water pipe break.
Eric G.:This is something that you need to watch for the.
Eric G.:Gotcha.
Eric G.:So he was about, that place was about an hour, hour and a half out of town here up in the mountains.
Eric G.:Beautiful place.
Eric G.:They had a winter freeze where the pipe broke.
Eric G.:And upstairs, water ran for a number of hours because they were hours away when they realized that there was water in their video camera that was coming down.
Eric G.:So the water had been running for a while, probably overnight.
Eric G.:So they came out there, got the water shut off, called the insurance company, did everything right.
Eric G.:But the problem was the insurance company, since it was out there a little bit, sent out their team to do basically in this cabin to get this thing cleaned up.
Eric G.:So they came out to do the water restoration part and get it dried out.
Eric G.:And they took out all the stuff so they could dry it out.
Eric G.:But the problem was, is that they had a $250,000 policy, but these guys build them for $150,000.
Eric G.:So they had $100,000 to do on this place.
Eric G.:Really, you couldn't put it back for $100,000 if you're paying someone to do it because you needed a kitchen, you needed two bathrooms.
Eric G.:It was all wood paneling on the inside.
Eric G.:That was real wood that you had to go in and try to source with that real wood shiplap to get it back to that cabin state, which isnt as easy as it used to be to find, especially at a reasonable price.
Eric G.:So what we saw is that they came in with their restoration company and blew out the budget, and that money was spent.
Eric G.:So I want you to start asking questions with your insurance company, and that there are numbers that are, do not exceed.
Eric G.:So you have the money to get in there, because I think some of these water restoration companies really prey on the consumer, and they just want to get the check from the place.
Eric G.:They just want the insurance company check.
Eric G.:They're going to come in.
Eric G.:They don't have to worry about putting it back together.
Eric G.:They're just going to go in there and build a snot out of that.
Eric G.:So just be very careful that you know who you're dealing with, that you have a, an idea of what the dollar spend is and that you keep track of that because you dont want to and have this conversation with your agent, what happens if that happens?
Eric G.:Are they going to cover that extra loss because you dont want to be stuck with, wow, I cant even put drywall in my place because the water restoration company overbilled me.
Eric G.:So be very careful.
Eric G.:I put these water restoration companies, there are some great ones out there.
Eric G.:There are also some ones out there that are a lot like the duct cleaning companies that you see on Facebook, a lot less reputable, put it at that.
Eric G.:So just be very careful.
Eric G.:And I would not be hiring anyone off of Facebook, marketplace and nextdoor because you are going to be the prey.
Eric G.:You're going to be the meat for the lion pride coming in because you are going to see contractors come in from across the country because of the recession we're in.
Eric G.:You're going to see people showing up and so be very careful when they come out there.
Eric G.:I want to make sure that they're licensed, bonded and insured.
Eric G.:I want to make sure that they're licensed for your state.
Eric G.:Now, if they're not, maybe your governor and legislature or however everything is run in your area, maybe they have sat there and said, hey, we are going to let other people come in because we don't have the help.
Eric G.:That's awesome.
Eric G.:Just make sure you're covered and that they're doing all the stuff they need to do.
Eric G.:Are they pulling the right permits?
Eric G.:What are they doing to make sure this project is getting done correctly and you're going to be made whole at the end of it because that's really what you pay for insurance for, is to get you back to where you were before the disaster happened.
Eric G.:So make sure that you're navigating this.
Eric G.:Ask the questions.
Eric G.:And if you have a contractor that you trust in most states, you have that option.
Eric G.:You can hire them and they can work with the insurance company.
Eric G.:But just keep in mind that a lot of contractors don't work with insurance companies because it's inherently expensive for them to do it because they've got all these hoops, they get paid late.
Eric G.:Then you have these companies out there that all they do is insurance work and that's their specialty.
Eric G.:And so they have a business plan that works better for that.
Eric G.:And so just be very careful with who you hire, who they bring in and understand what's going on because it's, in the end, it's your house.
Eric G.:In the end theyre paying for it.
Eric G.:But you need to make sure that someones looking over the shoulder and getting that dialed in for you.
Eric G.:Now, the other thing is, is there are public adjusters out there.
Eric G.:And what their job is is that you hire them to come deal with your insurance company.
Eric G.:And thats a really big one to think about.
Eric G.:Because what happens is when you have that public adjuster, they are you, they are working for use, you're paying for them.
Eric G.:And so they're taking their decades of experience.
Eric G.:They're working with the people they know at the insurance company, and they're turning around saying, no, no, no, you can't do that.
Eric G.:That's not legit or that's not in the best interest of the home and the homeowners.
Eric G.:And they are like your, I don't say attorney, but they're, you're basically your adjuster because they're there to defend you.
Eric G.:Now, your insurance agent, your adjuster, they are not your friends.
Eric G.:This is a business transaction.
Eric G.:And their job is to, one, make you whole, to do it at the least cost.
Eric G.:They can get away with it.
Eric G.:And that's just unfortunately how that works.
Eric G.:And they're a company, they're a for profit organization.
Eric G.:So they need to do that.
Eric G.:So really think about that.
Eric G.:They might not be in your best interest on getting this job done completely and correctly.
Eric G.:So you need to have somebody, if it's a big, damaged house, I would sure look at having a public adjuster come in and help defend you and to make sure that things get done correctly and that money spent will probably be some of the best stuff because that way you're covered and you've got a much better situation because I tell you what, I have seen people go through this.
Eric G.:They are super stressed.
Eric G.:They're upset.
Eric G.:You've lost a lot of things.
Eric G.:Your world is upside down, and that's okay.
Eric G.:To have somebody else on the team with you battling might be a great thing for you.
Eric G.:Let's talk a little bit about some stuff here that we can do to make sure that we've got things prevented and working better for you.
Eric G.:We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.
Eric G.:Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric G.:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric G.:We've been talking about what to do to do with storm damage like floods.
Eric G.:The last three segments we've been talking about what happens if your basement or your house got flooded.
Eric G.:How do you work with that?
Eric G.:How do you get yourself back to normal and how do you get prepared for that?
Eric G.:And this one here, I wanted to take it outside for a minute and talk about in this segment what to do on the exterior of the building.
Eric G.:Maybe you've had a roof blown off.
Eric G.:Maybe you've had siding taken off.
Eric G.:Maybe you've had something.
Eric G.:Maybe it was your neighbor's trampoline that blasted the side of your house when it took off out of there and hit the side of yours.
Eric G.:Or maybe it's even a tacoed front garage door because the winds blew it in, whatever it is.
Eric G.:Thought we'd talk about that a little bit here today.
Eric G.:Now, one of the things that I would sure take a look at, especially like I just talked about with a garage door.
Eric G.:Garage doors take a lot of load, and they do make garage doors now that are hurricane resistant.
Eric G.:They've got steel or aluminum bracing down the backside so they can take 100 miles an hour winds.
Eric G.:So that would be something that I would sure take a look at.
Eric G.:If you've got a damaged garage door like that, take a look.
Eric G.:Florida, Dade county, those guys have come up with their own certifications.
Eric G.:Florida has a lot of, a lot of the Gulf states have certifications on those things.
Eric G.:You can take a look.
Eric G.:I would sure take a look at garage doors that are rated for high wind loads, because if it's happened once, odds are it'll happen again.
Eric G.:And if you can keep that air from a hurricane or a windstorm from coming in through that garage door, having something that's going to be a little bit tougher is going to be very good for you.
Eric G.:So take a look.
Eric G.:There's so many great brands out there.
Eric G.:Copay is a great company.
Eric G.:I've worked with them a lot.
Eric G.:There's a lot of different companies out there.
Eric G.:But take a look at those doors that are rated for that.
Eric G.:And the same thing comes with windows.
Eric G.:If you've had windows on a side that typically come from wind that's coming up from the gulf or coming up from where hurricanes are coming from, you might take a look on those windows and put in some storm resistant ones that will take debris bouncing off them.
Eric G.:There are great windows out there that are basically brake proofed.
Eric G.:If you take a look, they actually launch two by forge at them at 100 miles an hour to see if they'll take it.
Eric G.:So that's an interesting one.
Eric G.:I would sure take a look at that.
Eric G.:Now, if you're having to do roof repairs or put a new roof on, here is one thing that I would take a look at doing, and I would look at the fortified home program that we have out there now.
Eric G.:Fortified home is an interesting concept, and what they have done is they have created a rating that might help you in insurance later to lower those rates.
Eric G.:But basically what they do is you go up on that roof, youre going to resheve it.
Eric G.:You have to nail it down per their specifications.
Eric G.:You've got to have a waterproof correctly.
Eric G.:What I would do on something like that is if I was up there doing that roof, I would put down something like zip system by Hubert engineered where Hubert engineered woods.
Eric G.:I can say that and go in and go that route with it because that way what happens is if you go up there, resheath that with that waterproof material, I mean, I'm not going to build a boat out of it.
Eric G.:But what it's going to do is it leaves you a membrane beneath it thats built into the surface.
Eric G.:Then if you have shingles blow off, you still have a waterproof surface up there.
Eric G.:So what happens is, as you put this down, youll tape the seams, roll them out correctly so that theyre sealed up.
Eric G.:And then what happens is if you need to go up there and lets say you lose shingles in a big storm, its still waterproofed beneath its you dont have that water damage.
Eric G.:And if you nail it off correctly, thats not going to leave the trusses and its going to stay there pretty good.
Eric G.:So take a look at fortified home.
Eric G.:That's a great program out there for new construction and for remodeling when you're doing roof and things like that.
Eric G.:And I would do the same thing.
Eric G.:If you're looking at the siding of the house, you've got damaged siding, you've got to tear it down.
Eric G.:I would sure take a look if it already got hit once, I would sure take a look at going in there and doing that same kind of thing with either a zip system.
Eric G.:LP has one, I think.
Eric G.:Actually no GP has a Georgia Pacific has a system out there that is very similar to Huber engineered woods and their zip system.
Eric G.:And it is a baked in, it's like OSB, but it has a baked in surface on it that is waterproof.
Eric G.:So you can actually tape that up, put it up there.
Eric G.:And if this, your vinyl siding blows off the side of the house, you still have something waterproof there that'll help protect the structure.
Eric G.:And those are things that really make a difference when you're looking at this with a home, is that you can really get things dialed in.
Eric G.:And thats the cool part about that, is that youve added a second layer of protection from the outside of that.
Eric G.:I think its super important.
Eric G.:Now, one thing I would do too, again, as youre working around the outside and you got a lot of rain as youre doing some of these projects.
Eric G.:Plan ahead a little bit.
Eric G.:If your gutters drain right next to the foundation, I would get those, dig it up, move it while youre at it, get this dialed in for the next storm that comes, and get those things at least ten or 15ft away from the foundation, downhill if it's going towards the road, cool.
Eric G.:Just make sure that your, your road department will let you do that.
Eric G.:But get that water as far away from the house as you can.
Eric G.:Now's the time to fix some of these things.
Eric G.:And if you've got gutters that are broken, get up there with some clips, get them temporarily fixed, keep the water off the side of the building as best you can, and you'll be better off.
Eric G.:Now, one thing is, if you're up there fixing that roof, another thing you can do is make sure you have enough ventilation up there and there.
Eric G.:That's one thing that I think that we have failed in the US, is proper roof ventilation for many people out there.
Eric G.:And the more ventilation you can get in that attic space, the better off you're going to be because you're going to have reduced temperatures in the summertime, less chance of mold, and of course, you're going to get all that hot air out of there during those times.
Eric G.:And so the more you can do up there by putting in a good system, getting some good ventilation, and getting that roof repaired up there is a good time.
Eric G.:So if you've got a bunch of roof work to do, maybe it's time to add in a few more vents.
Eric G.:And just remember, when you're doing vents up there, this is a science, so you need to make sure that the air intake is coming in and the exhaust is coming out the top.
Eric G.:So you need to have vents that are down low in the soffits if you have them, or really low and really high, so you can get as best to airflow through there.
Eric G.:You need incoming air and you need exhaust air and need to have both of those, and that'll be really, really smart, that's going to help you out in the long term.
Eric G.:Now, again, when you're out there working on it, make sure that you've got the right caulking.
Eric G.:I like using big stretch for exterior stuff outside.
Eric G.:It's a latex caulk, and I like how that stretches.
Eric G.:And so if you're painting and doing some of that stuff, that is a great product outside, I really like it.
Eric G.:There's a lot of other products out there, but to me, that one moves the most.
Eric G.:So expansion and contraction makes a lot of sense when you're doing it.
Eric G.:And then really just make sure you get on these exterior pairs as soon as you can.
Eric G.:Like we talked about in the first segment this hour, I want to see you at least get it waterproof as quickly as possible.
Eric G.:And this is one of those prepared things.
Eric G.:And we talked about a little bit this on, on Wednesday in our midweek special podcast.
Eric G.:But having two or three, like, heavy duty tarps, really good tarps that you've got in an attic space you got put away in case you have that big storm, you can now create some space there to cover a damaged roof, recover where a blown out window was, have a piece of plywood, have some basic repairs ready to go.
Eric G.:And that's part of being prepared.
Eric G.:And that's one of the things that I think is really important.
Eric G.:And take a look at the mill thickness of the tarp.
Eric G.:The heavier duty, the better.
Eric G.:And guys, you can save some big money.
Eric G.:You can jump on Amazon, you can run down to harbor freight.
Eric G.:Those guys have cheap tarps.
Eric G.:And really, you don't need anything special here.
Eric G.:This is not a, this is not a award for best looking house, but if you get some of those heavy duty gray ones, they work out really well and they're super durable.
Eric G.:And we did a tarp test that you can find on my YouTube channel.
Eric G.:I'll put that over there and put it up on aroundthehouseonline.com dot.
Eric G.:And we did a cool little tarp test, and that turned out really well.
Eric G.:We tested a bunch of tarps and we talked about what were the best, what were the best durable, how thick is a good tarp?
Eric G.:And we really talked about that.
Eric G.:And that was a lot of fun going through and doing the test and playing around with it to see how that worked out.
Eric G.:And you can find my YouTube channel at around the house.
Eric G.:Eric g.
Eric G.:That's the best place to find it.
Eric G.:Or just head over to aroundthehouse online.com dot.
Eric G.:And, uh, you can really see where that, what we did is I built a frame.
Eric G.:I started dropping, uh, concrete blocks on it to see how well it held up on a tear test.
Eric G.:And when you got up to the big ones, it was just the eyelets that were failing.
Eric G.:We actually didn't really start ripping tarps as we got to the heavier duty ones.
Eric G.:And then all of a sudden, you got to a point where it didn't matter.
Eric G.:The eyelets were the weak point.
Eric G.:No matter what, it didn't matter.
Eric G.:So you get to a point on, those tarps were too thick, just as harder to work with and they don't flux around as much.
Eric G.:But something to consider when you're doing this.
Eric G.:And I think I told you guys that story that I had when we were working on our cannon beach house, trying to get that taken in.
Eric G.:And, uh, that was, if you live in Cannon beach or if you live on the Oregon coast where this house is.
Eric G.:Yes, we had the blue tarp house.
Eric G.: We had about: Eric G.:Because the, uh, old guy that had the house literally just sat there and kept putting blue tarps on top of it.
Eric G.:That one would weather out and you could go back on Google images and go back decades and see there were two blue tarps on it.
Eric G.:And I filled up the whole dump trailer with it.
Eric G.:It was absolutely insane what happened.
Eric G.:So, pretty crazy.
Eric G.:Pretty crazy how that all goes together.
Eric G.:But don't put too many blue tarps on there.
Eric G.:When that one's gone, take it down, put another one up there.
Eric G.:But really get on it as soon as you can to get that fixed up and protect your investment.
Eric G.:That's the big thing here, guys.
Eric G.:Speed is, is, is important, especially on the drying side of a flood.
Eric G.:But really working through it, making sure it's done correctly, keeping an eye on the process, if you're working with an insurance company, is going to be the key.
Eric G.:All right, everybody, that's the end of this show.
Eric G.:If you've got any questions on your situation, reach out to me at aroundthehouse online.com dot.
Eric G.:I'd love to help you.
Eric G.:Thanks for tuning in to around the, the house.
Eric G.:Best of luck to you out there with the floods.
Eric G.:You'll get this thing back together.
Eric G.:Have a great rest of the weekend.
