03 August 2008

The Great Flood - Chapter 2

If you haven't read about the "great flood" yet, go to Chapter 1 here: Go 'way Noah don't live here no '-mo

Well, after the magic 24 hours had passed, I got a call from the insurance company's adjuster. Seems that he wanted to come out, and he would have, but, well, he had a bad back, so he was turning our case over to the "Blah Blah" Company and we'd "be hearing from them sometime within the next 24 hours ... maybe even sooner." Sounding a little too familiar.

The next day, an operator from Blah Blah called, "We've assigned Mr. Hoopty Doopty to your claim and he'll ..." (guess how this sentence was finished.)

But, 24 hours passed and no call came. The next day, I called him.

"Oh, yeah, let's see ... I have your file here somewhere ... uh, broken pipe ... uh, I'm planning on making calls after 4:30 for setting up appointments. I'll call you a little later." Click.

No call.

Pat and I talked about what we could do and the answer was ... nothing.

The call came the next morning, at 7 ... A.M. ... Aaaay Emmmm!!!! Do people actually call other people at 7am, at home, to make business appointments?

Apparently, they do.

Friday morning, eight-thirty (A.M.) and the appraiser is on-site and doing his survey. Unfortunately for him and the insurance company, they had given me time to learn a lot about building flood remediation, typical damage and what can and can't be done.

The appraiser had read the dry-out contractor's report stating that they had finished their work and he simply assumed that all was well and there was no remaining moisture to grow mold.

First, I pointed out entrapment areas under kitchen cabinets and walls. He was obviously intrigued that a stupid citizen could understand such nuances of "water incursions." Then I mentioned that the dry-out contractor's people had used only un-insulated-pin moisture meters. At that point he knew he had his hands full with a crazy stupid citizen. He went to get his own meter.

I pointed out that his pins were also not insulated and so he could not simply touch the wall and tell if there was moisture on the inside. He agreed but squatted down to show me how he could poke his pins deeply into the joint seam of some remaining baseboard.

He almost fell backwards off his heels as his meter's alarm screamed out that it had just struck water. He wasn't expecting that. (tee hee) Now we had his attention.

Next thing you know, he was on the phone with the dry-out contractor. The contractor arranged to be there first thing Saturday to fix their oversights.

The contractor boss himself showed up, drilled holes and set up dry-out machinery (again!) Fortunately, this time he set up only one dehumidifier and one blast fan. We probably only have to live with this over one more weekend.

What I'm dreading is living with the destruction and rebuild. Can we take this, while living here, or should we move out? The kitchen floor AND cabinets AND counter tops, including the kitchen range's island; plus, the dining room and living room floor; plus, the bathroom flooring are all going to be ripped out and under construction at once. Stay tuned.

Read the whole story...