People are strange-Water Damage Loss

[Desk Jockey]

People are strange, we had 15-water losses last week due to heavy rains, but we missed out on one job that it alone would have equaled what they did.

We received a call from an adjuster about a covered loss, child accidently left a faucet running faster than it could drain. It ran for hours and affected three levels of the home. Ceilings, walls, carpet, subfloor all got a good a soaking.

We go and scan the job with IR camera and meters and she is getting bigger and bigger every level. The homeowner is down playing it, “Not too bad is it?”.
We show him what is wet and explain to him why he has an odor and how it’s only going to get worse if doesn’t A) professionally dry it B) remove the affected materials and then dry it.

He said it really isn’t that bad and he just doesn’t want to turn in a claim because it will make his rates go up. He had a few airmovers and a couple of dehumidifiers and thought he was doing good enough.
This was a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood; these people appeared to have the money to correct it even if they did not want to turn a claim in.

Even after explaining the potential for problems with mold, they still chose to do nothing. THREE FLOORS, ceilings, walls, carpet, pad, subfloor.

The adjuster could not believe it, but what can you do? You can’t force someone

 

[juniorc82]

I dont do too many water jobs but I have noticed that people can be a bit anoying on the ones I have done. I hate it when people turn drying equipment off because its inconvinient. I had a customer service rep at a hotel sell a banquet room for a conferance that was under 2 inches of cat 2 water less then ten hours earlier from a overflowed storm drain. Then she moved our drying equipment and turned the fans off. I told the sales lady if she touched our equipment one more time we would walk off the job and charge them for all the work we already did and let her beloved conference room stink like a truckstop bathroom. She gave us lots of dirty looks but after the gen mgr chewed her butt out, after that our drying equipment never got touched.

 

[Hoody]

People are strange, we had 15-water losses last week due to heavy rains, but we missed out on one job that it alone would have equaled what they did.

We received a call from an adjuster about a covered loss, child accidently left a faucet running faster than it could drain. It ran for hours and affected three levels of the home. Ceilings, walls, carpet, subfloor all got a good a soaking.

We go and scan the job with IR camera and meters and she is getting bigger and bigger every level. The homeowner is down playing it, “Not too bad is it?”.
We show him what is wet and explain to him why he has an odor and how it’s only going to get worse if doesn’t A) professionally dry it B) remove the affected materials and then dry it.

He said it really isn’t that bad and he just doesn’t want to turn in a claim because it will make his rates go up. He had a few airmovers and a couple of dehumidifiers and thought he was doing good enough.
This was a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood; these people appeared to have the money to correct it even if they did not want to turn a claim in.

Even after explaining the potential for problems with mold, they still chose to do nothing. THREE FLOORS, ceilings, walls, carpet, pad, subfloor.

The adjuster could not believe it, but what can you do? You can’t force someone

Sad part is... his rates may still go up now that the adjuster knows there is a problem. It happens a lot when the home owner is negligent with their insurance knowing.

Just imagine if it had been cat 3 water. Ivebeensold

 

[kmdineen]

Had you gotten the job what would have been your drying method of choice for this type of loss? TES, conventional, or a mixture of E TES and either method and why?

 

[SMRBAP]

Just had 2 of the same this month -

Both called back within days with huge problems that are a can't fix - time to feed the dumpster solution.

It seems to be a growing trend - have insurance - refuse to use it.

 

[B&BGaryC]

Taking care of a sweet old lady, gave her a fair deal on extraction, pad, contents, etc. She wants us to dry it out, re-install the swollen cracked mdf base etc. We gave her a free air mover, charging her for 4 a day and a dehumidifier and giving her 5. She is paying cash even though insurance will cover it.

 

[Giorgio]

I'd rather have my insurance rates go up than come home every night to that moldy smell.

That smell like never seems to go away.

Oh well, you can leed a horse to water but can't make em drink.

 

[Ed]

We just had a covered mold loss (that's a rarity) and the lady wanted us to let her use our equpiment, since her Father was handy and he would do all the other work :shock:

We are seeing more and more of what you ran into Richard. We've also been stiffed on more deductibles this year than ever before. Well the good news is that they'll probably be calling you for mold remediation soon shiteatinggrin

 

[Desk Jockey]

TES, conventional, or a mixture of E TES and either method and why?

Most likey a mix of conventional with E-tes for the more difficult to dry materials. Heat would be the fastest but since it is occupied and we would be on nearly every level of the house I wouldn't want to chase them out with the heat.

Most likely conventional where it originated and mix on ground level and we could go all heat in basement where the worst structual damage was.



Well the good news is that they'll probably be calling you for mold remediation soon
We just had a covered mold loss (that's a rarity) and the lady wanted us to let her use our equpiment, since her Father was handy and he would do all the other work :shock:

Well the good news is that they'll probably be calling you for mold remediation soon shiteatinggrin

I don't doubt he will call us, but my guess is it will be to come see if I'm doing this mold job right. :shock:

We had previously dried his basement before, I'm figuring that's where he got the idea he could handle it himself. He figured he could rent the same stuff, he could do what we do.

Unfortunately he will find out much too late that there is a lot more to drying than just equipment.

 

[Brian R]

He'll just move out...insurance rates follow the house not the tennant right?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Nice BIG house, they owned not rented.

Super nice guy, just embarrased they caused the loss and thought he had it under control. Even after we did our due diligence and explained what we thought would happen, he was still comfortable that what he was doing would take care of it. :shock:

So why would you not take care of your home when it's in peril? It was already begining to smell after a couple days of him trying to try on his own.

He kept saying "Not too bad?", my estimator said "NO, this is very bad, a lot affected".

:shock:

 

[floorguy]

kept saying not to bad huh????

was he chinese???

you clean not to bad

 

[Desk Jockey]

No he wasn't, but he was stoopie.

It doesn't bother me that we lost out on the job, that happens in this business, but I just cannot imagine him knowingly letting his investment in his home go south. :|

 

[tmdry]

Same thing happens with Pet odor inspections sometimes, whatyougonnado, right?

 

[Brian R]

We know you're a respectable business man Rich....But did you tell him to get a second opinion?

 

[Desk Jockey]

No but he saw with the IR camera what was wet, we confirmed it with the meters and he walked through the three levels with the estimator during the inspection. He knew what he had but had a false confidence that he had it under control.

Some of it was going south on him while we were there. Now a week has gone by and I'm sure that carpet and pad have to be awful. The drywall has to be staining where he was unable to address the trapped moisture.

Some materials can handle that much moisture and if dried properly won't need replacement unfortunately so much time as passed now, even if he called today, the majority of it would need to come out.

 

[Danny Strickland]

maybe he just didn't want a mexicoon all up in his house??? shiteatinggrin

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yep thought about that Daniel, that's why I send a white dude to estimate......maybe I should have sent a brown guy?

 

[rwcarpet]

I like the ones that INSIST on new carpet, regardless of what type of damage insued. They're not convinced that their carpet can be saved. I tell them to discuss it with the insurance adjuster and the contractor I work with. I never suggest otherwise.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Robert nothing is as funny is when those same people later experience a non covered loss and then as if a light was switched on they believe you can dry it and save it. People! :roll:

 

[KevinL]

I cleaned for a Dr. a couple weeks ago that is a regular customer. He's a weird single dude with 4 big dogs that trash his house. His housekeeper makes him call every couple of months. His basement has been wet for 3 weeks. We pulled wet moldy boxes out to the trash. He's on vacation. He thinks it will go away. He did have his gutter fixed but that's only part of the problem. He's a fn Dr. and he thinks it's OK. What the hell is wrong with people?