Wet kitchen cabinets?

[carpetcleaner]

I had my A/C condensate drain line crack/leak in the wall behind the dishwasher. I removed the dishwasher, drywall, insulation and replaced the broken line. I figured once the particle board cabinets, drywall and insulation got wet, they would need to be replaced.

Since I don't water flood work, I called one of my customers who does. He came out and removed the toe kicks and some baseboards to check for moisture. It seems to have been mostly contained by the cabinets.

He set up an air scrubber and de-humidifer and said to let it run for the weekend. If the cabinets are being removed, why dry them out?

My insurance co. is sending out an adjuster on Monday.

 

[Hoody]

Rule of thumb is dry first. You also have moisture underneath the sill place inside the wall, that needs removed. Unless its sewage you don't ever assume that the adjuster is going to pay for replacement. I've thrown away cabinets and got nailed by an adjuster. They were all warped but the adjuster needed to see what they are so in the event of replacement he can find like kind and quality.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We would normally dry the wall cavity and if the cabinets were not visually damaged we would dry the also.

With a slow leak like that I'd be more concerned with swelling and absorbed water in the base frame and lower drywall. If they appear fine then I can't see why they would need to replace them. ???

 

[Curtis Pennington]

Rule of thumb is dry first. You also have moisture underneath the sill place inside the wall, that needs removed. Unless its sewage you don't ever assume that the adjuster is going to pay for replacement. I've thrown away cabinets and got nailed by an adjuster. They were all warped but the adjuster needed to see what they are so in the event of replacement he can find like kind and quality.

YUP!

 

[carpetcleaner]

That's what he said. The insurance co will want it to be dried first. Then, rebuild cabinets boxes using the cabinet face/doors.

He said that if he didn't dry them, the insurance co might reject the whole claim.

 

[Hoody]

Rob,

Adjusters are employees of a company and they have bosses. They need to be able to justify to their bosses why they should pay out the money to the insured. If the adjuster has no proof, and cannot see the damage for it to be documented, then they cannot justify that money being paid to you from their bosses.

Most adjusters are easy to work with so long as you keep that in mind. So they may not reject the claim, but they could have no paid for replacement or all or part(damaged areas) of the cabinets. Your friend did you a favor, and protected himself because in the event they didn't pay because of his actions, you would be looking at him to pay for new cabinets.

 

[Desk Jockey]

You as a home owner have the obligation to mitagate the damage. By allowing them to get worse or ruined would only cost them more money. So if you intentionally left it wet they COULD refuse replacement.

 

[Hoody]

You as a home owner have the obligation to mitagate the damage. By allowing them to get worse or ruined would only cost them more money. So if you intentionally left it wet they COULD refuse replacement.

:wink:

Now that Chavez is just showing off. :mrgreen:

 

[Desk Jockey]

The reality is they probably wouldn't do much more than bitch at you for not drying them.

If you claimed ignorance ("I thought they were already ruined") there isn't much they could do about it.