Anyone have experience in making a home owners claim?

[Sum1]

Here's the situation. Our sink was backing up so I used a crappy snake to open the clog. No luck. So I called a plumber to take care of it. He was struggling and eventually realized his snake was in the wall and not following the pipe, he even broke his snake pulling it out of the pipe. His explanation was that he believes the cast iron pipe had collapsed in the wall and needed to be replaced.

Well...that doesn't all that bad, except that the pipe is in the plaster wall behind the cabinets which is all original to this nearly 100 year old home. Replacing the pipe means ripping out the cabinets and the wall, which will almost certainly need to be a complete rehab of that.

So, I am wondering if I should make an insurance claim to have it repaired...and will the insurance cover all of the rehab? Does anyone have any insight? Should I call the insurance company first or should I get some estimates on the work?

 

[Mackeyser]

Talk to your insurance agent!

I nearly lost my home over what turned out to be a $1700 water damage claim because I didn't speak directly with the agent and ask direct questions.

You need to also get your actual insurance policy and go over with your agent what is actually covered IN WRITING in the policy before submitting anything.

Insurance is like the military, if it ain't in writing, you didn't get it or you ain't covered for it. If you believe there is a mistake in your coverage, you HAVE to get any mistakes prior to submitting a claim.

It is important to know your deductibles AND what can cause your rates to rise or cause your insurance to be cancelled. Here in FL, water dmg claims are the kiss of death. If you have a plumbing issue with very old pipes, the insurance company may deem the house an unfit risk unless ALL the plumbing is replaced.

I don't say any of this to be alarming, but to truly be of assistance. You really want to talk to experts and get this right. Insurance sucks. I wish you the best.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Open the wall behind the cabinet to find out exactly where the pipe is deteriorated. You may not have have to remove the cabinets.
You may have access from inside the cabinet. Even if the cabinet has a back, that is an easy cosmetic repair.
Been doing cabinets and dealing with water damage for over 25 years.

 

[Sum1]

Open the wall behind the cabinet to find out exactly where the pipe is deteriorated. You may not have have to remove the cabinets.
You may have access from inside the cabinet. Even if the cabinet has a back, that is an easy cosmetic repair.
Been doing cabinets and dealing with water damage for over 25 years.

They have to be removed. Well beyond that point.

 

[Sum1]

Talk to your insurance agent!

I nearly lost my home over what turned out to be a $1700 water damage claim because I didn't speak directly with the agent and ask direct questions.

You need to also get your actual insurance policy and go over with your agent what is actually covered IN WRITING in the policy before submitting anything.

Insurance is like the military, if it ain't in writing, you didn't get it or you ain't covered for it. If you believe there is a mistake in your coverage, you HAVE to get any mistakes prior to submitting a claim.

It is important to know your deductibles AND what can cause your rates to rise or cause your insurance to be cancelled. Here in FL, water dmg claims are the kiss of death. If you have a plumbing issue with very old pipes, the insurance company may deem the house an unfit risk unless ALL the plumbing is replaced.

I don't say any of this to be alarming, but to truly be of assistance. You really want to talk to experts and get this right. Insurance sucks. I wish you the best.

Thanks for the advice. It's not alarming at all, I know that if I go that route it's going to be a hassle to say the least.

My other option is just to move forward with a total rehab out of pocket. Which is something we were considering anyway, just not at this point in time. Sometimes your hand is just forced I suppose...

 

[Dodgersrf]

They have to be removed. Well beyond that point.

Shame.
The insurance company may require a mold remediation company do the work.
Precautionary measures.

 

[RhodyRams]

What are the chances that the pipe can be accesses from the outside of the wall.

The reason I ask is a few years ago had a friend's mom call me to say she had a leak in her basement. She had her kitchen done over,including granite countertops. The problem was the garbage disposal was backed up all the way inside the wall and ended up splitting the fitting where it branched off the drain and the vent stack.

I took the clapboard siding off the outside of the wall to figure out the problem,and also fix it.

 

[cracengl]

My wife had a house before our current one. We left one day to go somewhere and I had just used the bathroom. When we came back, the toilet had somehow overflowed, I'm not really sure how. But there was water all over that ended up causing the flooring in the whole house to need replaced. Anyway, we filed a claim and ended up getting it taken care of.

I say that though, as a caution. When I was shopping for homeowners insurance for our new house we almost didn't get it with our current company. They asked if we had ever filed a claim in the past and even though it was my wife's policy in her name and on her old house they weren't going to give us a new policy on our new house in my name. I guess they thought even though it was all in my name, that my wife living with me meant she was going to cause destruction somehow. The only thing that saved us was that whoever the agent was at the time of the claim classified it as a faulty toilet hose or something like that, rather than just a backup. I know better as I witnessed the water flowing over the top of the commode. So they basically looked at it differently. I don't know. Just know that it can come back to bite you later if it is not handled carefully.

 

[Sum1]

What are the chances that the pipe can be accesses from the outside of the wall.

The reason I ask is a few years ago had a friend's mom call me to say she had a leak in her basement. She had her kitchen done over,including granite countertops. The problem was the garbage disposal was backed up all the way inside the wall and ended up splitting the fitting where it branched off the drain and the vent stack.

I took the clapboard siding off the outside of the wall to figure out the problem,and also fix it.

We have a brick house. I don't think that is an option.


The good news ( I think) though is that our sink has magically drained. I think maybe the plumber might have misdiagnosed the situation. I ran water for a good while this afternoon and it there were no clogging issues. So then I started thinking, "Is the water running out of a hole in the pipe into the wall or something?"...so I went to the basement and opened the plug on the stack and had my wife turn the water on so I could see if it was draining...well, it was flowing all the way through the stack.

My guess is that there was a good heavy clog and when the plumber ran his snake it got misdirected up the vent making him think there was the more serious problem.

I'm going to proceed with caution for the next week or so and still get a couple estimates on rehabbing the kitchen anyway. I might just move forward with it and make sure that the drain pipe is updated. Gotta love old homes...