Question Of Pain (OT), Pics added Options

[VaccaRabite]

And now, for our next contestant on the Question of Pain, with your host Swampyyyyy Bottoms!

Vacca Rabite, what sits about 735 feet above the sea, but is currently full of water?

Gee Swampy, lemme think about that one. Oh, I know. Is it "My House?"

Thats RIGHT! Jimbob, tell the poor sap what he's won!

Well Swampy, Mr Rabite has won a burst radiator. On the top floor of his house. Its been pumping out hot water at 20PSI for many hours now. He will get to enjoy water cascading beautifully out of all of his recessed light fixtures on the floor directly below his new burst radiator. He gets a new in house pool in his basement. He will also get to enjoy looking at new cracks in his ceiling and walls. All this sounds great, but there is more. Mr Rabite will get to spend the rest of the night pulling up sopping wet carpet and foam, while trying to stave off mold. And if you thought that was enough, just wait to hear what else he's won. Mr Rabite will get to replace his computer, DSLR, several lenses, his brand new HD video camera, and his cell phone. And last, but not least, he'll get to deal with insurance adjusters!

Jimbob, those are some great prizes. Vacca, what do you think of all the loot you get here tonight.

....... Um. This game show blows.

Whe-he-hell... Everybody come on back next week for another exciting edition of The Question of PAIN!

Brought to you by the Awesome Squad! Paid for by USAA.

[charliew]

I'm no heated radiator expert but it seems like a one way valve set at 18 psi would divert the pressure back to the supply if the pressure dropped anywhere.

[VaccaRabite]

So, yeah. Still not home. Most of the fans are out, but they are still running them in the computer room. This pisses me off as I think that they are trying to get out of taking out the wall. The damn wall needs to come out.

Today we put the cats in a baording house on our dime. Insurance won't cover it. Sad All 5 had been living in our bedroom. I'm tired of living at the inlaws, and want to get back into my dang house.

Zach

[VaccaRabite]

So, the wall is still in place, and the fans are still running. Which means I am still living out of a backpack at my inlaws. I'm tired, cranky, and feel like I am bleeding money. That is all.

Zach

[So.Cal.914]

I have been following your woes, I could not (and this is unusual for me) come up with something to say, I could not imagine.

I hope this will be over soon for you and your family.

[Dr Evil]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

Smile through the pain (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Wallow in the awesomness (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

Okay, had a talk with USAA.
They confirmed to me that the wall would be out today, as well as the fans. Core samples would be done today on the walls that are considered "dry."

Appraiser will be out Monday or Tuesday of next week to let me know what he thinks the repairs should cost. Independant appraiser will be in over the weekend if not tomorrow to do the same.

I have saved all my pictures from the soaked PC. I've not started on music yet, but the pics are off so I am happy. Computer can be totally dead now and I'll be fine with it. I've had the machine speced out and replacement value will be submitted to insurance hopefully by the end of the day today. maybe tomorrow.

I have a cell phone again, so that is good. That receipt has been submitted.

Cats have moved into a boarding facility. On our dime. $Cha-ching$ But they were starting to go crazy in the bed room.

Little guy still is not sleeping through the night yet at the inlaws. Wakes up around 3am like clockwork. Not figured that one out, he sleeps like a stone at home.

Zach

[r_towle]

Talk to the building inspector.
Ask for his advice and ask him to inspect what the insurance provider says they will do. He may suggest more be done. Get his requirements in writing.

Rich

[VaccaRabite]

Wall is out, though they did not actually do that until yesterday. Core samples confirmed that almost all of the other walls are dry inside and out. One section of a wall upstairs (directly behind the radiator that popped) needs to come out. Tomorrow I'm going over to inspect everyhting and start vacuming up the dust.

Plumber inspected the other radiators today, and they were said to be okay. However, that was blunted with the "you know, they rust from the inside..." statement.

The dude who has to inspect the flooded electronics came today to pic everything up. however, as I did not know that they guy was comming over, I had already had my PC evaluated on my own. But this will cover the zoom lens, camera body, and video camera.

I wanna get back into my house by Monday. Dammit.

Zach

[zymurgist]

Holy crap Zach! I'm so sorry to hear about your tale of woe. I just found out today... guess I've been hanging out in the Sandbox a bit too much.

[VaccaRabite]

So, we got a lot lf cleaning done today, and it looks like we will be able to move in again on Monday. We have a massive air cleaner sucking all the crap out of the air. So, pics as the tale continues...

(IMG:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/3243169058_6f066212d2.jpg) The last attempt to clear the water out of the wall.

And so long as the wall is out, and I am going to be covering everything up...
(IMG:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3243169128_2b601eea9e.jpg)

And the wall out
(IMG:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/3242337055_b3c8119df9.jpg)

The "look" tag with the arrow on it is pointing to a beam with termite damage that has to come out. No insects in there, but the wood is really spongy.

Zach

[jhadler]

Wow... That truly sucks...

And I can TOTALLY empathise with you. This evening, while at a super bowl party, just at the end of halftime, my wife calls and says "help! the washing machine is flooding the house!!!"...

I was outta there so fast...

Got home, found the downstairs room dripping wet, false tile ceiling had already collapsed from the soaking. Carpet soaked, garage soaked (car is at a friends shop right now...), the upstairs wasn't much better... The laundry room had an inch of standing water (that which didn't flow downstairs), it hadd soaked through to the adjacent rooms...

Wife called a company she had handle her clients water flood. Mistake... They're just carpet cleaners... Didn't know that 'till they got here at 9:30pm... Good gravy. I said, start what you gotta do now, and I'll be calling a contractor or someone else who handles this kind of thing for everything else.

Yeah, the carpet's up, the pads are gone, and they're about to spray biocide, so I'm outta here... Off to the mom in-law's. Pregnant wife and 3 year old are there now. Wow, this so sucks.

Any suggestions from those in the professional "know" would be dramatically appreciated.


Crap! And I still haven't seen the second half!!!


-Josh2

[LarryR]

Wow! Glad to see you are getting it put back together. I guess one bright side is that you will have an additional 8" of ceiling clearance now in one room?

That is an incredible looking kitchen btw.

[VaccaRabite]

Wow! Glad to see you are getting it put back together. I guess one bright side is that you will have an additional 8" of ceiling clearance now in one room?

That is an incredible looking kitchen btw.

Ha! Not my kitchen. Ours is very plain looking, not nearly as nice as the one above in this thread.

I think that I am going to keep the ceiling lower. I don't think that I gain anything from the higher ceiling, and it will cost more to heat and cool the added volume.

In other news, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight, for the first time for the first time since the 22nd of January. Wife and baby will come home tomorrow. I'm in class till late, and its just a lot shorter for me to go home rather then 1 last night at the inlaws.

Zach

[ottox914]

First off, here is my bias. I am property insurance adjuster. Before you all go and throw your used and broken 914 parts at me, lets talk a little. Not all insurance adjusters are evil and should be destroyed, just as all used car salesman do not wear plaid jackets and warranty their cars for 5 miles or 5 blocks, which ever comes first. I've been doing this for 20 yrs now, so I think I have a handle on the basics, although I do not work for USAA, so I can not comment specifically on how I think the coverage would/could/should apply in this case.

Assuming this is a fairly "standard" HO family of policy, or a usaa form similar to the ISO HO series, I would have a couple observations.

1- 99.9% of homeowners policies, for an owner occupied home, will have an additional living expense line of coverage. This is "triggered" when there is a covered loss which makes your home unfit to live in. Sounds like this is what we have going on here. If a person was to have stayed in a motel, those bills should be part of the covered loss. If your pets need a motel, same would apply. With my company, I have paid for pet boarding many times. I have also paid for time living at a friend or relatives home. But. This has been an agreed to, nominal fee per day, not the going rate for a holiday inn or similar lodging option. Your friend is not in the "business" of renting out rooms, and should not be paid as such, unless he wants to serve up his SS #, so any lodging fees paid to him would be considered taxable income. Usually more hassle than most folks want to go thru. but still, ask your adjuster about your additional living expense coverage.

2- Be careful of what you ask for. Again, I do not know what the coverages are that are provided by your policy, and I say this not to freak you or anyone else out, but damage does not always = coverage. In some of our lower priced, more limited policies, there is no or limited coverage for code upgrades, or mold, to pick 2 examples. There was a claim where an individual got way overheated, called in the health inspector for his county, the housing inspector, a mold testing firm, an independent appraiser, and a couple builders. He was going after his adjuster with all guns loaded. He identified damages such that the county would not let him live in the home until all the work was done. His policy had limits to the amount it could pay for the damages he identified. The individual would not accept this, and was looking to bulldoze his way to a better settlement. In the end, the adjuster correctly assessed the damages and paid the limit, the home owner created a giant project for the re-building, much of which had to come out of his pocket. The bad: he ran out of coverage well before he ran out of repairs. The good: he now had a total scope of repairs and costs for these repairs lined up. The ugly: he went after his agent claiming he was sold the wrong policy. I don't know how that ended. It was not my claim.

I have nothing against folks getting a 2nd or 3rd opinion on my scope of damage, but presentation is everything. Give me this info as something additional to my own observations and experience to consider, document why your thoughts are different from mine, and don't try to ram it down my neck as fact and the only claim resolution you will accept.

This brings me to my 3rd thought:

3- Work with your adjuster, not against him/her. You, like everyone else I deal with, has had, to one degree or another, an event in their lives that has turned things upside down. Things are not as they should be. As odd as this sounds, now is not the time to be demanding ME, ME, ME, but rather to be asking what can I do to make the adjusters job easier. Hear me out, here. Your adjuster may have 10-20 or more claims just like yours, all in different stages of done. Some may have just been reported, others needing the last check written, most are somewhere in the middle. Keeping all this organized with paper was a nightmare, and computers mean now there are more people able to look over your shoulder and "score" your work. Ask questions, try to understand the process, and help with it. Oddly enough, the folks who participate and help me round up the info needed to write checks, seem to get the checks sooner. Your computer is a great example. Rather than just tell the adjuster it was a 3 yr old dell whatever, you got the specs and prices for a matching replacement unit. My job just got easier, now I can write you a check rather than spend 1/2 an hour or more tracking down specs for a like kind and quality unit. We're working togather and you're getting paid sooner, getting back to normal sooner. Your adjuster has quality standards his file needs to stand up to for contact, returning calls, documentation of the file, and the sooner the two of you hit those marks, the faster your claim will be concluded.

4- Lastly, on a property claim such as this, its OK to cash the check. To many people lump ALL insurance checks into one category. In a liability claim, say I'm in your car, you are driving, and in showing off you smack us into a tree. I'm making a claim against your policy for my injuries. (thats an important sentence). Your insurance company has no contract (policy) with me, but they do owe me some money. They are going to want me to "sign off" on my claim, take their money, and go my merry way. That is different from your situation. Here you are making a claim against your policy for damages to your property, which your insurance company insures. (compare this to the last important sentence). You have a contract (policy) with your company, that says you pay them $$$ a yr, and when things go wrong, the contract (policy) will define how both parties will be affected. (coverage and payment or denial of coverage, depending on the cause of loss). If there are additional damages that are realized during the construction, or if the adjuster missed something, or did not price it correctly, the terms of the contract have not been met, your company would need to write you an additional check(s) until the terms of the agreement (policy) have been satisfied.

And, if you would like to discuss more, pm me your phone #, I'll be glad to help as I can.

[VaccaRabite]

What else will happen this month?
This morning my DD broke down. Its either a head gasket blow out ($$$$$) or a spark plug blow out ($).

Hopefully its the spark plug.

I could really use USAA paying me some of the money owed at this point....

Zach

[type11969]

Zach, that licks! Sorry man. How many miles are on that 'baru? Seems way too young for something like this to happen. The 914 is not far off from being a DD . . .

[VaccaRabite]

115K miles on the scooby.

And, good news! Its the plug. man, I just dropped the car off an hour ago, they must be looking for work to do. Hopefully its just an insert and done, and not needing to replace the head. But I think luck might be on my side for this one.

Zach

[type11969]

Nice. I can only imagine that if we did an engine pull on that 'baru to replace the head gasket it might just find its way in to another car . . .

[VaccaRabite]

Yeah, seriously.
Sadly, shop said the plug damaged the head when it came out, and the hole is too big to fix with an insert.

So, lucky me gets a crappy rental for about a week while they dick with my car. man, I could really use the 914 on the road about now. or the truck. The truck might have heat. Maybe.

I wonder if it will be cheaper just to do an engine swap then fix the head. I wonder how much a new head is going to run me.

Zach

[jsayre914]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) sory to here bout your dd. Mine is still driping fuel now and then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I think it is right inside the filler neck rusted out a hole. But mine has 215k and im on my second engine.

I have a guy in balto that can get low milage suby engines pretty cheap. Hopefully yours wont be too much ouuta pocket (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

btw Your car is really looking good man