Burst pipes

SlinkyDel

Ima now very worried about the dehumidifiers/industrial drying equipment installed in our home 2 days ago after 5 weeks of budgering and asking insurance to send them. They have installed almost 6 of these plus 2 heavy duty fans, this now makes me think our ceilings will crack and insurance will claim ignorance as they werent cracked before..well not all of them!
In answer to your qn, in my opinion, the cracks to me are a direct result of the escape of water wich lead to the installation of the drying equipment/dehumidifiers, so insurance should repair or pay you to get a good contractor to sort out & redecorate!

SlinkyDel

solittletime wrote: »

We were told by the loss adjuster to get a quote for lifting the tiles and replacing with new ones. I did raise the issue of the possibililty of the units being damaged with the loss adjuster, who by the way did not work directly for them but had been brought in I suppose as a free lance to help them cope with their heavy workload at the time. He said insurance companies were trying to cut back on the items you can claim for but did say "I suppose if they were damaged where they meet the floor then I suppose you could replace the end bits."
I guess our claim will come in at around £8,000 so maybe it would be better to get our own adjuster. Do they work on a percentage of your claim or a fixed fee?

Solittletime, Im sorry to hear about your loss;we have had the exact same problem, but have only had the drying equipment installed in our 3 bed semi on wednesday evening. Who are your insurers/loss adjustors? I am getting very worried on the effects of the drying and insurance responce after reading your posts & responces hereof. What do we do? Should we ask that they dry the house slower? Coz they have delivered 6 industrial driers & 4 huge fans!

So do you reckon the drying may be accelerated, but also may not be effective? Something like putting a sausage on a very hot grill thus burning the top but the inside would be raw...!
Also we werent hapy with the initial survey report, but we were fobbed off with the responce that its not the definitive schedule of works, which would be more detailed and address/include all our concerns in details of works to be done! We are very worried. Most of our contents were skipped coz they sat in the damp wet leaking house for over 5 wks from 31/12/10! We are worried insurance will deffo try to undercut the replacement/payment, and do we have recourse for the extra damage at all?
How much would an assesor cost; our Loss adjustor is very uncommunicative never responds to our e-mails, lambasts us for the e-mails we send asking for updates saying we are bombarding her and does not want us to contact our insurers on our concerns! Our contents bill is upwards of £31K because of the excessive delay in inventorying and emptying the contents; the building is moulding loads of black mold in every crack & alover the walls very worrying? We are so worried & dont kow what to do.:eek:

mexicanhat

Hi,

One thing that does spring to mind is was the drying equipment monitored while it was in the house? Did they come and take readings from it. Also is the cracking in the rooms where the equipment was? If so it is possible that the the property may have been dried out too quickly. Why was the equipment taken out if you still have high moisture readings? The company that instal the drying equipment normally have to confirm the property is completely dry before any work can go ahead. While the removal of the tiles would be to assist the drying out it does not make sense that the equipment is not still there. What equipment did they install would normally be airmovers, fans or dehumidifiers?

If the tiles can't be removed without damaging the units your Insurers will pay for the damage to the units. They will only pay for the cost for the damaged items though not the whole kitchen.

Hope that helps

SlinkyDel

Sollittletime hope there is progress with your claim, what has your Insurance/Loss adjustor said about the cracks? Are they going to pay? Wooo, so indeed the drying may be too quick causing extra damage!!! Scary. 3 Airmovers (2 down, 1 upstairs), 1 Fan upstairs & 2 Dehumidifiers ( 1 in botton hallway & other upstairs Landing) were installed in our property last wednesday 16/2/11. The installer advised to get insurance to remove plaster and all wall tiles before the drying is done as it was soaking wet and thus easier to remove, which would speed up the drying process, we have passed on this info but got no real responce. Like I said before our loss adjustor never responds unless we complain to the insurance then she gets really upset and calls us to tell us off!:mad: We obviously need an assessor but are worried about how we would pay them as I am out of work now as well, due to too much time taken out trying to chase this up. How much do assessors normally charge? Our contents claim alone like i said earlier is over £31k he building one is probably about £35K as well hopefully including labour/fees, its scary? :eek:

dacouch

Slinky who are you insured with ?

solittletime

Hi Slinky,
We only had ONE dehumidifier and I know the damage that we have been left with, although no one has confirmed that the machine was the cause. Eventually got speaking to the person who is dealing with our claim at the loss adjusters today and by the way it is the same company that you are dealing with. They still have not received the report from the company who supplied the dehumidifier. The person who is dealing with the claim simply told me to go ahead and get quotes for anything that I thought was connected with the claim and pass them on to them and they would either settle in full or give me an amount towards the total cost. If they do not settle in full I am going to have to get my own loss adjuster. I will have to get a decorator to look at the cracks and see if they can be repaired or is the damage more major.
Sorry to hear about your problems. Only new on here so can't give you any real advice only let you know how I am getting on. The guys on here are great and hopfully you will receive help and advice when you need it.
Mexicanhat,
The dehumidifier was not monitored while it was in. The cracks are in every room in the house not just in the area where the dehumidifier was. They did not appear immediately but within one week or so of the dehumidifier being removed. I'm going to have to stick to my guns that the cracks would not have appeared if there had been no escape of water. Whether the water or the dehumidifier caused the problem is irrelevant it is all related.
As for the tiles having to come off the kitchen floor I don't know how they are going to be taken off with a kango hammer and not damage the units. They said they would repair any part of the kitchen that got damaged but how do you remove wood that has a granite worktop sitting on top. Try removing that and you damage the wall tiles!

FlameCloud

6 Dehums in a property is way over the top, it wasnt Rainbow by any chance was it? Increasing the number of dehums does not increase the speed of drying because one is more than capable of equally the moisture content in any given room.

SlinkyDel

dacouch wrote: »

Slinky who are you insured with ?

We r insured with AXA why?

SlinkyDel

FlameCloud wrote: »

6 Dehums in a property is way over the top, it wasnt Rainbow by any chance was it? Increasing the number of dehums does not increase the speed of drying because one is more than capable of equally the moisture content in any given room.

Hi Flame,

What in your opinion or how many Dehums are adequate for a 3 bedroom Semi? :mad: Im concerened coz there are several cracks allover the ceilings and walls in our house now in addition to the mould. Loss adjustors have authorised a local contractor to remove plaster & tiles, so hopefully this will not be an issue, but the ceilings will still be cracked. Meantime we are in week 8 since the flood/escape of water/burst pipe...call it what u will. We are worried that if they continue dragging their feet there will be no funds to repair our home at this rate! Living in rental with rental furniture!

Solittle, I hope things are moving forward for you, sounds positive that the loss adjustor has agreed to see a quote for all the damage and hopefully will settle. Dont agree to use own contractor, We have been advised that insurance wouldnt guarantee the work if you do, that leaves you at the mercy of the contactor and whatever Defects period they choose to honour, if any. take care.

gregd_3

Depends on the number of rooms which are damaged.

It should be noted that drying out company's do not get paid per machine, the drying out costs are worked out based on the size of the room so it makes no difference to the cost whether 1 machine or 100 are put in.