Home 2003

The kitchen floor is getting worse and now it is so bad I want to replace it.  In addition when I steam cleaned the carpets last month a book case in the living room literally disintegrated where it meets the carpet.  I pulled the carpet back and the carpet and padding were wet.  Seems moisture is seeping up through the slab.   The flooring company I was going to use tells me that moisture is seeping up through the slab and it needs to be corrected before any flooring can be installed.  The flooring company says I should notify my insurance company.  I sought the advice of a good fried who is in the real estate business and she concurs.  So I called my insurance company to get this looked at.  Their adjuster came out with a couple of plumbing inspectors suspecting a pipe was broken during the foundation repair.  I spoke with the adjuster while the plumbers performed a hydro-static test on the underground pipes.  The adjuster has some issues with which policy to claim this under, seeing as my policy is re-written each year I renew.  Come to find out my current policy no longer covers any mold/moisture related items.  All this at the low low cost of more than double what my previous two policies were.  I detect a cleverly disguised insurance scam here and wonder what's going to happen.  I dug through all of my photos and found several pictures of the kitchen floor from the time I purchased the house to now.  Just in case they say it's not covered due to the date I filed my claim.  It is clear that the floor stains started way back under my previous two policies.  It's just not until now that I've decided to do something about it.  Disregard the content of each photo, they are from other items of interest.  Notice the floor only.  They are in chronological order starting with a good clean floor 4 months after the install.

Now take a look at current pictures of the hydrostatic test performed on the pipes and the condition of the kitchen floor, there's also a picture of the rotten bookcase.  Notice all the light blue and light brown stains that have become very bold by now.  These started back within a year of the floor being installed.  They were so light back then you barely noticed.  At first I thought it was faulty or poorly manufactured flooring.  Over time they became more and more apparent to the state they are in now.

We'll see how well Farmer's handles this and if I retain them as my carrier in the future.  This is the first claim I have ever had with any insurance company for any type of coverage.  I've never even had a claim on my auto insurance and I've been driving for 18 years.  I was willing to repair the flooring myself at my own cost until this came up and the advise of professionals to get Farmer's involved.  I just want a new floor and not have to worry about my furniture getting destroyed.  Isn't that worth the $4000 something dollars I've already paid in home owners insurance?  Oh yeah!  My deductible is $2380.  Is a $400 vinyl floor worth that much?

More to follow....

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Well, after an investigation under oath and an afternoon wasted at a lawyer's office, Farmer's denied my claim.  I should have filed my claim one month earlier under the old policy.  Seems there has been allot of fraudulent mold claims in Texas and the Insurance industry is tired of it.  They told me that my claim is legitimate, but...  Oh well.  So I decided to do the work myself and give me a project to put myself into.  I started with the bathroom, tearing down the old sheetrock and cleaning up the mold problem.

The mold problem extended into the adjoining hall closet, so both got new sheetrock.  I replaced all the plumbing for the tub and treated the studs and raised that low ass 52" shower head another 12" and put in additional braces for the pipes so they won't rattle around in the walls when turned on and off like they did before.