house flooded - what to do first?

[boomerball]

not my house, but my in-laws. they are splitting time between places and have what sounds like a big mess at thier primary house (where they were not at last 2 days). wife is on her way there, so not sure of everything, but have heard there is a ceiling caved in, 2~3in in the house. neighbor saw water flowing out the front door and cut it off earlier this afternoon.

not sure where to start or what to take to help "triage" the place.

I know there is a wealth of experience here from much worse situations ... hopefully we're the only ones who need the info, but there may be others out there...

[Death from Above]

Call insurance company 1st. Nothing to do until pics are taken.

[Benno]

Like above, call insurance. Then call serve pro. Flood is a nightmare to deal with and tons of work.

[jerp]

I helped a neighbor with this yesterday - part of the ceiling fell in from a busted pipe. Tok pictures then moved furniture then started sweeping water and debris out the door then followed up with a wet vac. He was mostly concerned about saving his brand new wood floors. After we removed all the water we could we set up fans. Not sure it will save anything if the water got between the floor and the slab

[Slicefixer]

- Call their insurance agent.....that's what they're for....theoretically.

- WRITE DOWN EVERY contact...."who, when, where, what"....

- Take your OWN pictures and LOTS of em'....THOROUGHLY document EVERYthing with pics.

Lastly, hopefully, it's not too bad, but, if it is I'd have my/their lawyer standing right beside me when the adjustor shows up.

My house was essentially destroyed in a violent thunderstorm in May of '08. 17 months later we moved back in. It was a nightmare dealing with Farmer's and that includes my former agent. 15 years of paying premiums without a SINGLE claim and they fumbled my rebuild virtually from the jump. Fortunately I was WELL trained by my father in how to deal with insurance companies. His advice saved us.....

[S-3 Ranch]

Like above, call insurance. Then call serve pro. Flood is a nightmare to deal with and tons of work.

Yep call insurance company and have them dispatch serve pro or action water damage control ASAP,

[boomerball]

thanks for the tips, passing them along. she just got there, her parents have been there for an hour or so and have made the insurance call

[GarGuy]

Call insurance. Almost certain there is a provision for hotel room in short term but will only get it if they ask.

[brokeno]

Serve pro will use up all your insurance money. Rent equipment and do it yourself

[HogHunter34]

Good chance they will need to flood cut & pull insulation as it will wick up moisture & develop mold. Any depth over base plate of frame which is 1&1/2”.
I wouldn’t let Servpro pull their idea of pulling baseboards & drilling 2” holes & vortexing the room. They typically price gouge & it will NOT pull moisture from any that has reached the insulation

[RRagan83]

I had to gut the bottom floor of my house, rip all carpet up on both floors. Up stairs we had to rip a vanity out, take base boards up and doors then cut dry wall up 2 feet. It took 4 days to gut the house. I rented a roll off open top dumpster. I then rented dehumidifiers from home depot and ran them along with fans 2 weeks. Then did 4 bleach/water treatments before we started the rebuild.

[Atfulldraw]

Dry it out as best you can yourself. Take lots of good pictures and video.

You’re going to get the bottom of the barrel adjusters right now even if you call right now, and the big name mitigation companies are already tapped out and at capacity.

Find a good public adjuster and be ready for a long fight with your carrier to be properly indemnified. Pay out of pocket, and wonder why you paid for insurance.

I’m seeing the initial claim numbers now..and they haven’t even really started yet

It’s going to be a colossal fn mess.

[Mertzon Man]

Serve pro will use up all your insurance money. Rent equipment and do it yourself

This!

[flywise]

Serve pro will use up all your insurance money. Rent equipment and do it yourself

Like he said^^^^^ there is diy or other companies that do the same thing.

[boomerball]

thanks for the replies, I will probably get an update later tonight. pics I got were hard to tell how deep it actually got. soaked attic insulation and ceiling material all over two bedrooms though.