Water Damage Restoration: What to do if your adjustor disagrees with your contractor?
Water Damage Restoration: What to do if your adjustor disagrees with your contractor?
This article is about the confusion an uncertified water damage insurance adjustor can create. I received the request for water removal from a customer who lives in a condo on the second level. Her neighbor above had something leak, we don’t know what it is, whether it was a busted pipe or leaky toilet. All we know is that the water leaked from the third level of the condo, down into the second unit of my customer’s house, through her floor, and through the ceiling down to the first unit.
Unfortunately, my customer was assigned an adjustor who was not IICRC certified and had no related industry certifications. I go onsite to conduct my initial investigation with the customer. From first glance, the water damage did not appear to be so extensive. However, after checking the moisture content levels of the ceiling, to discover they were completely saturated. Additionally, carpet and pad were saturated. The bathroom didn’t appear to be as bad as it was, however, the customer was able to take video of the water loss occurring. If I had not seen the video, I may not have discovered the additional water damage.
There was water pouring down the ceiling, through her overhead fan, through the lighting fixture, right down onto her bed and onto the floor. Water was splattering and caused water damage to her wooden nightstands and dressers. Water was falling through the air duct in the bathroom, directly over her vanity. I told the customer that according to the ICRC S500, we will remove the drywall and we will also take up the carpet and the pad because I saw how much water fell from the ceiling.
There was a question as to whether there could be water trapped under the tile of her bathroom floor. Ordinarily I would think she would be safe from having this happen, because tile has one of the highest water resistance levels of different building materials. When I saw the video, I realized there was a good chance water could have become trapped under the tile in the bathroom for two reasons. One: just how much water fell and the accompanying pressure causing water damage. Two: there were breaks in the seals around the toilet and the tub, so water may have got trapped under the tile from one of those breaks in the seal.
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Knowing that the customer works from home, I asked what would be a good time for us to start? We decided that doing the water damage over the weekend would be better for her because she’s not working. I agreed and figured that this would be something her adjuster could definitely understand, we could definitely justify beginning on the weekend. However, this adjuster was perhaps one of the worst adjusters that my customer could have been assigned.
The adjustor claims to have had 10 years of experience. When I got on the phone with her, to explain the water damage from having been onsite, but this adjustor had the audacity to believe they knew what needed to happen better than me even, though I’m an ICRC certified master water damage restoration professional. I had also been on site to conduct psychrometric analysis and this adjuster saw some pictures. She wanted the customer to believe that I didn’t know what I was talking about and that she did. I asked the adjuster what if any IICRC certifications do you have? Their respond was: “you know what,I’m not getting into a conversation about certifications”. That was the red flag to me know this adjuster had no IICRC water damage restoration certifications, because if she did, she would one agree with me and she would say that she had certifications.
Cat 3 Water Damage Restoration
Our biggest discrepancy was how we should categorize this project. I said we should categorize this project as a CAT3 water damage restoration, and she adamantly objected. They believed the water damage should be done as a Cat 2 water loss. Even if we assume that upstairs was perfectly clean, in order to error on the side of caution, I didn’t think that it would be wise to assume that everything upstairs on the third level was completely in order. In order for me to agree with the adjuster, that would mean I have to assume everything upstairs was in pristine clean condition, but:
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We don’t know if this person upstairs had pets,
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We don’t know what the condition of the floor or the carpet was,
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We don’t know what the overall condition of the unit upstairs was.