A standard homeowners insurance policy may cover water damage to your basement, depending on the source. For instance, if a burst pipe was the cause of the damage, your policy may pay to repair damage to your basement. However, if a flood causes damage to your basement, you likely won’t be covered.

​Your basement flooded. What will insurance cover?Your homeowners insurance may cover damage to your basement, and damage to the personal property in your basement when:

• A pipe bursts: Your insurance may pay to repair or replace the things that the flood water damaged in your basement, up to your coverage limit.
• A plumbing appliance overflows: Sudden and unintentional leaks from a home appliance, like your washing machine or air conditioning unit, or accidental overflow of your bathtub, sink, or toilet may also be covered.

Is damage to your basement from groundwater covered?

​Groundwater is naturally occurring water underground whose levels may increase after heavy rains or snow melts, which can be destructive to basements. However, your homeowners insurance policy won’t cover damage from groundwater.

Will additional flood insurance protect my basement?

You may be able to purchase a separate flood insurance policy to protect your basement against water damage from outside flooding. Flood insurance may be essential if you live in an area with a high risk of flooding. Understand that not all flood insurance policies include below-ground-level spaces, so check with your insurer to see how you’re protected.

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Steps to take if you have a flooded house

Once it’s safe to return, you can start surveying the damage and drying out your home. You’ll also want to file insurance claims and find contractors to help you with repairing your flooded home.

1. Make sure it’s safe to return

If flood waters infiltrated your home during a storm or hurricane, cleaning it right away should be your overriding concern. But you might need to wait until it’s safe to return before you can start. Damage from a major storm like a hurricane can be dangerous, so wait until local officials give you the all-clear before you head home.

2. Cut off power, gas, and water

Turn off home utilities such as gas, water, and electricity before entering your home. HUD recommends assessing your home’s structural integrity before entering. Get a professional inspection if you’re not sure it’s safe. If the waterline is above the electrical outlets, call an electrician to ensure everything is safe before proceeding.

3. Document everything

Start by documenting the flood damage with photos and video for when you file an insurance claim. Contact your insurance company or companies to start your claim immediately.

4. Reach out for help

After a flood, most homeowners can tackle the initial stages of clearing out water-soaked furniture, appliances, and carpet and removing drywall. But for those who aren’t able, volunteer organizations, religious groups, neighbors, friends, and contractors can help. Groups like Team Rubicon, a nonprofit organization that recruits, trains, and deploys military veterans for disaster response, are often on the scene after disasters.

Tips for repairing your flooded home

Flood recovery can be a long process. You’ll need to find equipment, secure your home, and clear damaged items. Some tips for what to do after a flood once you’re ready to start the clean-up process include:

Buy personal protective equipment

​Rubber boots, gloves, and clothes are essential for keeping you healthy while you work in your wet home. Flood water contains hazardous chemicals and raw sewage, the residue of which gets left behind after the water recedes. Moreover, lead-based paint particles can get stirred up, especially if your home was built before 1978. Mold spores and dust in the air can also be a danger. Wearing an N95 mask or a half-face P100 respirator can help prevent you from inhaling harmful particles.

Remove everything

Don’t wait for an insurance adjuster to show up before you start working on getting your house dry because mold can multiply and cause even more problems. Take everything that the water touched out of your house. Set any solid wood furniture, family photos, or other potential salvageable items out to dry. Rip out the carpet and carpet pads.

Some hardwood floors and solid wood trim might be salvageable, but for the most part, you’ll have to strip your home down to its concrete slab and wall studs. Demolishing drywall damaged by water is easy enough for the average homeowner. To be safe, you can cut the drywall about a foot above the waterline.
Most of the time, the water will wick up the drywall a couple of inches above the waterline but not to the ceiling. Water may wick higher than that in the studs, but solid wood two-by-fours should dry out after a few days.

Once you have removed the drywall portion, cut the insulation and remove that. Don’t yank down the insulation, as that will leave a gap near the top of the wall. Once you submit an insurance claim, an insurance adjuster will survey the damage. But if it's a large disaster, the adjuster might take a while to visit your site. It’s a good idea to keep a small section of wet drywall to have evidence of the waterline for inspection.

Don’t forget hidden spaces

Be sure to check drawers and other areas of your home for standing water. The base of your kitchen cabinets behind the toe kick may trap some standing water. If you have a kitchen island, it may also have water trapped in the base. You can drill holes in the base of the toe kick to release any trapped water and get air circulating.

If you have built your cabinets out of solid plywood, they would likely survive fine after drying out. You’ll want to cut out the backs to remove the drywall and insulation behind them but leave the structure of the cabinets intact. You may need to replace more modern cabinets made from pressboard or particleboard.

You may be able to save interior doors. Take the doors off their hinge pins and stack them outside, lying flat with space between them for airflow. If they stand upright, they are likely to warp. Put a fan on them to facilitate the drying process.

Clean and disinfect

Get a broom and a vacuum  and clean everything out thoroughly. You can even hose down the solid surfaces — studs, and slab — with clean water to help wash away growing bacteria. But don’t power wash or get the remaining drywall wet. Once everything is relatively dry, you must use something to kill the bacteria.

A bleach solution of half a cup of bleach in 1 gallon of water applied with a pump spray can also help kill mold and bacteria. Bleach will corrode metal, so avoid spraying electrical outlets and cabinet hardware.

​Ventilate and dry

Once everything is cleared and cleaned, use fans to dry your home. Keep the windows and doors open as much as possible, too. It can take between two and four weeks for your home to completely dry before it’s ready for rebuilding after a flood.

Hire credentialed contractors

Once you are ready to start rebuilding, with the help of a professional, be cautious of scams or contractors looking to move too quickly. HUD urges homeowners to check credentials and hire only licensed and insured contractors.

Take your time to check references. Talk to or visit your potential contractor’s previous satisfied customers. And be cautious about paying a big deposit before work has begun.

Be prepared for future emergencies

FEMA has resources on how to protect your property from flood damage. You might also want to prepare a home emergency kit, create a home inventory, and evaluate your flood insurance needs to ensure adequate coverage if your home floods again. Learn more about how flood insurance works and how to get coverage.

When it comes to home repairs and renovations, it can be difficult to know what you can accomplish on your own — and which projects are best handled by a trained professional.

Costs, safety, time and the finished product are all things you should plan around. Consider the pros and cons of doing it yourself versus hiring a professional for a project.

You may be able to do smaller things on your own, but some jobs are better left to an expert.

What’s the time commitment?

Thanks to online tutorials, you have access to near-infinite home repair knowledge. But how much time do you actually have to put that information into action?

Before starting a DIY project, make sure you can complete the work within your target timeframe. For example, if you need to get a nursery ready before a new baby is born, can you expect to meet that deadline? Are you okay with spending so much of your spare time on it?

How much will you save?

Since you’re not paying someone else for their labor, you should be able to save a ton of money on your home project, right?

The answer isn’t always that simple. For example, do you already have the tools and materials you need? You can always get a few quotes to compare the expense of hiring a professional.

And keep in mind that you may have to hire a pro if there are issues, meaning extra spending on top of the money you’ve already invested into it.
Is safety an issue?

A good rule of thumb is that any project requiring a permit might be too big or too risky to DIY. This includes electricity, plumbing, digging and structural changes. It’s not worth the chance that a mistake could hurt you or make your home unsafe.

Can you accept “good enough” instead of perfect?

Let’s face it: Sometimes a finished DIY project doesn’t look as good as if a contractor did it. If you want a renovation to come out perfectly (or if you want to sell your home quickly), consider hiring a professional.

​Have questions about your home insurance and how your coverage can be affected by renovations? Reach out for assistance.

When was the last time you took a look at your home’s foundation?

Maintaining a solid foundation is crucial to ensure the safety and stability of your property — and making prompt repairs will protect you from larger, more expensive problems down the road.
Regardless of the age of your house, inspecting the foundation should be part of your annual to-do list.

Here are five things you can do to avoid damage and maintain a solid foundation.

Check for signs of foundation damage.

Inspect the exterior of your house for large cracks in the foundation. Inside, look for crumbling, bowing or sagging walls. Diagonal cracks on interior walls and cracks in the floor or ceiling can also indicate foundation problems. If you spot issues, it’s best to call an experienced professional for repairs.

Keep water from pooling around the foundation.

Too much water can cause foundation upheaval. Make sure you have proper drainage in the form of gutters, downspouts, downspout extensions and soil sloping to carry excess water away from the foundation.

Keep the soil moist.

While you don’t want to drown your foundation in water, you also don’t want clay-rich soil to get too dry, potentially causing cracks in your foundation. If you live in a dry climate or have dry seasons, you want to keep the soil moist enough to prevent contraction.

Control vegetation near the foundation.

Attractive landscaping adds to your home’s curb appeal, but stick to smaller plants for gardens that border your home’s foundation. Tree roots can cause problems with your foundation, so it’s best to plant trees in other areas of your yard. 

​Repair any damage promptly.

When it comes to home maintenance, whether with your foundation or something else, catching and repairing problems as soon as possible can save you money and headaches in the future.

Do you have questions about maintaining your home or your insurance coverage? Reach out today.

When was the last time you gave your home and auto insurance policies an annual checkup?

A lot can happen in a year, and reviewing your current coverage is worthwhile to see if anything needs to be updated or changed.

​Keep reading to learn why you should check in on your policies.

Major Home Renovation

If you added on to your home, upgraded the kitchen and bathrooms, or made any other big changes to the property, make sure you have enough dwelling coverage to rebuild your newly remodeled home.
Even if you’ve only done minor renovations, rising construction labor and materials prices could mean that your coverage wouldn’t be enough to rebuild your home in its current condition. In that case, you’ll want to increase your coverage to avoid having to foot some of the bills yourself.

Addition of Valuable Objects

Have you purchased or inherited valuable artwork, antiques or jewelry in the past year? It’s time to update your home inventory and see if you have the proper policies to replace the value of the items inside your home. And if you added a home security system to protect your valuables, you may be eligible for a discount.

Change in Marital Status

Did you get married recently? You could be eligible for a discount if you bundle home and auto insurance policies with your new spouse.
If you got divorced or your spouse has passed, you can no longer be on a joint car or home insurance policy with that person. Reach out to get a quote for your own policy.

Payments on an Auto Loan

Review your auto insurance coverage to see if it still meets your needs. For example, if you’ve paid enough of your auto loan down, you may no longer need gap insurance. If you’ve changed jobs and are doing less driving, you may be able to get a discount.

Do you have questions about your coverage? Reach out so we can discuss your 

Are you missing out on savings? If you have insurance policies with more than one company, the answer is most likely yes. 

The commercials are true: Bundling insurance policies is often cheaper and more convenient when done with a single insurer. But why? 

While bundling may not be right for everyone, here is the how – and the why – on insurance bundling. Then you can make your own decision.

What does it mean to bundle my home and auto insurance? 

Bundling your home (or renter’s) and auto insurance means getting both policies from the same insurer. You can ask for a quote to see your potential savings before you make a switch.

1. Save money when you bundle policies.

You probably have to have home and auto insurance anyway, so you want to get the best possible deal on your coverage. You may be eligible for a multipolicy discount when you get more than one insurance policy from the same company. This is in addition to any other discounts you receive, such as for a good driving record.

2. Simplify payments and organization.

Bundling your insurance coverage can help you simplify with one monthly payment instead of several. It’s also easier to keep up with your policies when you can view all your insurance documents in one place. Check your coverage, ask a question, and file a claim — all from the same online portal or mobile app. If your insurance needs to change in the future, you just have one phone call to make. 

3. Increase your convenience as a customer.

If you file claims often, it's better to have a company that knows and values you as a customer. And even if you don’t file many claims, holding multiple policies with a single insurer gives more business to a company that has given you superior customer service in the past.

If you have any questions, reach out for help.

Are you planning a backyard project?

With spring here and summer on the horizon, many homeowners are ready to spruce up their backyards or take on a big project.

If you’re ready to plant new trees, build a deck or patio, add a pond, or do anything else that requires digging, make sure you know where underground utilities are before you break ground.Send me a Home Insurance Quote
Keep reading to learn who to call before you dig, how to identify different utility markings and how to keep yourself safe during an excavation project.
Call 811.

​This is the national call-before-you-dig number. You or your contractor should call 811 to request the marking of buried utilities so you don’t accidentally damage an underground utility line. You can also contact 811 online through your state’s website.

Understand the different colors.

Once the buried utilities in your yard are marked, you may see different color markings. Here’s what they mean:
​

• Red: Electric lines or cables
• Yellow: Gas, oil, steam or petroleum
• Orange: Communication or alarm lines
• Blue: Potable water
• Purple: Reclaimed water or irrigation
• Green: Sewers and drain

Stretch your body before digging.

If you’re doing your own backyard digging project, make sure to stretch and warm up before you get started. Otherwise, you risk injuring yourself.
Use the right equipment.

​Are the hand tools in your shed or garage enough, or do you need to rent equipment for your project? Do your research before you begin so you have the proper tools.
Contractors should be insured and bonded.

If you’re hiring a contractor for your digging or excavation project, check that they have insurance and are bonded. This protects you if they don’t finish the project or cause damage to your property.

If you accidentally hit a utility line while digging, call 911. And if you have questions about your home insurance, reach out for answers.

​Basically, home contents insurance is insurance protection against the replacement cost that you would otherwise have to pay to replace the contents of your home in the event of then being lost, damaged or stolen.  As is the case with home buildings insurance, the main factors contributing to grounds under which you can make a claim against your home contents insurance include theft/burglary, damage due to floods, burst water pipes or boilers, etc.

There are, however, two very important factors that you need to keep in mind when insuring the contents of your home:</b> 

First, in the case of home contents insurance, it is rarely the case that your mortgage provider is going to insist that you have this type of insurance as part of your mortgage agreement; 

Second, regardless of whether you own or rent the property you are currently living in, you should still be looking to insure the contents of your home – as these are your personal possessions.  

Two further aspects of home contents insurance also need to be considered carefully when you are checking out the different kinds of policies on offer.  In some, but not all, cases you can be insured for your home contents even when the items listed in your home contents insurance policy are not actually physically located on the home ‘property’.  So, for example,

First, it is possible to claim when you are transporting items from one place to another and they are stolen.  

Second, home contents insurance is insurance against the replacement cost of the item being insured. 
 It does not, nor is it intended to, insure you against the nostalgic value of the item damaged/lost.  So, for example, if you insure a picture your deceased grandmother gave you, which would cost to replace, it makes little difference that it was your deceased grandmother who gave it to you and that it cannot, therefore, be replaced. 

Although home contents insurance is, in all but a few very rare circumstances, a completely voluntary scheme of insurance to subscribe to, if you are in any doubt as to the value of this insurance scheme, take a quick mental inventory of the contents on your home and their value and then get a few quotes off the internet and you’ll soon be seeing the value of having your home contents properly insured.