Uh Oh, Flood! Dealing with Disaster in Your Home

While I was in NY at ICFF, two earthquakes rocked Los Angeles. I had visions of returning home to books thrown about the floor, my flat screen face down, my wineglasses shattered on the kitchen floor. Luckily, nothing was amiss (though I was reminded that I needed to examine my home for its earthquake preparedness; my flat screen's stand, though aesthetically pleasing, sways with the slightest touch.). But you don't need an earthquake for a disaster to strike...

A friend was jolted awake this past weekend by a hot water pipe bursting open in her kitchen. It flooded the entire room, shorting out her refrigerator, destroying her antique stove and ripping open the ceiling. She was lucky; her landlord was in town for the holiday weekend and quickly addressed the problem. This cloud has a silver lining: she'll soon have an updated kitchen.

What about you? Are you prepared to deal with unexpected disasters and unforseen repairs in your home? Do you have an emergency fund set up, renter's or homeowner's insurance, a list of service people to call, a friend with an extra room you can use?

Comments (7)

Oh, GET INSURANCE!

We had a washing machine hose burst. It flooded three floors (including the finished basement) of our house, and in less than 5 minutes caused over $4000 in damage -- and we were lucky, it could have been so much worse if we hadn't acted fast or if the leak had been over the kitchen, for instance.

The money covered replacing flooring in the bathroom where the laundry equipment was, replacing the flooring in the lav underneath, repairing and repainting the ceiling on the ground floor, and running cpecial dehumidifiers and fans for a week or so to dry things our. I think that's it. If more damage had been done, you can imagine the escalation in costs.

Homeowners insurance covered everything. Weird stuff happens. It's hard to anticipate all the possibilities and prepare for them. (We bought reinforced washer hoses right away, and had a pressure reduction valve installed on our water main, but who knew we needed something like that?)

posted by SherryBinNH on May 28th 2009 at 2:51pm
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Insurance is a must, even for renters.

During repairs, make sure the contractor takes the necessary precautions when removing lead paint, which is likely several paint layers down on any wall older than the 1970s. You don't want lead dust spread everywhere, especially if you have children.

posted by lella on May 28th 2009 at 3:10pm
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a few weeks ago my bathroom ceiling filled with water, a combination of worn out caulking around the bathtub above and a leaky pipe they found when they tore out the ceiling.

luckily, no damage, no flood (lots of bubbling paint and dripping water but no major mess), just had to shower at my friend's for two weeks while they tore apart the ceiling, fixed the pipe, dried it out and put up a new ceiling.

still haven found the glass cover for my bathroom light fixture though. it disappeared with the ceiling.

posted by thew on May 28th 2009 at 3:20pm
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Tons of Renter's Insurance and Building Management on Speed-Dial.

posted by bepsf on May 28th 2009 at 3:23pm
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After the monsoon rains in Orlando the past 10 days, our landlord is working around the clock trying to get everything dried out before mold sets in. You can smell the mold in the stairwell, but I haven't smelled any in my apartment.

posted by baileyb on May 28th 2009 at 7:25pm
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This is almost exactly what happened to me. My kitchen ceiling chronically leaks and just burst through one day when I wasn't home. Witholding rent made my landlord hustle and now I have a new wall, a new ceiling, and a ventillating fan in my kitchen!

posted by fotogrfeat on May 29th 2009 at 6:15pm
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Whatever you do, make sure it doesn't involve waiting for FEMA.

posted by dianalily on May 31st 2009 at 11:42am
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