dodged a bullet time for insurance.

[knight_toolworks]

My shop is in the basement of a old building and we never had a problem with it till they screwed up the drain line when they installed the light rail. not sure why it flooded tonight besides the very heavy rains we had for a bit. The floor is not flat and it seems my shop is on the high side and I only have a little bit of material with wet bottoms. I had dropped my shop insurance when I was so slow I could not afford it or house insurance. got the house insurance back so now I can't put off the shop insurance. Sorry about the pics it is fairly dark in there. my shop is clear in back and the water did not quite make it to the door.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/e8419c2d.jpg
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http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/71151911.jpg

[michael_schwartz]

I am glad you lucked out. Even a coupe of inches of water can cause a lot of damage, and cause a real mess I hope I read things correctly, and that you didn't get any water in your shop.

To be on the safe side I would still keep an eye on the humidity, even if the moisture didn't make it into your shop.

If you do get flood insurance make sure they know that you are in a basement, and make them put it in writing that they are aware of that, and that you are covered. It may cost more, and it will be more difficult to get a policy. Otherwise, they will use this as a reason to deny coverage.

I know of a few local businesses that were denied coverage that they had paid for after Irene because the insurance companies decided after the fact that their ground level storefronts, were basements. This is after they had paid for the policies, for several years, and in one case, over a decade.

In some cases, I know people who did better with their loss of income, than their flood policies. Check and make sure that your loss of income coverage would cover you in the event of a flood.

The other thing is that most often flood policies are for the building. You will want to make sure your policy covers contents.

I didn't have flood insurance when my shop was flooded during Irene which was a mistake since I would have likely saved a few thousand dollars. I probably would have only paid a few hundred in premiums leading up.

That would have been the time to have it, but I thought that I was high enough above the river, and I didn't think we would see a 100 year flood event.

I still haven't bought a policy, and I am not even sure if I could get one, or if it would be cost effective now.

Basements are risky, and you really have no control. I would definitely consider some degree of coverage. Especially after a close call.

[kevin]

Steve
As the old saying go you only have insurance when you want to collect.

It doesn't look like much damage . Like Micheal said read your policy the insurance company are master at over insuring and not paying

Your in a basement with concrete I don't see a fire problem

I have flood insurance but no hurrican or tropical storm .The thing that scares me is a fire I have wooden building

[myxpykalix]

Steve,
Here is a VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION...I don't know if you are close to a body of water where it would flood and therefore come into your business but probably what you REALLY NEED IS "WATER BACKUP" addendum on your policy.

There is a big difference between flood insurance (meaning water overflowing the banks of the river and coming in to your place)
Or
Water Backup- meaning water that comes up from the sewer and backs up into your shop. Do you know the source of your water problem here?

Because if you have only flood insurance and water backs up due to heavy rain thru the sewer line YOU ARE NOT COVERED.

I have water backup addendum on all my properties and over the years it has proved valuable. Sometimes here we get sudden flash flooding rainstorms that the water comes down so hard and fast it fills and overflows the gutters and it spills into the basement stairs at my house and i have a small pump to keep ahead of it. At some point i may build one of those celler staircovers like they used to have.

Also something VERY IMPORTANT. You need to go down to the local equipment rental place and get you several of those high powered carpet fans to dry the water out. Anywhere you have wood wall meeting concrete you need to make sure that gets dried out to keep from growing MOLD. I have basement apartments and i have to be very concious of that.

Get you a bunch of mold killing fungicide (sorry i forgot the name) but it is a spray on treatment used after drying to keep mold from growing. and spray it on or use a 50/50 mix of bleach and water (but this is hazardous so use breathing protection).
Oh and the most important tip i could give you before starting cleanup......
ROLL UP YOUR PANTS LEGS:D

[knight_toolworks]

Thanks on the insurance advice it is not a flood but from the street and a pipe that did it once before after the city screwed up the drain line.
So I will make sure to get the right type and I only need my stuff covered since I don't own the building.
it is amazing how fast it dries in there by this evening you won't be able to tell and i bet the humidity will be normal within 2 days. it is a big building a block square and solid concrete.
the owner was there last night and helping the cleanup. I kept wanting to pay a year of insurance at once so I don't have a monthly bill that sometimes can be hard to pay. but something always comes up or I forget. so time to fix that. Lucky two sheets are mdo so they should be fine. the end of my ulmdf will be toast. the stuff was only wet two or three hours.

[feinddj]

If the city screwed up, make them aware of it. They may even do the right thing. Document every thing. Take pics and video of the walls, equipment and whatnot. If you can prove that damage was done they should pay to mitigate it.

D

[knight_toolworks]

I won't have to do that the owner will though. but they fixed the line and it did not do it again. So not sure what caused it there was dripping when I got there from the ceiling from a pipe that seems ot never have leaked before. t. So it may be the owners problem. He is a very nice person so that will work out. I doubt even if I had insurance I would not have even met the deducible.

[myxpykalix]

There is a thing called something like a "one way gate" that you can install in your floor drains that when water backs up this gate has a ball or something on it so that when the water rises in the pipe it shuts the gate thereby not allowing water to flow back from the drain. I have thought about something like that but i believe you would have to bust up the concrete around the drain in order to install this.

[gene]

They call it a back flow preventer . The best way to get your insurance to go thru the roof is to make a claim. I had state farm and had a claim (arson) on a rental house and my homeowners went from 880.00 a year to 8800.00 a year.so i dropped it and now since i havent had any for a while i cant get any now.

[myxpykalix]

I have had water damage claims before and my insurance went up maybe 50-100 bucks. If they are trying to charge you a 1000% increase i'd notify a state agency because that is clearly not allowed. They have the option of not renewing your policy but they don't have the right to a 1000% increase. I'd check with the state insurance board as that doesn't sound right.:eek:

[gene]

it has been around 6 or 7 years ago. i called alstate to get my house reinsured last year Oct-Nov and they said no because the rear of the house needed pressure washing . I can not say what i told them:eek: When you have a medium or large loss they put you on a national data base to let other companies know of the incident. get ready to be a lion at the circus, they will make you jump thru so many hoops it aint worth it

[curtiss]

The make some small alarms that will go off when the floor get wet... See Grainger.

You can even rig up something from Radio Shack with a spring loaded contact that is held apart with an aspirin that dissolves and sets off a whatever...

[knight_toolworks]

we do need some kind of water alarm. but these things happen pretty fast so it would be hard to stop it. it only rained for 30 minutes.

[gene]

if you have an alarm system they make a flood sensor that will trip the alarm system if this happens . determine the low spot in the floor and have them to install it there. i think that plumbing supply stores will have something like that also that will notify you in the event of this also

[knight_toolworks]

all dry. the owner brought in a company that night to pump the water out and put in fans and dehumidifiers.
It looks like it was a city issue the drains could not keep up with the almost 1" of rain in a hour. the street in front of my shop was several " deep in places
I did not come in today so I did not see how much the dehumidifiers removed
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[waterwheelman]

I had some water in my shop from that intense thunder storm last friday that came thru the Vancouver, Portland area. The only damage was some wet sawdust on the floor.

[myxpykalix]

David,
I KNEW there was a good excuse for NOT cleaning up the shop! It's to keep the water from damaging other material and tools if it is soaked up by the sawdust!:eek: Thanks for that "excuse":rolleyes:

[michael_schwartz]

You have a good landlord :D

I had to clean up my own shop myself and when I was finally able to get $ervpro to come in I paid them out of my own pocket. I ended up buying two dehumidifiers, and rented a third along with a carpet blower for a few days in addition to all that.

I am going to be careful where I rent in the future.

[knight_toolworks]

the owner is a very nice guy. He did not have insurance for this either so it was out of pocket for him. There are 11 shops in the part of the basement I am in and I got the least of it.