Understanding Water Damage Repair and Its Cost

By: John Garcia | Date Posted: December 20, 2021

Water Damage Repair

One of the most devasting experiences you can come across as a homeowner is water damage. Whether through sewerage backup, pipe burst, flood, or after fire damage, its repair cost can set you back on your monthly budget. And the problem is even bigger if water damaged your home’s foundation.

Most homeowners plan home improvement projects after water damage. It makes sense to change the design of your home, but what if you don’t have the finances for it? Nifty’s instant loans can help with that. But in this blog post, our focus is on what to do after water damage. So let’s get started.

What to Do After Water Damage Crises?

What to Do After Water Damage Crises

Your first priority is to stop any leak and prevent water from collecting in your house. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at a costly home improvement project. Here are our tips for controlling the situation after water damage.

Protect Yourself and Electrical Appliances

Your safety comes first in a disastrous situation. But you can’t just leave your house abandoning everything. Most importantly, you need to cut off the electricity supply of your house. Otherwise, your house will be electrocuted. But if water has made it to your electricity supply unit, it’s best to call an electrician. Don’t stand in water and turn off the power. You might be at the risk of electrocuting yourself.

Protect Your Valuables

In times of crisis, it’s best to run towards a safe place. But when things have settled down, you should reach collect your valuables. However, if rescuing your valuables comes at the risk of electrocution, it’s not worth it. The best you can do is call for help and have professionals salvage your valuables.

Assess The Damage

A damage report is important to understand what repair cost you are looking at. If you can’t finance your home repair or improvement, it’s best to request a quick loan from a reliable financial institution. Try for a personal loan, and you can request a loan from credit unions or online lenders if your credit score is less than ideal.

Decide What Needs to Be Restored

After a flood or sewerage backup, water damage is more threatening than pipe bursts because the water in your house can be contaminated if it’s coming from an external source. You should decide what needs to be restored and what has to go in this situation.

Water damage can be a good reason to revamp your house. Revamping can include adding new furniture and flooring. If the leakage is in your roof, you are probably looking at a much expensive repair.

Your Financing Options

Your Financing Options 1

 

After reporting the incident to your insurance company, you are left with the choice of handling your expenses on your own until your insurance amount is dispursed. It’s best to schedule an evaluation from your insurance company as soon as possible.

An early evaluation is important because you cannot make any repairs unless an insurance officer inspects the damage. After the valuation, you should pay from your pocket if the damage is affordable. Compare the cost of living in a hotel against the cost of repair.

Factor in the time your insurance company will take to reimburse your amount. Some insurance companies pay a portion of the cost of your temporary stay and lost wages.

However, you need to make an accurate assessment. After you have the expense in front of you, make a choice – whether to pay out of pocket and send the bill to your insurance company or wait for the reimbursement check.

When to Move Back?

You and your family must be dying to move back into your house. Still, it would be best if you waited for a green signal from your insurance company, repair company, and government (in case of a natural disaster.

Afterward, you can either move back to your house and initiate your home improvement project or stay at a hotel and let construction agents handle the mess.

Some Tips to Prevent Water Damage happening in the first place

Water can be prevented from entering your home by regularly maintaining key areas of your property.

  1. Disconnect all hoses

Your fall to-do list should include disconnecting your hoses from the faucet. The standing water in a hose can freeze back into the pipe and create an ice block that could, in the best case, stop the water flow, and in the worst case, break your pipes and cause damage to walls, floors, and foundations.

  1. Maintain gutters and downspouts

Keep your gutters free of blockages and ice dams by cleaning them at least twice a year. Leaving standing water on your roof or gutter may cause damage, and uncontrolled overflow may cause puddles that may damage your foundation. Make sure your downspouts are clean and pointed away from your house, so water flows through.

  1. Take care of trees and vegetation

The roots of shrubs that are flourishing can encircle your pipes and cause them to burst. In order to avoid overgrown trees and shrubs near utility pipes, it’s important to minimize landscaping near these pipes.

Ending Thoughts

Water damage and its repairs are quite expensive. But in a way, it’s a chance for you to plan home improvement. Most of your furniture and appliances are damaged beyond repair, so it’s best to buy new ones.

You can take advantage of your insurance amount and have cheap labor fic your house. You can use the remaining money to pay off the loan you take for home improvements or to bear the cost on your own completely.

All in all, water damage is a devastating and sudden situation where most people don’t know how to react. The above tips will help you act appropriately and prevent any disaster from turning worse.

Thank you for reading!

John
 

John is the founder and chief editor of Homienjoy. With over 15 years of experience in the home improvement industry, John is passionate about helping homeowners confidently tackle their projects. Holding a civil engineering degree and working as a contractor, project manager, and consultant, John brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Homienjoy community.

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