Q. Bathroom sink pipe sprung a major leak, 15 minutes worth of tap water soaked hardwood flooring, plaster walls and ceilings and ran into some duct work...also we are concerned about the electrical wiring behind ceiling and walls, what are some good characteristics to look for in hiring a contractor who specializes in this type of work? Also, is it typical for the homeowner's insurance to cover the plumbing work? So far, the adjuster says only work to repair damage is covered but not the plumbing that caused the problem...sound right?

A. Your adjuster is correct. Your insurance policy owes for access to get to the plumbing leak and to repair it but NOT for the part itself. Start by making sure your house is dried out properly by a certified water damage restoration company (i.e. ServiceMaster). They will find out where the water damage starts and ends, take moisture reading of your flooring and walls & may place fans/dehumidifiers to dry out your home. After the place is dried out, then address rebuild. If you need paint, drywall, flooring or baseboards...ask your adjuster if they have a "preferred" general contractor that is on the company's preferred program. Go with one of them if they do. Good luck.

Q. I own a condo/town home. I noticed water was puddling in my kitchen from under the baseboard of the wall that adjoins my neighbor. I called a plumber out to be sure it wasn't an issue in my unit. Couldn't find anything here. Noticed that the next door neighbor's patio area had a lot of collected water and also mold on the exterior siding. Also noticed what looked like water coming down the window from inside. Rang the doorbell and knocked w/ no answer. Noticed her car parked out front ( she only has one). Got worried and called condo association but couldn't reach anyone since it's Saturday. Got really worried after extensive knocking on neighbor's door and no answer. Called cops. Cops come out and enter home ( back door was unlocked). Cops find home empty but are flabergasted at the state of affairs inside. The entire upstairs bathroom floor had collapsed into the kitchen area with water pouring down walls-- entire dining room/kitchen area flooded. Cops also mention extensive mold on walls and rats and roaches running around!! Garbarge everywhere inside. A complete nightmare. The cops said the place needs to be condemned. Finally talk to property management company who seems to think that it's okay to wait until Monday to do anything. We have our plumber turn off the water outside. A few hours later a water and fire damage restoration company shows up stating they received a call from the unit owner ( landlord). The guy says the tenant has 'been out of town' and is supposed to be meeting him there. We inform him of what is going on inside. Tenant shows up in a cab and promptly tells us that she was unaware of any problem and has been out of town since Wednesday. She also mentioned that the landlord was aware of the issue before the condo association called him?? How did he know if she didn't know?? It's obvious by the extensive damage inside that this has been an ongoing problem. Not only that but what explains the filth, garbage, and rats?! I need some good advice on what my next steps should be. We are going to file a complaint at city hall and I will be contacting the owner and demanding that he pay for a full inspection of my unit as well as any necessary repairs. I am worried about the health hazard and the potential damage to my structure! Should I seek legal help? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

A. Sounds like you have your bases covered already. Except you didn't mention contacting a lawyer. This is the exact reason I am opposed to condos, but i do hope things work out for you.

Q. My tub on 2nd floor overflowed and did damage to kitchen ceiling, a little to walls, and some in bathroom. I woke up to the smell of smoderomg wires. I call 911 and go outside with baby. Fire department pulls two fuses (of 8) I call my insurance company, and the doorknob head adjuster comes. First he's not going to pay for a motel, but I tell him that the fans his "cleaning and restoration" company set up are blocking the doorway, where they have to be, so I don't have a legal exit, it's obstructed. Also, I don't need plaster falling on the baby's head--I can't be moving the stove and fridge every time I need a plate out of the cabinet. Restoration company had 3 huge fans and a dehumidifier almost as big as my stove in my small kitchen. Then he tells me that the restoration company is going to do the repairs--I said: "NO WAY!" and didn't sign an;ything that even allowed to get an estimate. So a few weeks went by --I got one bid that expired after 10 days. I was waiting for doorknob head adjuster to let me know how much he had paid restoration company to dry out my kitchen--and I had some other pressing matters having to do with work comp--had deadlines to meet. I know I have 6 months at least on the house claim. Friday, I get a letter in the mail from doorknob head, and a check for $804. He says the resotration company can sheetrock 1/3 of the ceiling for that. He paid them $3000 to set up a few fans and knock down about a 4x4 area of wet plaster ceiling , about 1/4 of my ceiling. Now I'm FLIPPIN! For the $3000 plus the $804--I could have done it myself, and had a whole new kitchen! I'm just not sure if I have replacement insurance--I should. I called the agent I deal with and told her I wouldn't accept that, and she said I had too--that I never called doorknob head back so he got the estimates, even though I told him the cleaning/restoration company wouldn't be doing any work after the "drying out." I told her : "Know way--this house is going to get fixed right and it's going to be safe--you're getting me a whole new piece of sheet rock, and there is bathroom damage and there are electrical safety concerns that have NOT been addressed. She told me I could cash the check and do whatever I wanted. I know that to cash the check would mean that I accept the $804 as a settlement. Who do I talk to next--should I demand another adjuster? I know I have to get another estimate, and that shouldn't be a problem. Should I contact the State Commisoner of Insurance! Looks like the only ones into insurance fraud are the insurance companies. This SKS Every day plaster is falling from the slats in the exposed area, my kitchen light is down, and my upstairs toilet is laying on it's side. My homeowners' deductible is $250, so that's not a big deal, but how can I tell if I have replacement? I read that policy over and over, and most of it is still like a can of worms. A friend who used to sell insurance said I have the right policy, but he couldn't tell, either. Their forms change every few years. Do I have six months to accept? If I call the commissioner, will they burn my house down, or just raise my rates or cancel me? I've been in my old house 27 years, and other than a couple of trees go down, I've only had one small claim in the mid 80's. Then this Friday, somebody also smashed out my windshield--same insurance company--it's fixed already, but I have to fix a headlight, too. Can anybody please be my free lawyer but on a contingency basis, who is a bulldog in court? I have the house claim, the car claim, the work comp claim, a medical malpractice claim, and a labor law claim for wrongful termination. I'm on unemployment. Worked for my company for 7 years, and was never going to buy a car while I worked for them, but I January, my old car threw a rod, and I had to have a car. Hard to pay car and house payments on UCI, grandson lives with me--I think I'm screwed! Can't even get a jewler to give me half way decent price for my wedding ring! I just hope I can hawk my house for the malpractice and labor law claims, or I'm screwed again. I won't be able to hang onto my house if I can't convince a jury, and I can be convincing. I have good documentation from at least 6 of the 7 years I worked for my company. Will attorneys ever accept houses as collateral, and work contingently until we win? I'm a 57 year old single mom, and now have my daughter and grandson, age 2 living with me. She helps, but doesn't make a whole lot of money. Baby boy is pretty neat--we just pulled him out of a daycare that lots of people like, but I didn't. The licensee got busted for having 18 kids and one caregiver, and some other stuff. I was suspicious of some stuff there, so my daughter and I found a daycare where the lady is only going to take 5 little ones, and she homeschooled(s) all of her kids. He's just too little to be left in a situation like he was. I'm SOOO busy with all of this st

A. First of all, if you own the house, the legal exit thing is bogus - that's only for TENANTS, not for OWNERS. Second, they don't pay for a hotel if your house is livable - which it is. STay out of the kitchen, and keep the baby out of the kitchen. Voila! No plaster on the baby's head. Call the agent, to ask if you have replacement insurance. If you have it, it says on the policy, AND, there's a dollar amount next to it. You pay extra for that. But your WIRING issue isn't going to be covered. That wasn't caused by the water, that's just OLD and needs to be upgraded. You have to go through the yellow pages to find a lawyer, but if you can't get one locally to take your case on contingency, (and I can't figure out who you want to sue, or for what), that means you don't have much of a case. Do you have EQUITY in your house? How much is it worth? If your house isn't worth much, or you have no equity in it, they're not going to want to take over the house - they'd have to evict you, pay to fix the damages, and then try to sell it to get their money. More hassle than it's worth.

Q. We have a beach house that we rent out every summer so that we can pay our mortgage. For the past 2 years our neighbors at the beach, their friends from their area have rented out one week at our house and had a great time and have been excellent tenants. I have offered them a discount of $100 each summer because they are friends with our neighbors. Let me preface this by saying that our lives are incredibly hectic due to running our own business, my husband has 2 jobs, we have many children and one of them has issues. And we have no help at home. So, being a landlord is one of my lowest priorities (family and work come first), but I truly try my best to make sure that people are happy when renting our home. This past summer, there was major water damage at the home, caused by a clogged toilet upstairs (housecleaner clogged it). These friends of our neighbors were renting that week and walked in to find the major damage. I had a restoration service come in, insurance adjustors, etc., and the service tore out the walls, ceilings, carpets etc and it was a major mess, with huge dehumidification machines running for the rest of the week, floors torn up, it was not a fun place to be in. My insurance co. told me that all lost rental income would be reimbursed to us, so this family opted to stay in the home instead of moving to a motel that would cost them twice as much. I actually would have preferred that they left so that we could have the contractors in there nonstop, but they wanted to stay. They felt that they were doing us a favor by staying and monitoring things, but we didn't need them to stay. I felt so badly at their horrible living conditions and their ruined vacation week, that I blurted out "we will let you stay for free next summer" but immediately regretted it and my husband doesn't agree that they should get one free week (albeit in wretched conditions from last summer) AND a free week this summer. They had only paid half of the rent for that week up to that point anyway, (they were bringing a check for the second half) so we only owed them half of the rent back. We lost numerous weeks of rental income and had to reimburse those people immediately (before receiving the insurance reimbursement). Instead of having the restoration co do the renovations, we decided to use our own contractor so we also had to pay our contractor for his work, and purchase all of the replacement materials (flooring, bathroom sinks, tiles, etc.) It was really hard on us financially as we depend on that summer income to be able to pay the mortgage. Unfortunately, our insurance reimbursement process has been dragged out for months due to: Our contractor was doing the work and then suffered a heart attack/stroke and almost died and was in the hospital, just got released last month. In addition, the insurance adjustor dragged his feet in doing the paperwork and we had to hound him for everything and it was really frustrating. The insurance co will not pay us the remaining half that was promised until the work is 90% completed, and the contractor can't go back to work for at least another month. So, we've only received dribs and drabs from the insurance. I told the family that I would refund them their half/rent as soon as I got reimbursement from the insurance. They told me that was fine and didn't ask me for the funds. However in December they asked me about the check and that same day I received a partial payment from tthe insurance co. I mailed them the check we owed them, and it was LOST by the postal service (sent via priority mail and it was lost, the postal service is investigating but can't find it). They asked me a week later where the check was, I didn't know it was lost til then, and I promised them another check but it took me a few days to send it just because I have been crazy busy at work and home (sick mom, etc.). Got a mad email from the husband saying they've been incredibly patient, but don't know why this has taken so long, and they are looking forward to their free week this summer, but they are very angry and they didn't believe that I mailed that first check like I said I did (the one that was lost). I truly did not mean to delay them getting their check but didn't have the funds to be able to refund them and thought they could wait. My question is, for this summer, how much of a discount should I give them? The main problem is that they are friends with our beach neighbors and so I'm being judged by everything I do, by our neighbors whom I don't want to offend. I feel badly that I didn't refund them earlier, but I have a really busy life and didn't mean to offend them. It's been a great situation until now and that's why I hate renting to people whom we know, as something bad like this may happen. I was thinking of offering them $500 off but is that enough? Do you think I should charge them half off, but that is a huge amount? Keep in mind that they are "expecting" a free week Just to clarify, we were forced to refund *other* renters payments as they could not stay in our home and had already paid. I did not refund the family in question's rent until recently. Hope this makes sense! Thanks so much, appreciate your advice!! Just to let you know, even though they are great renters, it will be a relief to not have them rent anymore and yes I do realize that they probably won't come back anyway after these problems. I actually don't want any more renters referred by our neighbors for this exact same reason so that is fine, as it gets weird/uncomfortable for everyone involved. Oh and I'm sure they received the new check (to replace the lost one) that I mailed them today.

A. Sounds like a sticky situation. If it were me, and I truly needed the funds, I would not discount anything (except you've already said something). Especially in these hard economic times people have to understand that verbal agreements regarding lowering funds may have to be broken. I'd put in writing whatever discount you feel you should give, and never offer a discount again. If you feel you could find someone else to rent the place too, someone you (or your neighbors) don't know, you might want to think about that. I guess my answer to your question is that you SHOULD discount something, b/c you said you would, but only the largest amount your family can afford. These people are used to paying X amount of money for your condo, they should feel lucky they're getting a discount at all. Your #1 priority is making sure you're family, life, finances are in order. Not trying to make sure people aren't mad at you. Next time, discuss with your husband (or at least use him as an excuse) to delay any confirmation of deductions of payment. ;)

Q. We had two feet of snow on our roof for about 20 days here in Cincinnati. The ice dam put water into our bathroom ceiling, which flowed behind the tile and behind an acryllic insert, unde the tile floor and into the kitchen cabinets downstairs. A deep sensing (probless water meter) shows spots with 25 percent ++ humidity behind the insert in the exterior wall and also under the floor tile. The insurance company's remediation company just wants to dehumidify it and call it a day. I think the exterior wall at least needs to come down and have the insulation dried out. I also think it needs to have some sort of mold inhibitor put in the wall and the floor. If, and ONLY if, you are a water damage professional, please hit me with your thoughts. Thanks This is for EXPERTS only. The insurance company sent out an adjuster who says we only need to put dehumidifiers into the bathrooms and replace a little bit of dry wall. They are not going to pull down the acryllic (which is over the wall tile), or pull up the tile floors. I am particularly concerned about the outside wall which had most of the water and is covered by both tile and the insert.

A. Dehumidifying won't affect water inside the wall, especially if it's being retained by the insulation. The first answerer is 100% correct. Water inside your house is a serious problem. There is a lot more involved in correcting it than just dehumidifying the rooms affected. Sounds like your insurance company is trying to convince you otherwise to avoid a big reno bill. And, yes, a re-roof with an ice dam shield is a must for your situation.

Q. I am thinking of keeping my vanity and redoing it but I need to get a new tile floor in. It appears that the vanity is under the old flooring. How much more will it cost to have the installer take up the vanity to put in flooring and then put back or is this something a plumber needs to do? Or to make it easy as possible, I could donate the vanity to ReStore and have a new one installed once the flooring is laid. Not sure what is the best way to go. Any ideas? I am also getting a new tub. Should that be installed before the floor? Thanks Dee Dee

A. Ideally, you want the new tile to go under the vanity. If down the road you want to replace that vanity, the size may not be the same. How much it will cost to remove it, depends on the person who does it and how hard it is to get it out. Also are you removing the old flooring? I would intall the new tub before the new floor because, you may mar the new floor getting the tub installed, and if you are tiling the floor you want it flush with the tub, not under the tub because it could crack. In conclusion, to do the whole thing right, remove the tub, get new tub installed, remove vanity and toilet, ripup old flooring, install new subfloor if needed(usually the existing has water damage) and then get new floor laid, put back vanity and toilet. Not easy, but the right way to do it.

Q. The house is old, but the bathroom is only 18 months old (reno). The tile has never been quite right, but I am now finding the grout cracking and falling out around the tub (ceramic tiles) and even on the floor (Same - ceramic tiles). The entire thing has concrete under and behind it, but I worry about mould and possible water/structural damage. Any suggestions? Do I absolutely have to take it out and replace it, or even redo the tiling? The installer never used spacers, even when asked about it, so it would be a bear to re-grout, I bet...

A. If the tile is still stuck to the surface, all you got to do is fill in between the spaces, right? Take out the loose stuff that is gonna fall out anyways and regrout according to the directions on the container. Spacers are for to get the same spacing between the tiles. If you have done it for years and years it is not needed as the spacers have to be taken out before the grout is put in the grooves anyways. Water damage will cause the tiles to let go from the wall and you don't wanna do more than you need to. If you follow the regrout directions closely you will see it is a very easy job. Do seal the grout this time so it does not absorb more water and fall apart again.

Q. OK. I purchased my house in 2006 (Maryland) AS IS. I have been working on updating the home and appliances since then andI purchased a home warranty. Last year, my daughter's bathroom had a leak. I called the home warranty company and they sent out a plumber from a local plumbing company. The plumbers came (2 of them) and came up with my daughter's tub needed to be caulked. I knew that was not the issue since the tub was not in use at the time of the leak. So they left and informed the warranty company. Two weeks later my home flooded because of the same issue in my daughter's bathroom and again the tub was not in use. So I called the warranty place and they call the same plumbers out. This time they said she had a fracture in the bowl and replaced the toilet. This weekend, my home flooded again 10 times worst than before. I called a local plumbing company who came out and told me the toilet (which was a $40 Mancessa toilet was sub par and had a crack in the toilet tank, which caused the flood. I paid $700 for the plumber to install a Gerber Viper. My home, furniture and hard wood floors are all ruined (3 levels). I called the insurance company who sent out a team to manage the water damage. Each day we are conducting meter readings and my home is still wet. The water damage compaby said they will need to pull up all the flooring, My insurance company told me the $700 spent for a new toilet does not reduce my $1000 deductible. My insurance company cleaned the 1st flood and I made them aware of what the plumber I haired wrote on the invoice regarding why the flood happened. I called the home warranty compnay who told me to contact the plumbers who is licensed with their own insurance. The woman who answere the phone at the plumbing company contracted by the warranty company immediatley took offense and was very rude. She would not transfer the call to anyone else for me to talk to. So far, I have not been able to pay my mortgage (1st time late) dealing with this issue. I am missing time from work coming out every day for moisture readings. vistis from the adjuster, and constant calls to the warranty place. I have missed a lot of time and gas dealing with this problem not to mention the thousands of dollars of damage, late fees and stress What should my next steps be? Who is responsible (plumbers or warranty company? What type of attorney do I need? Any other advice you can give? Thanks

A. File a complaint with the State Plumbing Board $700 for a toilet , wow , it better have a heated seat the macessas are horrible