Not sure which board this best belongs on so I am posting here and another board.

Short version,,, I own a rental house and last month a new renter moved in.

She hooked up her washer and ran a load of towels. It turns out the washer drainage line is clogged and the drain overflowed and flooded into the utility room and then through the doorway into the kitchen, then under the wall in the kitchen and into a bedroom.

I had ServPro come out and take care of the remediation... drying out the place, removing baseboards and they removed the vinyl flooring in the utility room and also removed some in the kitchen and in the adjoining bedroom (in the BR closet).

I filed my claim with Homeowners of America insurance just came back and gave me their estimate, it is under my deductible so their is no payment on the claim (the deductible is high but that is another subject).

I'm not sure how homeowners insurance works as I have never filed a claim... Is it standard practice to only give you an estimate to replace just a portion of the room's flooring that was damaged?

Their estimate is to replace approx 50% of the kitchen's flooring and 30% of the bedroom flooring.

So I am supposed to pay to replace the remaining (undamaged) portion of the kitchen and bedroom? Who wants mismatched flooring! Is that standard practice to quote that way?

Also, the Insurance co worked with ServPro and it appears the fee isn't included in my claim. Is that normal? I haven't seen a bill either.

We had a slab leak which ruined wood flooring in a single room. The floor plan is relatively open and the planks are oriented such that single room replacement is not possible without mismatching flooring. Insurance eventually paid to replace all contiguous flooring throughout the entire first floor. They tried to ID the existing wood and find an exact match, but were unsuccessful. Had they found a match, they would have done a partial replacement.

Alternatively, they could do a partial replacement and refinish the entire floor to match -- assuming the replacement wood takes stain like the existing wood. This wasn't an option as our floors had been previously refinished and the wear layer couldn't take another sanding. In either event, you should not have a mismatched floor, but they are entitled to try and reduce the claim amount as long as it's done in good faith.

The purpose of insurance is to make you whole in the event of a claim. IMO leaving you with mismatched flooring is not making you whole. Now, you may have to let them try a partial replacement, and should it not match be prepared to fight to get everything replaced in order to match. I would be very clear up front about your concerns and expectations throughout the process.

gotsand said:

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We had a slab leak which ruined wood flooring in a single room. The floor plan is relatively open and the planks are oriented such that single room replacement is not possible without mismatching flooring. Insurance eventually paid to replace all contiguous flooring throughout the entire first floor. They tried to ID the existing wood and find an exact match, but were unsuccessful. Had they found a match, they would have done a partial replacement.

Alternatively, they could do a partial replacement and refinish the entire floor to match -- assuming the replacement wood takes stain like the existing wood. This wasn't an option as our floors had been previously refinished and the wear layer couldn't take another sanding. In either event, you should not have a mismatched floor, but they are entitled to try and reduce the claim amount as long as it's done in good faith.

The purpose of insurance is to make you whole in the event of a claim. IMO leaving you with mismatched flooring is not making you whole. Now, you may have to let them try a partial replacement, and should it not match be prepared to fight to get everything replaced in order to match. I would be very clear up front about your concerns and expectations throughout the process.

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This is what I was told by my insurance as well. Damaged flooring, no matter how small the damage, will either be replaced if an exact match can be made, or the entire continuous flooring will be replaced with something comparable to where ever it ends/breaks.

We had this exact situation happen in our old house. Washer leaked down the wall and the engineered wood flooring was damaged in the utility room and the bathroom that shared the wall.

Homeowners insurance could not match the flooring so they paid to have all of the contiguous flooring replaced which included two hallways, the foyer, the kitchen and the dining area adjacent to the kitchen.

We are going through this with our ROOF right now - shingles are off on every side, ridge vent gone, etc. They are giving us like $600 to replace missing shingles. There is NO WAY we are going to be able to match a 19 year roof. We are still fighting with them but I don't think it is going to end up in our favor.

And to top it off, they don't even sell our policy anymore, they have new ones which would have covered roof replacement. UM WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME.