How has your house been damaged, vandalized, etc.? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

surferlove007 · 02-20-2008, 01:20 AM

The other day I talked to my dad for a while, he mentioned that the house had been struck by lightning in some of the massive storms Fort Worth had. I know that would definitely not be considered vandalism however the damages were still significant up to several thousands of dollars in damages to our property. (The idiot person who installed the satellite on our roof somehow forgot to include a ground cable, as a result the house got struck and fried several outlets, NOT the big TV thanks to the battery backup, a microwave, the Brinks alarm system, a few smaller TVs and several other high price items.) If Charter doesn't reimburse my parents for damages I'm sure my dad will follow up with a lawsuit that will help tarnish their name, more so than it already is. (We, including James and my parents have had horrendous service with Charter in the past.)
Personally, if they did not pay for every single damaged item in my house I would definitely file a negligence lawsuit on them, if they had done their job properly in the first place then the house wouldn't have been damaged so much. My dad typically does this work himself however my folks live in a two-story 5,000 square foot house that overlooks the Trinity River and he's 55 so my mom insisted they have somebody come out and do the work to same him the trouble. Of course this kind of a thing won't help his idea that no one does as good a job as he does. (I tend to follow in his footsteps when it comes to that, perfectionist ideals.)

How has your house been damaged or vandalized?
What were the costs if you were able to get an estimate?
Did you do anything about it or let it go?
What was the initial reaction?

Charlatan · 02-20-2008, 01:42 AM

A few years ago we had a huge amount of snow pile up on our roof. This was followed by a melt and subsequent freeze that resulted in a massive skin of ice on my drainpipe. The weight of which ripped the drainpipe from the wall.

No insurance claim. Fixed it myself.

A thief broke into our upstairs bedroom; breaking the sliding door. He managed to steal a laptop, a vcr, some jewelry, my son's piggy bank and a few other odds and ends. We made an insurance claim and they sent over a repairman for the broken door and cut us a cheque for the rest.

The reaction to the ice was annoyance and the reaction to the break in was violation. That said, I still had no compunction to rush out and buy a gun (sorry, couldn't resist

).

Fotzlid · 02-20-2008, 05:26 AM

Had a problem similar to Charlatan only the ice dam in the gutters caused the water to back up under the roof shingles and into the sunroom. Had to replace the roof, carpet and ceiling and repaint the walls. The worst of the leak was right above the sofa we had literally just bought the week before. (Fabric cleaner got the water stain out)
Had to run out and buy a bunch of tarps to cover the rest of the furniture, none of which got damaged.
We had some difficulty with the adjuster the insurance company sent. He wasn't going to pay for anything. Wanted to dry the carpet and repaint the ceiling. Fortunatly, the roof guy had to tear out a section of the ceiling to check for damage to the roof panels. Told the adjuster I have mold allergies and it would end up costing more later, so he ok'd the carpet. Couldn't get him to pay for the new roof though. The previous owner had put shingles on a low angle roof and the adjustor said it was his fault and subsequently my responsibility to replace it. My adjuster said there was little I could do about that so I had to eat the cost of the roof. I got 2 out of 3 major expenses paid for. It took about 7 months before the room was usable again.
I spent the next few months waiting for the policy cancellation notice, but it never happened.

Manic_Skafe · 02-20-2008, 05:31 AM

About 18 years ago, our apt. was broken in to. Other than a few of my brother's mint condition Transformers toys (would've made some awesome collectibles today), I don't remember exactly what was stolen.

But thanks to that and a guy getting shot to death right in front of our apartment door - we moved from Brooklyn to Queens and have been here ever since.

Mr Scorcex · 02-20-2008, 08:17 PM

Man oh man do I have a good one for this thread. So about two weeks before myself and my roommates are supposed to move into our rental house a sewer pipe blew up and wrecked havoc. Thankfully, it cost me nothing, being a rental house, but we're still dealing with fallout from it. The 4x6x10 foot deep hole in the back porch was just repaired a month ago, we finally have about 90% of a fence put up, and our backyard is still just a big dirt patch with piles of broken fence pieces and broken sewer pipes. In this case annoyance and a general pissed off feeling have given way to apathy.

A few days after moving into the aforementioned smelly house, I was robbed to tune of everything I owned except my clothes, my external harddrive and my car. The feeling from that event was shock then anger. Insurance came through a bit, but man that sucked.

Also, we had a really cool skeleton halloween decoration (lovingly named Mr. Boner) get ganked from the front porch. Mostly annoyed about losing poor Mr. Boner.

Willravel · 02-20-2008, 08:34 PM

The walkway between my basement and bomb shelter collapsed during a flood. It took me quite a while to dig out and now I'm trying to figure out how to rebuild it.

The plan:
The foundation is still strong, so I'l drill into it and plant some solid rebar (they have rust proof rebar, right?). Around the rebar I'll lay two-core concrete blocks all the way up to what will be the ceiling. I'll pour concrete into the cores and allow that to dry. I'll coat the outside of both walls with liberal amounts of tar. I'm still not sure about how to build the ceiling, though. I could bring in some wood, make a makeshift ceiling and building a concrete ceiling on top of it, but it'd be difficult.

Plan9 · 02-20-2008, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

... my son's piggy bank...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manic_Skafe

...Transformers toys...

WTF?

Elphaba · 02-20-2008, 09:40 PM

When we lived in Texas, the hail storms were enough to require a roof replacement. Last year's wind storms downed Evergreens all around the house and crushed our garden shed. I can't be more thankful, that we only lost that.

We have since removed the Evergreen that had the possibility of hitting the house and crushing it from one end to the other. May I never have another reason to use my insurance for home damage.

02-20-2008, 01:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
surferlove007 Junkie	How has your house been damaged, vandalized, etc.? The other day I talked to my dad for a while, he mentioned that the house had been struck by lightning in some of the massive storms Fort Worth had. I know that would definitely not be considered vandalism however the damages were still significant up to several thousands of dollars in damages to our property. (The idiot person who installed the satellite on our roof somehow forgot to include a ground cable, as a result the house got struck and fried several outlets, NOT the big TV thanks to the battery backup, a microwave, the Brinks alarm system, a few smaller TVs and several other high price items.) If Charter doesn't reimburse my parents for damages I'm sure my dad will follow up with a lawsuit that will help tarnish their name, more so than it already is. (We, including James and my parents have had horrendous service with Charter in the past.) Personally, if they did not pay for every single damaged item in my house I would definitely file a negligence lawsuit on them, if they had done their job properly in the first place then the house wouldn't have been damaged so much. My dad typically does this work himself however my folks live in a two-story 5,000 square foot house that overlooks the Trinity River and he's 55 so my mom insisted they have somebody come out and do the work to same him the trouble. Of course this kind of a thing won't help his idea that no one does as good a job as he does. (I tend to follow in his footsteps when it comes to that, perfectionist ideals.) How has your house been damaged or vandalized? What were the costs if you were able to get an estimate? Did you do anything about it or let it go? What was the initial reaction?

02-20-2008, 01:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	A few years ago we had a huge amount of snow pile up on our roof. This was followed by a melt and subsequent freeze that resulted in a massive skin of ice on my drainpipe. The weight of which ripped the drainpipe from the wall. No insurance claim. Fixed it myself. A thief broke into our upstairs bedroom; breaking the sliding door. He managed to steal a laptop, a vcr, some jewelry, my son's piggy bank and a few other odds and ends. We made an insurance claim and they sent over a repairman for the broken door and cut us a cheque for the rest. The reaction to the ice was annoyance and the reaction to the break in was violation. That said, I still had no compunction to rush out and buy a gun (sorry, couldn't resist ). __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

02-20-2008, 05:31 AM	#4 (permalink)
Manic_Skafe More Than You Expect Location: Queens	About 18 years ago, our apt. was broken in to. Other than a few of my brother's mint condition Transformers toys (would've made some awesome collectibles today), I don't remember exactly what was stolen. But thanks to that and a guy getting shot to death right in front of our apartment door - we moved from Brooklyn to Queens and have been here ever since. __________________ "Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

02-20-2008, 09:40 PM	#8 (permalink)
Elphaba Deja Moo Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA	When we lived in Texas, the hail storms were enough to require a roof replacement. Last year's wind storms downed Evergreens all around the house and crushed our garden shed. I can't be more thankful, that we only lost that. We have since removed the Evergreen that had the possibility of hitting the house and crushing it from one end to the other. May I never have another reason to use my insurance for home damage. __________________ "You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." Molly Ivins - 1944-2007

02-20-2008, 05:26 AM	#3 (permalink)
Fotzlid Junkie Location: Greater Boston area	Had a problem similar to Charlatan only the ice dam in the gutters caused the water to back up under the roof shingles and into the sunroom. Had to replace the roof, carpet and ceiling and repaint the walls. The worst of the leak was right above the sofa we had literally just bought the week before. (Fabric cleaner got the water stain out) Had to run out and buy a bunch of tarps to cover the rest of the furniture, none of which got damaged. We had some difficulty with the adjuster the insurance company sent. He wasn't going to pay for anything. Wanted to dry the carpet and repaint the ceiling. Fortunatly, the roof guy had to tear out a section of the ceiling to check for damage to the roof panels. Told the adjuster I have mold allergies and it would end up costing more later, so he ok'd the carpet. Couldn't get him to pay for the new roof though. The previous owner had put shingles on a low angle roof and the adjustor said it was his fault and subsequently my responsibility to replace it. My adjuster said there was little I could do about that so I had to eat the cost of the roof. I got 2 out of 3 major expenses paid for. It took about 7 months before the room was usable again. I spent the next few months waiting for the policy cancellation notice, but it never happened.

02-20-2008, 08:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
Mr Scorcex Insane Location: Colorado	Man oh man do I have a good one for this thread. So about two weeks before myself and my roommates are supposed to move into our rental house a sewer pipe blew up and wrecked havoc. Thankfully, it cost me nothing, being a rental house, but we're still dealing with fallout from it. The 4x6x10 foot deep hole in the back porch was just repaired a month ago, we finally have about 90% of a fence put up, and our backyard is still just a big dirt patch with piles of broken fence pieces and broken sewer pipes. In this case annoyance and a general pissed off feeling have given way to apathy. A few days after moving into the aforementioned smelly house, I was robbed to tune of everything I owned except my clothes, my external harddrive and my car. The feeling from that event was shock then anger. Insurance came through a bit, but man that sucked. Also, we had a really cool skeleton halloween decoration (lovingly named Mr. Boner) get ganked from the front porch. Mostly annoyed about losing poor Mr. Boner.

02-20-2008, 08:34 PM	#6 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	The walkway between my basement and bomb shelter collapsed during a flood. It took me quite a while to dig out and now I'm trying to figure out how to rebuild it. The plan: The foundation is still strong, so I'l drill into it and plant some solid rebar (they have rust proof rebar, right?). Around the rebar I'll lay two-core concrete blocks all the way up to what will be the ceiling. I'll pour concrete into the cores and allow that to dry. I'll coat the outside of both walls with liberal amounts of tar. I'm still not sure about how to build the ceiling, though. I could bring in some wood, make a makeshift ceiling and building a concrete ceiling on top of it, but it'd be difficult.