Have you ever tried to wash dishes with a huge bandage from your upper arm to your fingers? Trust me, it doesn’t work. Thank goodness for dishwashers. Because of the surgery and lack of range of motion, I started to use the dishwasher more frequently. A lot more frequently. As in two and three times a day. It’s not that I dirty that many dishes but I really couldn’t do a very good job washing the few I had with one hand.
What I did not know was my dishwasher was malfunctioning. The water pump had failed and when the dishwasher emptied the water, it was not going into the drain but directly onto the floor behind the dishwasher. Think of doing that three times a day.
One day, I was walking from the bedroom to the kitchen and I noticed what looked like a dirty spot on my bamboo flooring. I got out a mop and tried to scrub it off and didn’t work. Later, I noticed that spot get larger and then it was to the point that it went from my bathroom all the way through the living room, to the entrance to the kitchen.
I later realized I had been pumping water up to three times a day for a month directly onto the floor which seeped from the kitchen into the living room. I called my plumbing company, Kyle Plumbing, and they sent someone out and they said it was a leak but didn’t look as though it was active. He didn’t have a moisture meter, so he couldn’t detect if there was any real moisture.
I then called another plumber that advertised they had the infrared device that could detect moisture as well as a moisture meter. They came out and said there was definitely moisture under the bamboo. He couldn’t find a leak so he called a buddy of his that was a public adjuster. He immediately came over and they pulled out the dishwasher and there was a huge area of mold and mildew and water behind the dishwasher.
My insurance company is Citizens. I had heard horror stories and several people suggested I needed a public adjuster. I called a public adjuster. I filed with Citizens and they coordinated with the public adjuster. Both the public adjuster and Citizens showed up. It was a little tense and I could tell there was an adversarial relationship going on between the two.
John Moore of Citizens was very, very thorough. He later sent a report to my public adjuster and eventually, I got to see the report. He estimated the damage at $24,000 and included complete replacement of the floor and replacement of all the lower cabinets in the kitchen. He also recommended refinishing all the upper cabinets to match the new lower cabinets. Citizens also would replace any damaged wall board up to two feet high both in the kitchen and the living room.
On one of my morning walks, I met two friends, both who had worked for insurance companies before they retired. They recommended I not use a public adjuster. They suggested a lawyer friend to call to determine if I could get out of my contract. She later informed me that it didn’t look possible.
I finally got the original report from the public adjuster and then I got the public adjusters report. They estimated the damages at $64k. They wanted me to sign with a notary that I agreed that was the true damages. I refused.
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Baxter Restoration was designated as my contractor for the job. They immediately sent someone out to start removing the floor. It was pretty nasty!
Baxter took about two days to remove all the flooring. It was quite a feat since they had to move furniture around and then replace the furniture in its original position. They also provided dehumidifiers and filters to remove water and mold spores.
As luck would have it, my flooring was of very good quality and was still available. Of course, it’s not as simple as that. When Robert of Baxter Restoration went to Home Depot (where I bought the flooring) he found out that Home Depot no longer carried it. (A piece of my flooring had to be sent off for independent analysis as to the quality.) Robert wasn’t one to give up. He called the company who manufactured the flooring. He was in luck. The last stock they had (it had been discontinued) had been returned. Robert purchased the entire remaining stock for me.
It took about four days to lay the new floor. Again with the moving of furniture. The original floor, and the replacement, are a floating floor. Only the bamboo strips are glued together. There is no nailing or gluing of the strip to the floor.
When the contractor got to the junction of the bamboo floor to the kitchen tile and the bamboo floor to the bathroom tile, there was an uneven transition. It was less pronounced in the kitchen tile and more pronounced in the bathroom. I thought that strange because there was a one to one match with the original floor. Later, I checked an old piece of the original bamboo flooring with the new flooring. The new flooring is 1/8 inch thicker than the older flooring. More for my money I guess.
I really felt sorry for the installers. They had to wear face masks. Honestly, they were pretty good about it. I only had to remind them once or twice. What they were not good at was closing doors behind themselves. I think my air condition cooled greater Fort Lauderdale by 3 degrees during the installation!
Now it is on to the kitchen cabinets! See next post.
