What To Do If Your House Floods? (Prevention & Response)
According to Aviva Canada, house floods result in the largest amounts of property damage. Therefore, it is crucial for homeowners to be proactive in prevention, but also knowledgeable in response tactics if a house flood were to occur. Furthermore, this blog post is here to provide some helpful prevention tips and response tips to know how to deal with a house flood.
Prevention
1. Purchase Flood Insurance for Your Home
Unfortunately, regular homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover damages that result from a house flooding. According to Aviva Canada, regular home insurance policies do not cover flooding that happens when water enters the home through windows and doors. This is called overland flooding. Additionally, flooding that results from sewer backup, which can include pipe bursts, is usually not covered as well. This means that your house may not be fully covered from all flooding events with just a regular home insurance policy. Therefore, it is best to talk with your insurance broker about purchasing the best insurance coverage that covers both overland and sewer backup flooding. If you would like more information on this topic, you can contact one of our brokers today.
2. House Landscape
One way you can help prevent flooding is to ensure that the landscape of your lawn slopes away from your house. This way, when it rains, the water will drain away from the foundation of your house. Thus, by having it slope away, less water will accumulate around your house decreasing the chances of flooding.
3. Fix Any and All Cracks
If you see any cracks, damages, or breaks in the basement walls or the foundation of your house, you should get them repaired as soon as possible. Whether you repair them yourself or hire someone else to do it, it is important to make sure your house is secure, so that no water can leak through.
4. Unclog Eavestroughs
Eavestroughs can easily be blocked or clogged with leaves, debris, and other things. As a result, it would be a good idea to clean them out regularly. This way when it rains or snows, the water can drain properly without any issues and/or problems.
5. Check Your Home’s Pipes Regularly
You should be checking your home’s pipes regularly to make sure there are no leaks, cracks, or damages in them. If there is a sign of damage, it is important to get it fixed as soon as possible. This can help to prevent more extensive damage from happening in the future.
Response
1. Contact a Water Damage Restoration Professional
Contact someone immediately to help clean up the flood damage in order to help limit and reduce any further damages.
2. Contact Your Insurance Broker
It is important to contact your insurance broker at your earliest possible convenience if a house flood occurs. As a result, your insurance broker can review your insurance coverage along with your deductibles and suggest the next best steps to making a claim.
3. Document the Damage
If you are subject to a house flooding, it is important to document all the damage. Take pictures of all the damaged items including walls, doors, and your personal items. Also, make an itemized list of everything that was damaged as a result of the flooding. These are important steps to do because your insurance broker and the insurance companies will most likely ask for all of this information.
Moreover, a house flood can happen, which is why it is so important to consider ways of prevention and to know the steps of how to respond to one. Finally, to keep your mind at peace, it is a good idea to purchase flood insurance coverage for your home. You can talk with one of our brokers today to see which coverage best suits your needs.