The answer: Insurance
From the perspective of your insurance company, water damage and flood damage are two totally separate things. Water damage is covered by standard home policies while flood damage is not; flood coverage requires a separate policy.
When is the water pouring into your house causing water damage and when is it causing flood damage?
Water Damage
The source of water damage is usually plumbing. Backed-up toilets, broken water hoses, and frozen pipes are examples of water damage. The severity of the damage depends on the quantity of water involved, the condition of the water, and how long the issue went on before being discovered. A leaky pipe in the second-floor walls can leak down into the floors, walls, and ceiling for a long time before anyone notices, causing significant damage along the way.
In some cases, water damage may come from a weather event. If your roof is damaged during a storm and rainwater gets in, this is considered water damage.
Flood Damage
Flood damage is associated with natural disasters or major weather events like hurricanes or major rainstorms where the quantity of rain is significant enough to cause flooding or flash flooding. If the nearby creek or storm drain overflows into your home during a storm or if water runs into your basement because your runoff slope is insufficient, that’s a flood.
Insurance
Typical home insurance policies cover water damage but not flood damage. Remember, as far as insurance is concerned, these are two very different things. If you live in an area prone to weather-related flooding, water damage experts in Kansas City recommend adding a flood insurance rider to your policy. Make sure to ask specific questions about what is and isn’t covered and what the deductibles are. Flood insurance can be costly; the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a good resource for help.
Water damage is, however, covered by standard policies. The truth is that most homeowners will experience some type of water damage while they own their home. Water damage is pernicious and often difficult to clean up. Water gets everywhere and the longer it sits, the more damage it will do. Wet drywall disintegrates, wet beams rot, and wet carpets grow mold. Even when it looks like there isn’t much water involved, rest assured there’s more moisture than you think and in places you haven’t imagined. Water damage mitigation professionals assess the situation and use professional tools and equipment to extract the water from everywhere and dry everything out so you can make repairs and get back to normal.
Water and Flood Damage Mitigation
Regardless of the source of your damage, Emergency Mitigation Services is here to help. Our crews are on call 24/7 to provide expert flood water removal in Kansas City. Once we’ve extracted all the standing water, we get to work with commercial-grade fans, dehumidifiers, and moisture meters to pull out all the moisture. The sooner you call, the quicker we can get to work mitigating the damage, so don’t wait.