Tree Company Drops Tree on House, what Should I Do?

[djs]

You can twist the story far enough to say the whole house has to be rebuilt because of this little incident. Heck, needs new furniture as well.

But, in the end, the damage needs to be repaired. That's what will happen. Insurance companies are good to make sure things get fixed. Adjusters are wonderful people (usually) who catch a lot of flack because someone always feels 'more' should be done.

They will fix the damage, doing the minimum possible to make it right. They will do what's needed, but not necessarily what is wanted.

Let us know what the adjuster says. Not really interested in what a roofer says, since they will always go for fixing the damage, doing the maximum possible to make it right.

True story....

I've lost clients because of contractors saying the insurance company will replace a full fence because 6 foot section blew down. The insurance company offered to pay for the section of fence (though it was under the deductible so no real claim). The contractor said the whole fence HAD to be replaced, which was probably true, but the rest of the fence had rotted, but was not damaged in the wind (not more than it already was). Contractor could not repair just the section that blew over without replacing the fence. Insurance company offered to cover (minus deductible) for the one section and 2 fence posts.

Contractor blamed the insurance company for being a cheapskate, when they were willing to cover the damage, because they wouldn't pay for the rest of the fence, which they had no obligation to do.

I lost the client because I put him in what he thought was the wrong insurance company.

Contractor got to replace the full fence, which was needed, but he put his foot in my mouth. If he knew anything about insurance claims (and he actually did), he would have known the insurance company wouldn't pay for a rotted fence problem.

You're roofer knows this as well.

Dan

 

[Accelerated]

And from what I've found out, in order to replace the sheathing they have to strip all of the shingles for that 4x8 area + , and then I found out through my state website, they typically replace up to the ridge. However also according to code, if 25% or more is being redone, the entire side must be replaced to conform to the new/updated building codes.

1. The do not have to replace the entire 4x8 sheet of plywood. The insurance adjuster will likely write the whole piece, but only because that is the smallest piece that you can buy from the supply house (and believe it or not, adjusters do try to be reasonable). This would be like getting a small hole in your drywall. You would go buy a 32SF piece of drywall to patch it, but you would not have to take the whole piece off the wall for a 1' diameter hole.

2. Who "typically replaces up to the ridge"? Under what circumstance? Why in the world would you think you need to replace up to the ridge when you have less than a dozen shingles damaged along the lower eave of the house?

3. This damage does not encompass 25% of your roof. You have a few torn and broken shingles at the base of a slope running for about 8 LF, or 2 1/2 shingles in length (20 year 3 tab fiberglass shingles are 3' long). Yes, a couple of additional shingles will be added to account for the broken area of sheathing, but with there being 25-29 shingles in a bundle (depending on manufacturer), you can literally get the repair done with less than a bundle of shingle and less than 1 piece of plywood.


At this point you are beginning to sound pretty unreasonable with regards to presenting the desired scope of repairs. I know a roofer and a contractor buddy told you something, but do keep in mind that friend or not, when contractors see potential insurance money, they sometimes present wish lists, rather than realistic assessments of what actually needs to be done, which appears to have occurred here. While I understand how stressful it can be to have damage occur to your home, you need to be realistic here. This is minor damage, not the destruction of a total slope (that has several years left in it). The best advice I can give from here is to act as though it is your own pocketbook on the hook, rather than the insurance company ledger. Act like it was you who dropped the branch, and you who has to pay for the repairs. If you are actually able to step into those shoes and look at it from that perspective, you might see that you are going a bit overboard and demanding an unreasonable amount of work to bring you back to whole.

 

[Jdavidson015]

You can twist the story far enough to say the whole house has to be rebuilt because of this little incident. Heck, needs new furniture as well.

But, in the end, the damage needs to be repaired. That's what will happen. Insurance companies are good to make sure things get fixed. Adjusters are wonderful people (usually) who catch a lot of flack because someone always feels 'more' should be done.

They will fix the damage, doing the minimum possible to make it right. They will do what's needed, but not necessarily what is wanted.

Let us know what the adjuster says. Not really interested in what a roofer says, since they will always go for fixing the damage, doing the maximum possible to make it right.

True story....

I've lost clients because of contractors saying the insurance company will replace a full fence because 6 foot section blew down. The insurance company offered to pay for the section of fence (though it was under the deductible so no real claim). The contractor said the whole fence HAD to be replaced, which was probably true, but the rest of the fence had rotted, but was not damaged in the wind (not more than it already was). Contractor could not repair just the section that blew over without replacing the fence. Insurance company offered to cover (minus deductible) for the one section and 2 fence posts.

Contractor blamed the insurance company for being a cheapskate, when they were willing to cover the damage, because they wouldn't pay for the rest of the fence, which they had no obligation to do.

I lost the client because I put him in what he thought was the wrong insurance company.

Contractor got to replace the full fence, which was needed, but he put his foot in my mouth. If he knew anything about insurance claims (and he actually did), he would have known the insurance company wouldn't pay for a rotted fence problem.

You're roofer knows this as well.

Dan

Hmm I'm sure some people could come up with something like that. I just want my roof repaired and done right. I was under the impression that the job of insurance is to repair the job to what it looked like when it was new, exact words from the body shop I use for my car. But when the work on a car, they do more than just the damage, they have to extend the paint work into other parts of the car to make it look uniform and blend properly. A standard patch on a roof doesn't do that, which is why I do want the roof replaced, I would understand a slight betterment charge, as the roof is at half use life left. As you were saying the sheathing could be cut, to a three foot area, as you know, when wood is cut, particularly plywood, the edges become vulnerable and in a situation like this where the sheetrook a substantial impact, WE PERSONALLY will not accept the use of any part of the existing sheet, which makes it a minimum of a 4x8 section possibly 8x8 depending upon how the sheathing is set on the roof. Which brings it to the point of question about going upto the ridge, which then begs the 25% law as that would be close to the 25% per side code requiring the side to be replaced.im not really trying to argue with you, I do appreciate all your your insights, but you also have to understand whet I'm coming from. We didn't purchase this house with a big patch in the roof, and we shouldn't have to have one now due to their negligence, particularly with the damage coming from a tree they weren't even supposed to cut. Of which they cut 2 they weren't supposed to that we wanted to keep for the aesthetic appeal.

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Do you understand where we are coming from?

 

[xrac]

1. The do not have to replace the entire 4x8 sheet of plywood. The insurance adjuster will likely write the whole piece, but only because that is the smallest piece that you can buy from the supply house (and believe it or not, adjusters do try to be reasonable). This would be like getting a small hole in your drywall. You would go buy a 32SF piece of drywall to patch it, but you would not have to take the whole piece off the wall for a 1' diameter hole. 2. Who "typically replaces up to the ridge"? Under what circumstance? Why in the world would you think you need to replace up to the ridge when you have less than a dozen shingles damaged along the lower eave of the house? 3. This damage does not encompass 25% of your roof. You have a few torn and broken shingles at the base of a slope running for about 8 LF, or 2 1/2 shingles in length (20 year 3 tab fiberglass shingles are 3' long). Yes, a couple of additional shingles will be added to account for the broken area of sheathing, but with there being 25-29 shingles in a bundle (depending on manufacturer), you can literally get the repair done with less than a bundle of shingle and less than 1 piece of plywood. At this point you are beginning to sound pretty unreasonable with regards to presenting the desired scope of repairs. I know a roofer and a contractor buddy told you something, but do keep in mind that friend or not, when contractors see potential insurance money, they sometimes present wish lists, rather than realistic assessments of what actually needs to be done, which appears to have occurred here. While I understand how stressful it can be to have damage occur to your home, you need to be realistic here. This is minor damage, not the destruction of a total slope (that has several years left in it). The best advice I can give from here is to act as though it is your own pocketbook on the hook, rather than the insurance company ledger. Act like it was you who dropped the branch, and you who has to pay for the repairs. If you are actually able to step into those shoes and look at it from that perspective, you might see that you are going a bit overboard and demanding an unreasonable amount of work to bring you back to whole.

Accelerated, I agree with you. Obviously, this tree contractor will have a hard time satisfying the OP. He will probably need to involve his insurance just to prevent the OP from demanding way too much.

 

[Accelerated]

WE PERSONALLY will not accept the use of any part of the existing sheet, which makes it a minimum of a 4x8 section possibly 8x8 depending upon how the sheathing is set on the roof.
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Do you understand where we are coming from?

Do you think that your roof is constructed entirely with whole and uncut sheets of plywood? Unlikely. I would bet that they had to cut several sheets to fit your roof. Again this is like demanding that a whole section of drywall has to be replaced because a small hole is in part of it. Unnecessary and unreasonable. Just patch the broken area and be done with it.

With regard to matching considerations, have you even bothered to try to get a close match on the color at your local home improvement store before screaming about how ugly it will be? The gray is very common, and there are literally hundreds of shades to choose from.

Anyway, if you bother to read the vast amount of good information that I and others have posted relating to your specific loss and the insurance claims process as a whole, you should have a solid understanding of the repairs needed to indemnify you and the reasoning behind the differences between what your contractor says and what the adjuster will likely say.

I am done here, because you apparently do not really want help determining what needs to happen, or wish the process to be explained to you, rather, you seem to be determined to make us see the logic behind the excessive demands resulting from minor damage. If I were your adjuster, I would have to patiently listen to your demands and attempt to assist you in seeing reason and logic, but I am not, and my time is somewhat valuable, so rather than try to assist you any further, when you appear to simply be intent on arguing, I shall drag my rear back to work helping those who actually want and need the assistance.

 

[djs]

Do you think that your roof is constructed entirely with whole and uncut sheets of plywood? Unlikely. I would bet that they had to cut several sheets to fit your roof.

That was my thoughts exactly.
Yank the whole roof down! Its unacceptable.
There are already lots of edges on the plywood. I'm not sure why 1 more would suddenly make the roof 'vulnerable'.

 

[Milkman1265]

would like to add, that if you decide that you want the insurance to pay and file a claim.

when they send out the adjuster and give you the X amount, if you do not fix it. the company could non-renew you for not fixing the roof now.

Once they know about it, they know about it and require it to be fixed, whether it's on their dime or yours.

 

[LGilmore]

"There are already lots of edges on the plywood. I'm not sure why 1 more would suddenly make the roof 'vulnerable'"

Yup. That's what the roofing paper is for. creates a barrier between the plywood sheeting and shingles to prevent water coming through.

Jess? If you are worried about leaks getting through a plywood seam, there is a product that creates a water tight seal that you can use, like a gasket seal. It is rubberized and has a peal away sticky side that glues it to your sheeting. It seals around roofing nails. I used it to repair around a skylight (known leakers) and it works great.

Your sheeting is a series of 4x8's and different sized pieces on your rafters. Everything is probably on 2 foot centers (rafters) So it might take a couple of sheets, it might not just depends on how long a run the damage is. say it's 6 foot? It would be 6foot x how many inches to the side of your house to hide the cut visually from below.

Some of your concerns are probably because you haven't ever attempted things like this. I've put 1200 sq ft. on my home and made extensive renovations to the rest of the place. I've done everything on a home from footings to shingles. Looking at your pictures, you have less than $100 in materials and about 3 hours in time to make it nice.

 

[Jdavidson015]

It's not the fact that the edge is messed up, it's the fact that we were not home to see it fall, and it was a 10-15' + foot branch falling from 20+ feet which caused a sudden impact. I'm a mechanical engineer, and basically all I do is forces, the sudden impact creates a huge force on that area of the roof which WILL have weakened the piece of sheathing. We were not home to see it fall, for all we know, it landed higher on the roof, rolled/ slid down, and did the damage shown in the pics, or it may have just brushed the roof ( appears this way) but again, we didn't see it, so why we should take that risk. As mentioned by someone earlier, where I live, the roof takes hundreds of pounds of snow every year, how do we know this impact didn't weaked that piece enough to cause it to break this winter? WE DONT. I'm not trying to argue with you all, I'm simply stating my point of view for the situation and reaction to what is being said. I suppose technically they are arguments, but at the same time, they are very valid. Once again I never expected an entire new roof until the roofer said that that is what insurance pays for in situations like this. I also understand that many of you are or were adjusters and that this is what you dealt with a lot. At this point, I'm trying to find out what you all would think to how I view the situation. I do have another question though, because the roof had 2 layers of shingles now, durning the repair, how is that replaced, would they put 2 layers of new shingles or leave it as one? I would think they would have to do 2 to keep it level and everything, is that correct?

 

[TeePee]

I am not an adjuster but would like to add my experience as an agent dealing with a ton of upset insureds because the roofers says XXX or YYY. As someone mentioned roofers want to sell you an entire roof, not patch the small place that is damaged.

My roof needs replacing. I know that. But there is not a week that goes by that a contractor is in my driveway, handing me a business card, asking me for my home insurance info so he can file a claim and waive the deductible because he knows I have hail and wind damage (I don't---my roof is old and needs to be replaced soon). This type of business practices have caused most insurance companies to stop paying for roof replacement because people have used a small storm for maintenance.

Another interesting thing I have found out through dealing with adjusters is that a double layer of shingles wears out much quicker.

By the look of your roof, it needs replacing sooner than later. If you involve your insurance company, chances are the condition is going to be reported back to your insurance company and you will have to replace the entire roof or be cancelled.

Tread easy on this one.