Dealing With Storm Damage & Making An Insurance Claim

This week we chat with Legacy Exteriors owner Josh Gauwitz about insurance claims for possible storm damage. Calls are coming in to Legacy Exteriors for inspection on homes across our listening area from storm, that prodcued hail, around 3 weeks ago. Josh reminds us of the path this storm took, which covered from the Milwaukee street area of Madison all the way through the Sun Prairie/Marshall area. We also dive into what the process of making a insurance claim looks like including the importance of being able to speak the "insurance" lingo when an insurance adjuster is looking at your home. Josh recommends having a exterior contractor there with you to walk through the potential storm damage with the insurance adjuster. Now, you do have nearly a year to make a insurance claim after a storm but did you know that you won't be able to get a insurance adjuster out to your home if snow is on your roof? That inspection will be pushed off to the spring which makes reaching out to an exterior contractor like Legacy Exteriors all the more important RIGHT NOW so you aren't left out in the "cold" when winter comes!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
One at one point five, Ibe y y f FM Madison's Classic Rocks
ain't c DC on this through forTuesday. Quick Reminder Cash your Classic Cash
give away a keyword this hour foryour chance to win one thousand dollars.
Enter cash at WYBM dot com.As we now welcome in Josh Gallwitz,
owner of Legacy Exteriors. Josh,how are you. I'm doing fantastic.

(00:22):
I'm tapping again over here. I'mwaiting for all help people. Oh,
I talk in my hands. That'swhat I do. I know, even
when I'm in a room by myself. I'm used to it. You are
used on the crazy person. Anyways, Josh, I was Halloween. We
kind of touched on that last weekas it was Halloween. A lot of
kids in the neighborhood. Oh yeah, our neighborhood is great because there's so

(00:42):
many kids running around. You cansee all the different costumes and who's creative
and who's not creative. Who justthrew you know something on? Yeah there
whatever. Yeah. So you havefour kids and what two of them are
still the trick or treat age?Ah? Actually all of them trigger treated.
Really well, I shouldn't say ifthey trigger treated that, but they

(01:03):
dressed up. Okay, so that'sfun. Yeah, what do I have
a vampire? My youngest was afootball player. We had a nineties rapper.
Oh yeah, kind of dressed likefresh prints. Oh sure, yeah
yeah, and uh and then azombie doctor. Zombie doctor. Interesting.

(01:26):
Yeah, see that's creative. Yeah. I think he just found some stuff
and then he went with it.You go. I love it anyways,
all right, so we're not hereto tell Halloween, are we, Josh?
We are not exteriors on people's homes. Of course. Legacy Exteriors Josh
and his team can handle so muchreally on the outside of your home.
Roofs, windows, gutters, doors, siding decks, three season, four

(01:48):
season, life room, sunrooms,all of that good stuff. Legacy Dash
Exteriors dot come a good place tostart. But I kind of want to
just remind people, Josh, wehad that storm that came through our area
about two and a half three weeksgo now, but hail damage really was
a part of that. And youhave had quite a few homes now who
have called you guys for inspections,you know, starting the process with insurance
to make claims. So it's alwayslike a wonder when these storms hit.

(02:14):
So we start doing our inspections andyou're like, Okay, it was big
hail, but was it hard hail, was it wind driven hail? Or
was it soft and non damageable.So we've had a bunch of inspections now
and what we're seeing is definitely therewas damage. Yeah. So and now
we've actually got a bunch that arefully approved. So I would say,

(02:37):
if you're in that kind of likethat line going towards some prairie marshall sure
extending to the east side of Madison, you're in that area that got the
damaging hail. So whether you thinkyou do or not, if you live,
you know, within kind of thatrange, I would I would call

(02:58):
and have an inspection done. Imean, as we mentioned, that storm
was two and a half three weeksago, but you didn't have to pick
up the phone in the moments andhave somebody come out and look at it.
You have some time. You couldstill pick up that phone today and
have an inspection done. Maybe it'sthe signing, the roof, whatever it
may be. Yeah, absolutely,I think generally have something along the lines
of a year to get the workdone within the storm. There's obviously some

(03:23):
exclusions and provisions in that. Butthe strange part or the what we got
to be thinking about is we're headinginto winter. Yeah, so they're not
going to do inspections with snow onsnow on the roof. They're just not.
So they're gonna wait till spring todo those inspections. So if you
want them done now so you canplan your project for spring, call now

(03:46):
have an inspection done that way,because there's a few things that's got to
happen. So when you when youcall us to have an inspection done,
we go out there, do afull inspection of the property. We generally
check the soft metals first. Ifwe're seeing damage to the soft metals,
we move on to the siding andrough and then we'll bring it to your
tension, how much damage you got, whether to file a claim or not.

(04:08):
And if you do file that claim, then we meet the insurance inspector
out there as well. So there'sa few things that need to happen.
Yeah, and all of it takestime. I was gonna say, this
stuff doesn't happen overnight, correct,So I mean there's some planning that needs
to happen. And if you wantto you know, get ahead of the
game. I mean, you couldhave it fully approved and then we can

(04:29):
start the design process, you know, throughout the winter, and that way
you're ready to go in spring.Talk with Josh Collwit's owner of the Legacy
Exteriors. They be on the Stud'sTuesday on I B A FM. I
also think it's important to notes aswell, Josh, that you know is
that the wife? It is thewife? You saw that se emoji there
ye storry wife, You're gonna haveto wait. But I think it's also

(04:53):
important to note that you know becauseyou think you have hail damage, maybe
it's your roof, maybe it's yoursigning. You want to have someone like
you, a contractor, come outand take a look at the damage and
hopefully make a claim with your insurancecompany. That claim may not go through
right and then so you're gonna beon the hook for the damage that may
have occurred, especially if that roofcouldn't make it through the winter. And

(05:14):
I just think of myself because Iliterally thought that I had storm damage.
That's why I had you come outand walk my roof over at Legacy Exteriors.
You walked my roof and said thisisn't storm damage, right, this
is something that had been here,so then I was on the hook for
that money. So now as wesit here on November the seventh, people
are putting together budgets for the holidays, the new year, all of that
stuff. So it's better to getthat done now. Yeah, and generally,

(05:40):
we're not going to tell you tofile a claim in this. We're
pretty darn sure it's gonna get approved. Honestly, you mean, what what
right? Yeah? I mean we'renot gonna tell you to waste your time
filing a claim if we think it'sgonna get denied or that the damage that
might be there is isn't storm damage. So we know what we're looking for,

(06:03):
we know what the insurance company islooking for. One thing I would
tell all homeowners is don't go atthis alone. Don't just call your insurance
company and I have nobody there representingyou, yeah, pointing out the damage
because it is uh, you know, you you work at it together between

(06:26):
the contractor and the insurance adjuster.It's a it's a you know, a
no negotiation. It's uh, it'sa partnership. A lot of stuff has
to happen, so I feel likethrough our Beyond the Studs Tuesday conversations here
on ib A. Yeah, thepeople have gotten the sense from you about
the honesty kind of the integrity thatyou you know, use you employ with

(06:46):
your business legacy exteriors. On theflip side of that, when you're out
there at those inspections with the insuranceadjusters, how does the insurance companies how
do they play that game? Right? It's not you don't have to name
any names, but are they honest? Are they you know, if they
see something, do they kind ofmaybe admit it storm damage or you kind
of see what I'm getting at here? Yeah, I would say most are
great. Okay, that's what Iwould say. There's some that are not

(07:12):
so great. Sure, So insurancecompany definitely matters for sure whether they're on
your side or not. And that'swhy it's very important to have a contractor,
yes you can trust representing you,being your voice, knowing how stuff
is put together. So they mightsay, Okay, we deem that this

(07:34):
is damage. Well, in orderfor us to replace that, we have
to remove this. So they mightnot put that in their estimates, so
we have to you know, andthat's where the contractor coming be like,
Okay, you said this is damage, but we can't do that without removing
this. So that's got to beremoving replace charge as well. So there's
a lot of that stuff that goesinto it, and as long as it's

(07:56):
explain good, good enough to whereit makes sense to the insurance company,
Yeah, all as well. Andthen there's certain things that we have to
do just for code's sake, right, so it has to be covered,
so we just sometimes we might behaving to site code or manufacture specs.
Yeah. I think that's so important, just to underscore, you know,

(08:18):
to have that contractor with you whenyou have an insurance adjust they're kind of
seeing if you had storm damage onyour house. And I'll attest to what
I say it all the time.The best in the business is Legacy Exteriors
when it comes to exterioror contractors.Josh will never say that, but I
will great website Legacy dash Exteriors dotCom, their phone number two two one,
three thousand. You can see everythingthere all they can do for the

(08:39):
exterior of your home. And oneof my favorite parts about your website,
Josh, is the customer testimonials becauseI can say it's home blue in the
face. You can even say itsometimes how great you are. But I
just think the testimonials from customers whohave had work done by your company,
it just, I don't know,it just gives me a peace of mind
as a homeowner or whatever it maybe. Make it a decison and who

(09:00):
going to have work done on myhome? Yeah, what I think about
is great for me. So youwere a customer of ours before we ever
did any of this. So andthat part I think is cool because a
lot of times, you know,there's there's deals made and things of that
nature, or maybe they're touting howgreat we are and that guy we never
used, They never used us.Right, this is one percent, not

(09:24):
that case, Like we did yourroof. What was it a couple of
years ago? I think it wasno, late October early November last year,
Okay, so a little over ayear and so and then we started
we started this kind of because ofthat. Yeah, one hundred percent,
which was I mean, that's agreat way to start. Yeah, it
is. And I know you don'tlike to tell what you do, and

(09:45):
sometimes I don't like to tell whatI do either, But I don't talk
about businesses. I don't talk aboutpeople in the air that don't fully believe
in what they do, well,I don't like being fake. We appreciate
that, well, thank you,because we are definitely not that way either.
Yeah. I mean sometimes it's hardto find few. I'm saying that
we're the best of the best,you know what I'm saying. The funny
thing is is the way we dothings is not if we wanted to be

(10:09):
better in business and more sales,we wouldn't do them the way we do
them, right, So, Imean we're and what I mean by that
is we are not high pressure inany way, shape or form. And
obviously if you know the companies thatare more high pressure and have that sales
system, they kind of get moresales that way, right, and they

(10:31):
do it do it today discounts andwhere somebody's got to be like, oh
I got to sign today or elseI'm going to lose this ten thousand hours
off. Yeah. I mean,when you guys show up to someone's house,
you don't even come with a contract. No, No, I mean
it's literally an education process for usas well as the homeowner. So we
want to know exactly what that homeowneris trying to accomplish with their project,

(10:54):
and then we go home and putan estimate together, or maybe we have
to do the design process first,you know, because that's very important,
especially when it comes to siding.And sometimes you know, I kind of
refer to that as just being fromthe Midwest, the Midwestern values of the
culture, whatever it may be.I mean, you live right here,
McFarlane. I live in some prairiefrom Wanaque. Your shop is in right

(11:15):
here in the capital city of Madison. A lot of your employees they live
here in the area too. Imean, you guys at Legacy Exteriors,
you have that culture of who weare who live right here, which I
think is just awesome, hard working. Yeah, and honest I think that
that's a that's a good one.I mean, yeah, and and and
that works both ways, you know. I mean, I truly think a

(11:37):
contractor and homeowner's relationship, it's thatthat's got to be. The foundation is
trust, you know, for notonly we trust the homeowner, but the
homeowner trusts us. Because these thingsaren't cheap, it's not and you only
want to do it once. It'sonly don't want to do it once.
So it's it's important. I meannot only is the product important, warranty

(11:58):
is important, but who's hammering inthose nails is important mm hmm yeah,
and the faith you having them toget the job done right the first time.
So it's kind of a love festtoday, Josh, we appreciate all
of it. Do you want totouch it? We appreciate you as well.
Ben Well, thank you, Josh, I appreciate you. And Caylea
if you're listening out there too,do you want to touch on Southern Living

(12:18):
or should we save that? Wecould save it, Okay, let's save
that some home exterior trends for twentytwenty four. Yeah, we're already kind
of teaser for teaser there it is. That is a teaser, Josh and
Roy the rest of your daybut YouTube, all right, gain we get back
to doing the two for Tuesday thingin a few minutes. Green Day and
Van Halen on the way.