December 14, 2025 • 44 mins
In this hour of At Home with Gary Sullivan, Gary tackles the challenges of winter weather. He shares a personal experience with a frozen pipe and discusses the importance of checking your home's pipes to prevent damage. Guest Beth Harper, an insurance broker, joins the show to talk about homeowner's insurance and the changes in coverage for roofing and maintenance. They also dive into the topic of frozen pipes and how to mitigate damage. With winter weather in full swing, Gary and Beth offer valuable advice on how to protect your home and avoid costly repairs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, the weekend is upon us, and welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan. Another weekend, getting a
few things done around the home. And uh, I'll tell
you what. Where I'm at, winter is hit. We got
single digits and maybe you do the same.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And right, three degrees here at our studios.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Three degrees.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it's a heat wave.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's cold. It's cold. It's cold. We've been we've been
saying for the last three months. It's gonna get cold.
Maybe not three degrees, but it's gonna get cold. So maybe,
as I look at the weather man, we got wind
chills all the way up to the Chicago land in
the twenties, so coming, you know, it's going to be
getting to the east coast of It's not already there.
(01:12):
It's been in the northwest. So you know, maybe a
good thing today is to let's just make sure all
the fawcets work. I did it last night before I
went to bed. Never hurts. I didn't think I had
any problemaries. I thought I had addressed them all, but again,
you never really know. Things change. And I went around
(01:34):
and uh went upstairs, which is not used much anymore.
Check the bathtub, turn on the faucets and the vanities,
just kind of make sure everything's working at all the
fawcet points. And they did, so that was good, and
I might encourage you to do the same. You know
(01:56):
that water freezes in pipes usually in cross spaces, uh
maybe garages in some cases crawl spaces. Go outside walls,
underneath cabinet tree if you have an area like that,
get those doors open, maybe even clamp a little light
(02:21):
floodlight fixture and get a you know, a heat bulb
just where it shoots out some infra red heat just
to get some warmth back there. So we don't get
any frozen pipes. But do a checkover, because the one
thing you don't want to have is you don't want
to have a frozen pipe that you don't know that's frozen.
(02:43):
And the reason for that is as that water in
that pipe freezes, it expands, and as it expands, the
risk of a loose connection certainly develops, the risk of
a split pipe certainly develops. So that's why you want
(03:06):
to check to make sure everything's working. If it's not working, fine,
we can start working on falling that out. And I'm
not talking about with a propane torch. I would never
recommend that a heat gun. Yes, if it's copper pipe,
a hair dryer. I've heard people say heating pads. I've
(03:27):
never used a heating pad. Certainly you'd want to be careful.
We could do do and could have water involved, so
I've always been a little skeptical of that. But any
way to introduce some heat to it and you know,
diminish that risk of more of that water freezing and
(03:51):
more expansion on that pipe and risking the possibility of
its splitting. Because in your homeowner's policy, you know, they
may carry that. But if it's a frozen pipe and
you didn't really do anything about it, like shutting off
water to that area, maybe that policy doesn't cover you.
(04:17):
So you got to take action, and you gotta, you know,
find out what's going on in your home. But again,
you don't have to get ladders out. You just walk around,
turn the bathtub on, flush the toilets, turn on the sink,
and just make sure everything's functioning. So that would be
an assignment if you're in a cold weather climate. And
(04:40):
as I look at the map, it looks like most
of us are, at least for this weekend, So let's
definitely take care of business here. Let me give you
the phone number, happy to talk insulation ventilation. I know
that sounds weird this time a year, but ventilation is
also real critical. In fact, I had some of the
(05:01):
other days. Well why is ventilation is so important? You
know in the wintertime. Well, let's just think about this
for a second. If your house is nice and comfy
and it's in the seventies, and it starts that heat
rises and it gets in the attic. I'm not saying
(05:22):
it's gonna be hot in the attic. I'm not saying
it's gonna be seventy in the attic. But if you
don't have good ventilation, you're gonna be surrounded by walls
that are very very cold and the roof that's very
very cold, and you gonna have warm air in the attic.
And what happens then when it hits cold surfaces condensation.
You've heard me talk about that. I've seen addicts where
(05:42):
it looks like it's rain in the attic before, or
maybe the bathroom fan is pumping that wet, warm air
into the attic and it hits an attic that's forty
degrees and it just commensation just starts for me, gets
the insulation wet, which becomes inefficient. It gets the underside
(06:04):
of the roof wet, which could cause mold, it could
cause wood rot. So you know, we do want to
have ventilation. I'm not asking you go up and ventilate
your roof today, but that's why we talk about it,
how important insulation and ventilation is to the healthier home.
(06:24):
And I'd be happy to answer questions on that. Another thing,
if you're in an area where you've had some snow,
we haven't really had any call when we had one
yesterday about an ice dam, and you know what that is.
That's just a nice build up on the edge of
the roof or in the gutters, and that is usually occurring,
(06:46):
can occur a couple of ways, if it's in a
real shady area of the roof where it's collecting snow
and it's not melting and moving it down the gutter
area and down the down spouts, but really mainly caused
by lack of insulation in the attic itself. So if
(07:08):
you've got a snowpack on your whole roof and you
don't have adequate insulation, heat rises rises. You don't have
good ventilation. Met you don't have any ventilation, starts warming
the underside of the roof. On the highest areas of
the roof, you get a little melt. That water runs
down in that last In most homes, it's either a
(07:33):
foot or two feet of overhang, and there is no
house underneath that, right, So it's very cold. And as
that water trickles down underneath the snowpack, it gets to
that edge and boom, it freezes, builds an ice dam.
So I always talk about it as you drive through
in the wintertime. If you had a snow and all
(07:56):
the roofs have a nice snowpack on it, but you
get to your house and the top third is just shingles,
it's probably telling you don't have real good insulation. And
by having that top part snow free or melting, that's
going to cause you an ice stam as it works,
(08:19):
that water works down to the overhang area. So pay
attention to snow melt on your roof. Compare to other
people in your neighborhood. All right, again, that phone number,
happy to chat, We're going to talk about your home.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
we're gonna have a couple guests. We're going to talk
(08:40):
about homeowner's insurance. We're also going to talk to a
CEO of I think it's Floors Direct. I have that note,
but I don't have a ring from me, and we're
going to talk about, you know, protecting those floors during
winter weathers. All right again, it's eight hundred eighty two
three eight two if five five will continue with your calls.
(09:01):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
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(11:46):
go at home with Gary Salvin leven in studio to
take your calls. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five and Steve, welcome, Hey Gary.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
How's it going today?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Doing? Okay? Thank you?
Speaker 6 (12:00):
All right, Well, let me give you a little story.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
What happened.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
I was sitting eating some breakfast and I hear something
and I look over my slider and I have water
dripping in through the on the inside of the house,
and I'm like, what's going on. I look outside and
I got icicles. And I never had icicles on my
(12:25):
for my roof in twenty eight years of being in
this house. So I, so I shoveled off some of
the roof and I went up in the attic. So
were my vents fan that comes from my bathroom, the pipe,
the pipe that goes all the way up through up
up through the roof. But in that area the insallation
(12:50):
was wet, and I saw some water dripping in through
the roof through the the USB board that's up on
top of the roof.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Eating where the vent pipes going through the roof.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
No, it was probably a foot from it where the
water was dripping in it. So somehow water was coming
in from somewhere, you know, it was melting. But I
think I discovered it might have been from my vetman.
Just you know how they I think they have like
a flapper in there so when they're not using that
(13:27):
closed the snow hot air runs up.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Correct, Correct, it's a damper.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Yes, yeah, I'm thinking that didn't shut and that was
just melting all that snow and just and I couldn't
see it till I shoveled everything off, and that created
an ice dam that just had that water coming in.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, that certainly could be it. Whenever you have a connection,
of course, going through a roof Steve, There's there's always
a number of options that could be going on there.
So if that damper wasn't close and the water was
getting down in there, So what you're saying, would it
would it be coming through the joints in the pipe then,
(14:08):
or or could you tell exactly.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Were it actually coming was coming through the roof? Okay,
it wasn't coming and through where the pipe was Okay,
I think it just whatever ice dan backed up far
enough that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, well, let me paint another scenario, okay, because there's
all kinds of ways and eventually you're going to have
to figure it out because you don't want to revisit
that again. So if that was venting up there and
that damper was stuck open and then you know it
was blown all the hot water maybe around that area
it melded the snow and you know, kind of describing
(14:46):
it the same way I did, where we had lack
of ventilation, as that warm moist air is going out
the ductwork and hitting really cold temperatures. Cold temperatures can't
hold that warm water vapor. That's why they always call
it relative humidity, and you start getting you know, like
(15:08):
condensation where it's almost like raining up there, and you
get that water behind that snowpack, and there's nowhere for
that water to go because of the snow, and it
freezes into ice, and then that water literally starts going
up the roof rather than down the roof. And if
it goes up the roof and it goes underneath the
(15:29):
shingles and there's just no s b board there, you're
gonna have you're gonna have a leak. And where that
leak could be really could be anywhere, right, I mean,
as long as it's in that general proximity. So you know,
that's a that's another way. Another way I was thinking
about too, And something I think I would have checked
(15:50):
is I believe on some of those ventings going through
the roof, there's like a rubber boot. There's a rubber
boot on your round vents, and there's usually a rubber
boot on any exhaust type thing going through the roof.
And those rubber boots they have a lifespan of about
ten years mm hm. And you know we always think,
(16:10):
we always talk about the life span of our roof
being thirty years, but that we're very vulnerable, you know,
after ten years around you know, pipes and vent pipes.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Mm hm. So I threw a gall that so often
I threw So I did two things. Put calcium chloride
up on the ice, melted that, and I filled up
some pantyholes with calcium chloride right too, and through it
right where the gutter area is, because that's where and
(16:43):
that melt a lot of stuff. Would I guess, is
this something I could wait till spring to have a
roof company come out and say, hey, because where that
wire dripped in from the roof, you can see the
giant les be board and you can kind of see
how it's kind of separated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Right. Well, it's something they can tell you that. Yeah,
I would address it as soon as I can. And
they're going to be busy and they're also going to
be very limited depending on how much snow is up there,
how cold it is out there, how much snow we're
going to get. I mean, you know, there's all those factors.
(17:26):
You know, in a lot of cases, you did exactly
what you should have done, and that is, you know,
address the leak, address the snow, address the ice. Hopefully
we have a little warm patch you got your name
in it, a roof or where they can get out
there and take a look at it once we get
some melt, because if it happened once, it's going to
happen again. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
Yeah, it's we're afraid of because it's, like I said,
twenty years in the house, we know we don't have
an insulation problem, never had icicles.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Right right boom? But you know, yeah, yeah, so something changed, right.
I mean, when you track down issues, that's exactly what
you do, Steve, exactly what you did. What's changed, What's
what's going on here? What is what's the proximity of
an area in that area that could be the problem.
And you came up with event pipe and I think
you're probably right, you know, so yeah, I would get
(18:20):
on somebody's list to check it out. I wouldn't wait
till spring, because you know we're gonna have another snow.
You know you're going to have the problem again because
that's changed and now that's the new normal. Okay, all right,
you sound thrilled about it, you know, yeah, I gear
(18:42):
I hear you, Yeah, hear yeah, I know exactly what
you're thinking.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Well you have a great Christmas and stay safe.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Okay, very good, Thank you. You do the same. Thanks Steve,
I appreciate it. You know, one of the things that
we talk about a lot is, you know, our homeowners
insurance are deductible when we have problems, as it covered it,
et cetera. Beth Harper joined us yesterday and she was
talking about what to consider when renewing your insurance because
the game's kind of changed a little bit and a
(19:11):
lot of good information there, and I thought we'd replay
that conversation we had with Beth. It might pick up
some information, especially when we're going through really cold temperatures
with frozen pipes and leaky roofs. So we'll do that
next as we continue our march through the weekend. You're
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Start a project and don't know how to finish it
and call Gary and eight two three talk. You're at
home with Gary.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
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we go. Before we get to Beth Harper or I
(22:20):
just want to kind of reiterate a little something with
that frozen pipe, because we got short changed on time.
If the obviously if it's an outdoor faucet, it's inside
the garage, and it just trickled water and then it
stopped and he was wondering whether it's the faucet that
was frozen or jammed with the stem, or whether the
(22:45):
pipe had ice in it. He said, he put a
space heater near that, and if it were the faucet
at that point and the valve was opened, it probably
would have started dripping. My guess is it is the
pipe that is frozen, and the only way you're really
going to take care of that problem is introduce heat.
(23:08):
Now that pipe's inside the wall. Hopefully there's just shut
off valve on knee where you could shut off the
waterline or the water going to that particular faucet. But
then somehow you're going to have to introduce heat inside
a wall, even if just a little bit of an
opening cut above that faucet and a hair dryer put
(23:28):
in there where you would kind of warm that up.
So I did want to just make sure we finished
answer and that so Beth Harper's with us, and she
is an insurance broker, and speaking of frozen pipes, that
might be a claim down the road. Beth, welcome, how
are you.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'm wonderful, Gary, I hear you're doing awfully well as well.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I'm trying trying my best, trying my best. It was funny.
I wrote you a couple of days ago and said, hey,
you want to jump on. I've been reading different things
about roofing and new hail requirements, and I know last
time we talked about you said insurance coverage on roof's
is really changing. So I just kind of wanted to
(24:11):
tap in and what are you hear and what are
you seeing when it comes to roofing claims and what
can people expect and should they be asking questions, etc.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
They should always ask questions. And what I'd like to
say is if every one of your listeners, I don't
expect any of them to ever have issues with insurance
claims because what you do is what a home owner
needs to do to protect their most important and expensive asset.
Just walk around, look around. If you're in the spring, summer,
fall and you look around the outside of your house
(24:47):
and it looks like somebody is dribbling kitty litter around it, Garry,
you know it's not kitty litter.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Is it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
It's all the asphalt shingles coming off right, all that
grit right, That is your first sign as a homeowner.
That not as well, nothing as well with your roof.
You need to get a professional up there and check
it out. I always recommend always before all my clients
when they call me with a claim, I say, did
you have an estimate? What did they say? Is the problem?
(25:16):
That is very crucial. I'll quick stories, real quick stories.
Contractors now know that there is a limited loss settlement
on the majority of the carryokers out there, meaning for
traditional asphalt roof at ten years, it's now actual cash value,
which is depreciation unless you're deductible, and you also lose
your cosmetic matching coverage. That endorsement will be removed from
(25:40):
your policy at that time. Now, since contractors know that
they want to help you get a new roof, the
problem with that is they don't know your policy. And
back in September I had two back to back claims
and both of them were by a contractor that gave
(26:01):
an exact date of damage. Okay, that may be correct,
but I will tell you right now, your claims adjuster
knows your policy inside it out and they have access
to more weather information than a contractor ever will. One
of the things that happened and the claim was denied
is because it was outside of a year. So this
(26:24):
claim supposedly happened. I'm going to make dates up just
protect in case they're listening. Say the claim happened May
fifth of twenty twenty four. The policy year is, let's
just say August to August, and you put a claim
in for May in twenty twenty or I'm sorry, in
(26:44):
July of twenty twenty five. You're outside the year. There
is no coverage. And so that actually happened because that's
when the contractor picked a date. I talked to this
person in depth and there said, well, yeah, my roof
is bad, there's lots of damage up there. I need
it replaced. Why won't my insurance company replace it? Very sad.
(27:06):
So the idea here is, if you have a contractor
telling you you have damage, don't let them. Don't make
up a date. Nobody unless you went out immediately after
a storm or something happened immediately after a storm and
you know it, you don't know. You really don't know.
Your claim suggester will find out for you. So get
(27:27):
that estimate. Make sure it's somebody that isn't trying to
help you. If a contractor ever wants to see your
home homeowners policy, do not give it to them. They're
looking for ins and outs. Besides containing a whole bunch
of personal data, they're looking for loopholes to get your
(27:49):
claim covered. Well, you know what, that's kind of my job.
Don't let somebody out there promise you a new roof,
because once you submit that claim, it's on the record.
A homeowner's claim stays for five years on your policy,
unlike an auto which is around three unless it's a
major violation. That means for five years that has to replace. Now,
(28:12):
if the claim's denied, well there's damage. Now they're going
to want to know what did you do about that?
How did you mitigate that damage? And you have to
submit proof that you actually took care of it on
your dime because the claim was denied and you can
be non renewed. Now you're going to say, well, I'll
just go find another I'll find another carrier. Yeah, that's
(28:34):
my job too. You call in and say, hey, I'm
mad at my insurance carrier. They didn't pay correctly on
this claim and I want out. I'm like, okay, when
was a claim. It was last year. Well guess what
if it's a claim that ended up being over forty
thousand dollars. That's well over a limit of one of
the ones that a carrier. If I talk to the
(28:54):
underwriter and go, hey, this is what's going on, they're
going to say that damage is forty thousand dollars. We
will not write that risk. So you end up hurting
yourself because you didn't do enough homework and talk enough
to your agent, and that impacts how you protect your
home and work.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I got to tell you, bet that a broker in
insurance is a vital connection to problems that everybody is
eventually going to have because you can talk to them
just like you're talking to us. And it was about gosh,
I think the end of the summer. Our our insurance
(29:39):
was coming up from renewal, and because I had talked
to you, I had suggested my wife that we need
to really do a deep dive in our insurance and
we had not been having We had a broker that
we liked and then he sold the business and the
new person we had no relationship with it. It was
just picked up and you know, that was it. So
(30:03):
we looked at the insurance and then we got some
referrals on different brokers and my wife went and talked
to him, and she goes, we're gonna, we're gonna deal
with this, lady, and you need to come with us,
and we need to go through this whole policy and best.
She spent three hours.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
With us, and that's my normal.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I learned so much and in a way, I I
jokingly said, well, this like going to the casino. We're
placing bets. Yes, you know, yeah, I think earthquake, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, I'm not gonna do that.
I'm gonna do this. And why don't we raise this, uh,
(30:46):
you know, deductible. We we can you know, cover a
little incident, you know. And it was I forget where
it was, but I think we moved it up to
like twenty five hundred or may it was even a
little bit more. And you're right, you just don't want
you don't want to be worrying that insurance is not
there to cover everything. It's there to take the big hit. Correct.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Absolutely, it is not for maintenance. Yeah, back in the
old days, I'm going to say the old days were
twenty years ago. It was used a lot for maintenance.
I agree, But then we had for the past five
well for past six years. So when we started having
all those big storms that came through starting in twenty
two that affected my area real heavy, and then every
(31:36):
year there was another big storm since then. Since a
lot of that stuff they had to replace, they go
up on the roof and it's like, well, yeah, this
roof gave away. It's a maintenance issue. Everything's writed up.
You can see where the shingles are curling. They're like,
why am I replacing a roof that has real maintenance
damage from this storm versus replacing a roof that doesn't
(32:01):
have any maintenance damage. So that's changed a lot, and
quite honestly, I agree with that. People will argue with
me on that, and I'll say, Okay, if you never
put oil in your car and your ENGINECIZ is up,
do you file a claim on that? Well, no, Well
it's a maintenance issue. If you, as you always talk,
(32:22):
get up there. If you don't want to get on
a ladder, call somebody to get up there. Your neighbor
has a drone, get the drone up there and take pictures.
Look at your own roof. You have to have accountability
for it. Insurance is year two year. It is not
a lifetime. Now that being said, there's loyalty built up
as well, and that loyalty isn't built up and you
(32:44):
deserve a new roof, it's built up and well. At
your renewal, because you haven't had any claims, we're going
to increase your claims free discount. That's where the loyalty
comes in. But it's year to year, and which makes sense.
When you're driving, when you start out at sixteen, same thing,
it's year to year. As you continue to drive, you
(33:05):
get more experienced. The risk drops, your insurance drops. Same thing.
You maintain your home, your wrist drops because you're maintaining it.
One of the questions you had asked about was the oh,
Gary had just lost my mind. I'm not looking at
your email.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
That's all right, because I've got a couple other questions
i want to ask, and one of it with the
cold weather, we talk about ice dams, we talk about
frozen pipes, and let me take a break, Beth, and
we'll come back and address that because that is also maintenance.
I'm just curious how that works out. We'll continue. Beth Harper.
She is a insurance broker out of the Cleveland, Ohio area,
(33:46):
and she's been kind enough to give us a half
hour and chat a little bit about homeowner's insurance. Will continue.
You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
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(36:34):
We are talking about homeowners insurance. Beth Harper is my
guest out of the Cleveland, Ohio area. And Beth, one
of the things I was thinking of after I had
our meeting with our insurance broker is she knew the
people that would inspect houses and she was talking like you,
(36:55):
She's just talking the truth. This is what's gonna happen.
I'm not here to bash insurance. They're making a bet.
I'm making a bet in a way. And so you've
got to maintain your house. And we just had a
couple of calls today about frozen pipes, and so how's
insurance deal with that? If you have a frozen pipe,
(37:16):
and yeah, I know a lot of times you have
a plumber involved just thawing it. That's not going to
be a claim.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
What happens if it burst, well number one, mitigate. So
whatever it takes to shut that water off so that
it stops all the collateral damage, get that taken care
of asap. That is your job, as a homeowner, and
it is a requirement by your insurance policy that you
(37:44):
will do the best you can to mitigate damage so
it doesn't continue. That includes some of the big claims
like well, yeah, and I called somebody right away and
put a tarp over my roof where the big hole
is and the rain was coming in. Perfect good job, job.
I liked it. I like it when people do that.
So get it mitigated. Is it exposed, is it old pipe,
(38:07):
was it a cast iron pipe? Was there unknown galvanized pipe?
So it depends a lot on that. So when it's frozen,
some of this bad weather, we can't control it. And
then you get into and this is the scary part.
You get into an ice storm and electrics out. Then
what well, the first thing you do shut the water
(38:29):
off at the source, open every tap, flush the toilet,
get every drop of water out of your toilet. From experience, also,
the outgoing water is maybe even more important than the
incoming water, just because if you have in if you
have incoming water or no incut coming water, you can
melt snow and you can flush the toilet with a
(38:50):
melted bucket of snow. But if you can't flush, then
what do you do so drain everything, be smart about
what has to happen, right so that way, if there
is that also takes the pressure off. So if there's
if it's unknown ice storm, electric out and it might
be a couple of days or even depending on the cold,
(39:11):
twelve hours, get the water of the pipes. There's no
water in the pipes, there's no expansion. You're not going
to break the pipes.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
So let's say you didn't know, there's something happened, and
I and again something happened. That is a sudden occurrence,
and that's when you turn in the claim. Now how
it's paid. I'm not a claim sudjuster. I just know
that you can't call it in. There's usually coverage for
that type of thing because it is a sudden occurrence.
It's not something you planned. If they come out and
(39:41):
they notice that all of your pipes, all your incoming
water pipes are exposed to the outside air well, now
that's an issue modern home, so they don't have that issue.
It's usually something has happened and that same type of
thing goes into along your furnace, you have condensation pipes
and same with your water here. All that stuff. There
(40:03):
is condensate and there's an outflow of it that can freeze. Also,
if you're not paying attention to it, you can have
hidden water damage and with it comes mold and mildew issues.
Check your carrier. Certain carriers allow coverage. You purchase it,
but it's for hidden water damage and it is for
(40:24):
limited mold and mildew settlement settlements. Most mold and mildew
that people put into. Oh my attic is full of
mold and we're all going to die because it's black. Well,
maybe it's pink. That you know what we're talking about
because you advertise on the or you talk about this
all the time, and that five minute mold test kit.
You got to know what kind of mold of it.
There's mold everywhere. We eat mold. We're eating mushrooms, right,
(40:47):
so find out what it is that kind. Because you
overinsulated your attic, the vent pipe was leaking and the
water trickle in. There's a leak in your roof that
you didn't know about. That's not going to be covered
because that is something that was preventable if you'd have
done your maintenance. Let's go back the same situation. A
(41:10):
tree branch crashed on your roof. You thought you had
it covered. Then the electricity went out and it rained again,
and now you have mold growing that came from the
specific incident, and there can be I'm not going to
guarantee it again, I'm not a claims adjuster. There can
be coverage for that because it came from something else.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Sure, you know, Beth, one of the things I mentioned
was ice dams, And in a way, ice stams are
preventable a lot of times just caused by lack of insulation.
And I know there's codes in there to put ice
guards underneath shingles, but some of the older roofs and
older housing maybe doesn't have that, and you're under insulat
(41:53):
and you have an ice dam and then you got
a leak. Is that an incident or is that maintenance?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I cannot say yes or no. I'm not a claims
adjust What I will say is, if you've been with
your carrier for quite some time, it's entirely possible that
that will be covered. If you've recently changed carriers, because
what happens this is so let's talk about being a
broker real quick here. So when you're with a carrier
for so long you've been more or less grandfathered in.
(42:22):
If they made any changes you will get in your policy.
When it's mailed to you at your renewal time, there'll
be big bold letter saying please read carefully, these are
the following changes. That's on you. It told you to
read this because there's changes to your policy now a
lot of times because you were with them. It's not
(42:43):
going to apply because they changed, say a quoting platform
that takes into consideration different risks. If I were to
move you, you've been with one carrier for fifteen years.
I move you for a better premium to another carrier,
you are going to be subject to the brand new
risk categories, writing underlining, underwriting guidelines, and so you could
(43:06):
actually be hurting yourself by moving. Remember, your premium isn't
about how low you can go. It's about how much
will I get paid to put my home back together again?
If there's a claim.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Which comes back to the thing is you're broker is
your advocate. You have to have a great relationship with
your breaker broker that when you make that change, she's
already on your side and she's going to see what
she can do Beth. As always, we ran out of time.
I certainly appreciate your time. I promise we'll get you back.
(43:42):
And what we may do sometime and the dead of
winner is get you on for an hour and actually
take calls.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
So Garry, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Sit tight and we'll try that.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Take care all right, Thank you, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Have a merry Christmas to you two Beth. Thanks all right.
Let me give you the phone number you can join
us like to chat with you if you're keeping up
on the maintenance on your home. It's eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. You're at home with
Garry Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Home Improvement one oh one with Gary Sullivan every weekend.
Classes began at one eight hundred eight two three tah
You're at home with Gary Sullivan
All right, the weekend is upon us, and welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan. Another weekend, getting a
few things done around the home. And uh, I'll tell
you what. Where I'm at, winter is hit. We got
single digits and maybe you do the same.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And right, three degrees here at our studios.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Three degrees.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it's a heat wave.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's cold. It's cold. It's cold. We've been we've been
saying for the last three months. It's gonna get cold.
Maybe not three degrees, but it's gonna get cold. So maybe,
as I look at the weather man, we got wind
chills all the way up to the Chicago land in
the twenties, so coming, you know, it's going to be
getting to the east coast of It's not already there.
(01:12):
It's been in the northwest. So you know, maybe a
good thing today is to let's just make sure all
the fawcets work. I did it last night before I
went to bed. Never hurts. I didn't think I had
any problemaries. I thought I had addressed them all, but again,
you never really know. Things change. And I went around
(01:34):
and uh went upstairs, which is not used much anymore.
Check the bathtub, turn on the faucets and the vanities,
just kind of make sure everything's working at all the
fawcet points. And they did, so that was good, and
I might encourage you to do the same. You know
(01:56):
that water freezes in pipes usually in cross spaces, uh
maybe garages in some cases crawl spaces. Go outside walls,
underneath cabinet tree if you have an area like that,
get those doors open, maybe even clamp a little light
(02:21):
floodlight fixture and get a you know, a heat bulb
just where it shoots out some infra red heat just
to get some warmth back there. So we don't get
any frozen pipes. But do a checkover, because the one
thing you don't want to have is you don't want
to have a frozen pipe that you don't know that's frozen.
(02:43):
And the reason for that is as that water in
that pipe freezes, it expands, and as it expands, the
risk of a loose connection certainly develops, the risk of
a split pipe certainly develops. So that's why you want
(03:06):
to check to make sure everything's working. If it's not working, fine,
we can start working on falling that out. And I'm
not talking about with a propane torch. I would never
recommend that a heat gun. Yes, if it's copper pipe,
a hair dryer. I've heard people say heating pads. I've
(03:27):
never used a heating pad. Certainly you'd want to be careful.
We could do do and could have water involved, so
I've always been a little skeptical of that. But any
way to introduce some heat to it and you know,
diminish that risk of more of that water freezing and
(03:51):
more expansion on that pipe and risking the possibility of
its splitting. Because in your homeowner's policy, you know, they
may carry that. But if it's a frozen pipe and
you didn't really do anything about it, like shutting off
water to that area, maybe that policy doesn't cover you.
(04:17):
So you got to take action, and you gotta, you know,
find out what's going on in your home. But again,
you don't have to get ladders out. You just walk around,
turn the bathtub on, flush the toilets, turn on the sink,
and just make sure everything's functioning. So that would be
an assignment if you're in a cold weather climate. And
(04:40):
as I look at the map, it looks like most
of us are, at least for this weekend, So let's
definitely take care of business here. Let me give you
the phone number, happy to talk insulation ventilation. I know
that sounds weird this time a year, but ventilation is
also real critical. In fact, I had some of the
(05:01):
other days. Well why is ventilation is so important? You
know in the wintertime. Well, let's just think about this
for a second. If your house is nice and comfy
and it's in the seventies, and it starts that heat
rises and it gets in the attic. I'm not saying
(05:22):
it's gonna be hot in the attic. I'm not saying
it's gonna be seventy in the attic. But if you
don't have good ventilation, you're gonna be surrounded by walls
that are very very cold and the roof that's very
very cold, and you gonna have warm air in the attic.
And what happens then when it hits cold surfaces condensation.
You've heard me talk about that. I've seen addicts where
(05:42):
it looks like it's rain in the attic before, or
maybe the bathroom fan is pumping that wet, warm air
into the attic and it hits an attic that's forty
degrees and it just commensation just starts for me, gets
the insulation wet, which becomes inefficient. It gets the underside
(06:04):
of the roof wet, which could cause mold, it could
cause wood rot. So you know, we do want to
have ventilation. I'm not asking you go up and ventilate
your roof today, but that's why we talk about it,
how important insulation and ventilation is to the healthier home.
(06:24):
And I'd be happy to answer questions on that. Another thing,
if you're in an area where you've had some snow,
we haven't really had any call when we had one
yesterday about an ice dam, and you know what that is.
That's just a nice build up on the edge of
the roof or in the gutters, and that is usually occurring,
(06:46):
can occur a couple of ways, if it's in a
real shady area of the roof where it's collecting snow
and it's not melting and moving it down the gutter
area and down the down spouts, but really mainly caused
by lack of insulation in the attic itself. So if
(07:08):
you've got a snowpack on your whole roof and you
don't have adequate insulation, heat rises rises. You don't have
good ventilation. Met you don't have any ventilation, starts warming
the underside of the roof. On the highest areas of
the roof, you get a little melt. That water runs
down in that last In most homes, it's either a
(07:33):
foot or two feet of overhang, and there is no
house underneath that, right, So it's very cold. And as
that water trickles down underneath the snowpack, it gets to
that edge and boom, it freezes, builds an ice dam.
So I always talk about it as you drive through
in the wintertime. If you had a snow and all
(07:56):
the roofs have a nice snowpack on it, but you
get to your house and the top third is just shingles,
it's probably telling you don't have real good insulation. And
by having that top part snow free or melting, that's
going to cause you an ice stam as it works,
(08:19):
that water works down to the overhang area. So pay
attention to snow melt on your roof. Compare to other
people in your neighborhood. All right, again, that phone number,
happy to chat, We're going to talk about your home.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
we're gonna have a couple guests. We're going to talk
(08:40):
about homeowner's insurance. We're also going to talk to a
CEO of I think it's Floors Direct. I have that note,
but I don't have a ring from me, and we're
going to talk about, you know, protecting those floors during
winter weathers. All right again, it's eight hundred eighty two
three eight two if five five will continue with your calls.
(09:01):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
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go to rotrouter dot com today. All right, megat we
(11:46):
go at home with Gary Salvin leven in studio to
take your calls. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five and Steve, welcome, Hey Gary.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
How's it going today?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Doing? Okay? Thank you?
Speaker 6 (12:00):
All right, Well, let me give you a little story.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
What happened.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
I was sitting eating some breakfast and I hear something
and I look over my slider and I have water
dripping in through the on the inside of the house,
and I'm like, what's going on. I look outside and
I got icicles. And I never had icicles on my
(12:25):
for my roof in twenty eight years of being in
this house. So I, so I shoveled off some of
the roof and I went up in the attic. So
were my vents fan that comes from my bathroom, the pipe,
the pipe that goes all the way up through up
up through the roof. But in that area the insallation
(12:50):
was wet, and I saw some water dripping in through
the roof through the the USB board that's up on
top of the roof.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Eating where the vent pipes going through the roof.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
No, it was probably a foot from it where the
water was dripping in it. So somehow water was coming
in from somewhere, you know, it was melting. But I
think I discovered it might have been from my vetman.
Just you know how they I think they have like
a flapper in there so when they're not using that
(13:27):
closed the snow hot air runs up.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Correct, Correct, it's a damper.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
Yes, yeah, I'm thinking that didn't shut and that was
just melting all that snow and just and I couldn't
see it till I shoveled everything off, and that created
an ice dam that just had that water coming in.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, that certainly could be it. Whenever you have a connection,
of course, going through a roof Steve, There's there's always
a number of options that could be going on there.
So if that damper wasn't close and the water was
getting down in there, So what you're saying, would it
would it be coming through the joints in the pipe then,
(14:08):
or or could you tell exactly.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Were it actually coming was coming through the roof? Okay,
it wasn't coming and through where the pipe was Okay,
I think it just whatever ice dan backed up far
enough that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, well, let me paint another scenario, okay, because there's
all kinds of ways and eventually you're going to have
to figure it out because you don't want to revisit
that again. So if that was venting up there and
that damper was stuck open and then you know it
was blown all the hot water maybe around that area
it melded the snow and you know, kind of describing
(14:46):
it the same way I did, where we had lack
of ventilation, as that warm moist air is going out
the ductwork and hitting really cold temperatures. Cold temperatures can't
hold that warm water vapor. That's why they always call
it relative humidity, and you start getting you know, like
(15:08):
condensation where it's almost like raining up there, and you
get that water behind that snowpack, and there's nowhere for
that water to go because of the snow, and it
freezes into ice, and then that water literally starts going
up the roof rather than down the roof. And if
it goes up the roof and it goes underneath the
(15:29):
shingles and there's just no s b board there, you're
gonna have you're gonna have a leak. And where that
leak could be really could be anywhere, right, I mean,
as long as it's in that general proximity. So you know,
that's a that's another way. Another way I was thinking
about too, And something I think I would have checked
(15:50):
is I believe on some of those ventings going through
the roof, there's like a rubber boot. There's a rubber
boot on your round vents, and there's usually a rubber
boot on any exhaust type thing going through the roof.
And those rubber boots they have a lifespan of about
ten years mm hm. And you know we always think,
(16:10):
we always talk about the life span of our roof
being thirty years, but that we're very vulnerable, you know,
after ten years around you know, pipes and vent pipes.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Mm hm. So I threw a gall that so often
I threw So I did two things. Put calcium chloride
up on the ice, melted that, and I filled up
some pantyholes with calcium chloride right too, and through it
right where the gutter area is, because that's where and
(16:43):
that melt a lot of stuff. Would I guess, is
this something I could wait till spring to have a
roof company come out and say, hey, because where that
wire dripped in from the roof, you can see the
giant les be board and you can kind of see
how it's kind of separated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Right. Well, it's something they can tell you that. Yeah,
I would address it as soon as I can. And
they're going to be busy and they're also going to
be very limited depending on how much snow is up there,
how cold it is out there, how much snow we're
going to get. I mean, you know, there's all those factors.
(17:26):
You know, in a lot of cases, you did exactly
what you should have done, and that is, you know,
address the leak, address the snow, address the ice. Hopefully
we have a little warm patch you got your name
in it, a roof or where they can get out
there and take a look at it once we get
some melt, because if it happened once, it's going to
happen again. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
Yeah, it's we're afraid of because it's, like I said,
twenty years in the house, we know we don't have
an insulation problem, never had icicles.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Right right boom? But you know, yeah, yeah, so something changed, right.
I mean, when you track down issues, that's exactly what
you do, Steve, exactly what you did. What's changed, What's
what's going on here? What is what's the proximity of
an area in that area that could be the problem.
And you came up with event pipe and I think
you're probably right, you know, so yeah, I would get
(18:20):
on somebody's list to check it out. I wouldn't wait
till spring, because you know we're gonna have another snow.
You know you're going to have the problem again because
that's changed and now that's the new normal. Okay, all right,
you sound thrilled about it, you know, yeah, I gear
(18:42):
I hear you, Yeah, hear yeah, I know exactly what
you're thinking.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Well you have a great Christmas and stay safe.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Okay, very good, Thank you. You do the same. Thanks Steve,
I appreciate it. You know, one of the things that
we talk about a lot is, you know, our homeowners
insurance are deductible when we have problems, as it covered it,
et cetera. Beth Harper joined us yesterday and she was
talking about what to consider when renewing your insurance because
the game's kind of changed a little bit and a
(19:11):
lot of good information there, and I thought we'd replay
that conversation we had with Beth. It might pick up
some information, especially when we're going through really cold temperatures
with frozen pipes and leaky roofs. So we'll do that
next as we continue our march through the weekend. You're
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
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we go. Before we get to Beth Harper or I
(22:20):
just want to kind of reiterate a little something with
that frozen pipe, because we got short changed on time.
If the obviously if it's an outdoor faucet, it's inside
the garage, and it just trickled water and then it
stopped and he was wondering whether it's the faucet that
was frozen or jammed with the stem, or whether the
(22:45):
pipe had ice in it. He said, he put a
space heater near that, and if it were the faucet
at that point and the valve was opened, it probably
would have started dripping. My guess is it is the
pipe that is frozen, and the only way you're really
going to take care of that problem is introduce heat.
(23:08):
Now that pipe's inside the wall. Hopefully there's just shut
off valve on knee where you could shut off the
waterline or the water going to that particular faucet. But
then somehow you're going to have to introduce heat inside
a wall, even if just a little bit of an
opening cut above that faucet and a hair dryer put
(23:28):
in there where you would kind of warm that up.
So I did want to just make sure we finished
answer and that so Beth Harper's with us, and she
is an insurance broker, and speaking of frozen pipes, that
might be a claim down the road. Beth, welcome, how
are you.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'm wonderful, Gary, I hear you're doing awfully well as well.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I'm trying trying my best, trying my best. It was funny.
I wrote you a couple of days ago and said, hey,
you want to jump on. I've been reading different things
about roofing and new hail requirements, and I know last
time we talked about you said insurance coverage on roof's
is really changing. So I just kind of wanted to
(24:11):
tap in and what are you hear and what are
you seeing when it comes to roofing claims and what
can people expect and should they be asking questions, etc.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
They should always ask questions. And what I'd like to
say is if every one of your listeners, I don't
expect any of them to ever have issues with insurance
claims because what you do is what a home owner
needs to do to protect their most important and expensive asset.
Just walk around, look around. If you're in the spring, summer,
fall and you look around the outside of your house
(24:47):
and it looks like somebody is dribbling kitty litter around it, Garry,
you know it's not kitty litter.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Is it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
It's all the asphalt shingles coming off right, all that
grit right, That is your first sign as a homeowner.
That not as well, nothing as well with your roof.
You need to get a professional up there and check
it out. I always recommend always before all my clients
when they call me with a claim, I say, did
you have an estimate? What did they say? Is the problem?
(25:16):
That is very crucial. I'll quick stories, real quick stories.
Contractors now know that there is a limited loss settlement
on the majority of the carryokers out there, meaning for
traditional asphalt roof at ten years, it's now actual cash value,
which is depreciation unless you're deductible, and you also lose
your cosmetic matching coverage. That endorsement will be removed from
(25:40):
your policy at that time. Now, since contractors know that
they want to help you get a new roof, the
problem with that is they don't know your policy. And
back in September I had two back to back claims
and both of them were by a contractor that gave
(26:01):
an exact date of damage. Okay, that may be correct,
but I will tell you right now, your claims adjuster
knows your policy inside it out and they have access
to more weather information than a contractor ever will. One
of the things that happened and the claim was denied
is because it was outside of a year. So this
(26:24):
claim supposedly happened. I'm going to make dates up just
protect in case they're listening. Say the claim happened May
fifth of twenty twenty four. The policy year is, let's
just say August to August, and you put a claim
in for May in twenty twenty or I'm sorry, in
(26:44):
July of twenty twenty five. You're outside the year. There
is no coverage. And so that actually happened because that's
when the contractor picked a date. I talked to this
person in depth and there said, well, yeah, my roof
is bad, there's lots of damage up there. I need
it replaced. Why won't my insurance company replace it? Very sad.
(27:06):
So the idea here is, if you have a contractor
telling you you have damage, don't let them. Don't make
up a date. Nobody unless you went out immediately after
a storm or something happened immediately after a storm and
you know it, you don't know. You really don't know.
Your claim suggester will find out for you. So get
(27:27):
that estimate. Make sure it's somebody that isn't trying to
help you. If a contractor ever wants to see your
home homeowners policy, do not give it to them. They're
looking for ins and outs. Besides containing a whole bunch
of personal data, they're looking for loopholes to get your
(27:49):
claim covered. Well, you know what, that's kind of my job.
Don't let somebody out there promise you a new roof,
because once you submit that claim, it's on the record.
A homeowner's claim stays for five years on your policy,
unlike an auto which is around three unless it's a
major violation. That means for five years that has to replace. Now,
(28:12):
if the claim's denied, well there's damage. Now they're going
to want to know what did you do about that?
How did you mitigate that damage? And you have to
submit proof that you actually took care of it on
your dime because the claim was denied and you can
be non renewed. Now you're going to say, well, I'll
just go find another I'll find another carrier. Yeah, that's
(28:34):
my job too. You call in and say, hey, I'm
mad at my insurance carrier. They didn't pay correctly on
this claim and I want out. I'm like, okay, when
was a claim. It was last year. Well guess what
if it's a claim that ended up being over forty
thousand dollars. That's well over a limit of one of
the ones that a carrier. If I talk to the
(28:54):
underwriter and go, hey, this is what's going on, they're
going to say that damage is forty thousand dollars. We
will not write that risk. So you end up hurting
yourself because you didn't do enough homework and talk enough
to your agent, and that impacts how you protect your
home and work.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I got to tell you, bet that a broker in
insurance is a vital connection to problems that everybody is
eventually going to have because you can talk to them
just like you're talking to us. And it was about gosh,
I think the end of the summer. Our our insurance
(29:39):
was coming up from renewal, and because I had talked
to you, I had suggested my wife that we need
to really do a deep dive in our insurance and
we had not been having We had a broker that
we liked and then he sold the business and the
new person we had no relationship with it. It was
just picked up and you know, that was it. So
(30:03):
we looked at the insurance and then we got some
referrals on different brokers and my wife went and talked
to him, and she goes, we're gonna, we're gonna deal
with this, lady, and you need to come with us,
and we need to go through this whole policy and best.
She spent three hours.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
With us, and that's my normal.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I learned so much and in a way, I I
jokingly said, well, this like going to the casino. We're
placing bets. Yes, you know, yeah, I think earthquake, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, I'm not gonna do that.
I'm gonna do this. And why don't we raise this, uh,
(30:46):
you know, deductible. We we can you know, cover a
little incident, you know. And it was I forget where
it was, but I think we moved it up to
like twenty five hundred or may it was even a
little bit more. And you're right, you just don't want
you don't want to be worrying that insurance is not
there to cover everything. It's there to take the big hit. Correct.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Absolutely, it is not for maintenance. Yeah, back in the
old days, I'm going to say the old days were
twenty years ago. It was used a lot for maintenance.
I agree, But then we had for the past five
well for past six years. So when we started having
all those big storms that came through starting in twenty
two that affected my area real heavy, and then every
(31:36):
year there was another big storm since then. Since a
lot of that stuff they had to replace, they go
up on the roof and it's like, well, yeah, this
roof gave away. It's a maintenance issue. Everything's writed up.
You can see where the shingles are curling. They're like,
why am I replacing a roof that has real maintenance
damage from this storm versus replacing a roof that doesn't
(32:01):
have any maintenance damage. So that's changed a lot, and
quite honestly, I agree with that. People will argue with
me on that, and I'll say, Okay, if you never
put oil in your car and your ENGINECIZ is up,
do you file a claim on that? Well, no, Well
it's a maintenance issue. If you, as you always talk,
(32:22):
get up there. If you don't want to get on
a ladder, call somebody to get up there. Your neighbor
has a drone, get the drone up there and take pictures.
Look at your own roof. You have to have accountability
for it. Insurance is year two year. It is not
a lifetime. Now that being said, there's loyalty built up
as well, and that loyalty isn't built up and you
(32:44):
deserve a new roof, it's built up and well. At
your renewal, because you haven't had any claims, we're going
to increase your claims free discount. That's where the loyalty
comes in. But it's year to year, and which makes sense.
When you're driving, when you start out at sixteen, same thing,
it's year to year. As you continue to drive, you
(33:05):
get more experienced. The risk drops, your insurance drops. Same thing.
You maintain your home, your wrist drops because you're maintaining it.
One of the questions you had asked about was the oh,
Gary had just lost my mind. I'm not looking at
your email.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
That's all right, because I've got a couple other questions
i want to ask, and one of it with the
cold weather, we talk about ice dams, we talk about
frozen pipes, and let me take a break, Beth, and
we'll come back and address that because that is also maintenance.
I'm just curious how that works out. We'll continue. Beth Harper.
She is a insurance broker out of the Cleveland, Ohio area,
(33:46):
and she's been kind enough to give us a half
hour and chat a little bit about homeowner's insurance. Will continue.
You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Helme for your home is just a click away at
Gary Sullivan Online. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
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(36:34):
We are talking about homeowners insurance. Beth Harper is my
guest out of the Cleveland, Ohio area. And Beth, one
of the things I was thinking of after I had
our meeting with our insurance broker is she knew the
people that would inspect houses and she was talking like you,
(36:55):
She's just talking the truth. This is what's gonna happen.
I'm not here to bash insurance. They're making a bet.
I'm making a bet in a way. And so you've
got to maintain your house. And we just had a
couple of calls today about frozen pipes, and so how's
insurance deal with that? If you have a frozen pipe,
(37:16):
and yeah, I know a lot of times you have
a plumber involved just thawing it. That's not going to
be a claim.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
What happens if it burst, well number one, mitigate. So
whatever it takes to shut that water off so that
it stops all the collateral damage, get that taken care
of asap. That is your job, as a homeowner, and
it is a requirement by your insurance policy that you
(37:44):
will do the best you can to mitigate damage so
it doesn't continue. That includes some of the big claims
like well, yeah, and I called somebody right away and
put a tarp over my roof where the big hole
is and the rain was coming in. Perfect good job, job.
I liked it. I like it when people do that.
So get it mitigated. Is it exposed, is it old pipe,
(38:07):
was it a cast iron pipe? Was there unknown galvanized pipe?
So it depends a lot on that. So when it's frozen,
some of this bad weather, we can't control it. And
then you get into and this is the scary part.
You get into an ice storm and electrics out. Then
what well, the first thing you do shut the water
(38:29):
off at the source, open every tap, flush the toilet,
get every drop of water out of your toilet. From experience, also,
the outgoing water is maybe even more important than the
incoming water, just because if you have in if you
have incoming water or no incut coming water, you can
melt snow and you can flush the toilet with a
(38:50):
melted bucket of snow. But if you can't flush, then
what do you do so drain everything, be smart about
what has to happen, right so that way, if there
is that also takes the pressure off. So if there's
if it's unknown ice storm, electric out and it might
be a couple of days or even depending on the cold,
(39:11):
twelve hours, get the water of the pipes. There's no
water in the pipes, there's no expansion. You're not going
to break the pipes.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
So let's say you didn't know, there's something happened, and
I and again something happened. That is a sudden occurrence,
and that's when you turn in the claim. Now how
it's paid. I'm not a claim sudjuster. I just know
that you can't call it in. There's usually coverage for
that type of thing because it is a sudden occurrence.
It's not something you planned. If they come out and
(39:41):
they notice that all of your pipes, all your incoming
water pipes are exposed to the outside air well, now
that's an issue modern home, so they don't have that issue.
It's usually something has happened and that same type of
thing goes into along your furnace, you have condensation pipes
and same with your water here. All that stuff. There
(40:03):
is condensate and there's an outflow of it that can freeze. Also,
if you're not paying attention to it, you can have
hidden water damage and with it comes mold and mildew issues.
Check your carrier. Certain carriers allow coverage. You purchase it,
but it's for hidden water damage and it is for
(40:24):
limited mold and mildew settlement settlements. Most mold and mildew
that people put into. Oh my attic is full of
mold and we're all going to die because it's black. Well,
maybe it's pink. That you know what we're talking about
because you advertise on the or you talk about this
all the time, and that five minute mold test kit.
You got to know what kind of mold of it.
There's mold everywhere. We eat mold. We're eating mushrooms, right,
(40:47):
so find out what it is that kind. Because you
overinsulated your attic, the vent pipe was leaking and the
water trickle in. There's a leak in your roof that
you didn't know about. That's not going to be covered
because that is something that was preventable if you'd have
done your maintenance. Let's go back the same situation. A
(41:10):
tree branch crashed on your roof. You thought you had
it covered. Then the electricity went out and it rained again,
and now you have mold growing that came from the
specific incident, and there can be I'm not going to
guarantee it again, I'm not a claims adjuster. There can
be coverage for that because it came from something else.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Sure, you know, Beth, one of the things I mentioned
was ice dams, And in a way, ice stams are
preventable a lot of times just caused by lack of insulation.
And I know there's codes in there to put ice
guards underneath shingles, but some of the older roofs and
older housing maybe doesn't have that, and you're under insulat
(41:53):
and you have an ice dam and then you got
a leak. Is that an incident or is that maintenance?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I cannot say yes or no. I'm not a claims
adjust What I will say is, if you've been with
your carrier for quite some time, it's entirely possible that
that will be covered. If you've recently changed carriers, because
what happens this is so let's talk about being a
broker real quick here. So when you're with a carrier
for so long you've been more or less grandfathered in.
(42:22):
If they made any changes you will get in your policy.
When it's mailed to you at your renewal time, there'll
be big bold letter saying please read carefully, these are
the following changes. That's on you. It told you to
read this because there's changes to your policy now a
lot of times because you were with them. It's not
(42:43):
going to apply because they changed, say a quoting platform
that takes into consideration different risks. If I were to
move you, you've been with one carrier for fifteen years.
I move you for a better premium to another carrier,
you are going to be subject to the brand new
risk categories, writing underlining, underwriting guidelines, and so you could
(43:06):
actually be hurting yourself by moving. Remember, your premium isn't
about how low you can go. It's about how much
will I get paid to put my home back together again?
If there's a claim.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Which comes back to the thing is you're broker is
your advocate. You have to have a great relationship with
your breaker broker that when you make that change, she's
already on your side and she's going to see what
she can do Beth. As always, we ran out of time.
I certainly appreciate your time. I promise we'll get you back.
(43:42):
And what we may do sometime and the dead of
winner is get you on for an hour and actually
take calls.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
So Garry, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Sit tight and we'll try that.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Take care all right, Thank you, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Have a merry Christmas to you two Beth. Thanks all right.
Let me give you the phone number you can join
us like to chat with you if you're keeping up
on the maintenance on your home. It's eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. You're at home with
Garry Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Home Improvement one oh one with Gary Sullivan every weekend.
Classes began at one eight hundred eight two three tah
You're at home with Gary Sullivan
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