Contact insurers as soon as possible after damage to buildings from rain, water: industry representative

As the rain around Edmonton gives a brief respite, a number of people are cleaning up from flooded homes. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson has more.

It’s a scene that played out at several buildings across Edmonton and area: heavy rain in recent days that led to leaks in the roof and water damage inside a south-side church.

Steve Thompson, a minister at the Community of Christ church, recalls walking into the Allendale neighbourhood structure on Sunday morning to discover water dripping down from the ceiling in two different places inside the building’s main sanctuary.

That morning’s service was cancelled and work began to figure out what was causing the leaks.

“It was quite a mess,” Thompson told CTV News Edmonton on Monday. “People just got to work trying to stop the water flow and clean that up as much as they could.”

They discovered a blocked drain on the roof, which they cleared, and within a few minutes, the dripping from the ceiling subsided.

Thompson and some of his congregation were left with assessing the damage and cleanup. Buckets and other containers sat below yellowed wet spots on the ceiling, stipple from it strewn across the carpet, which is wet in places.

“There were 10 or 15 people here yesterday doing what they could to try to protect the furniture and the integrity of the piano and the organ, in particular. A group effort,” he said. “We think we did all right. We’ll see when the insurance adjuster gets here as to what actually might need further attention.”

And many more owners of buildings large and small are doing the same thing Monday as the work week begins and the skies clear over the city.

Edmonton saw more than 100 millimetres of rain fall over three days, as did several communities around it, leading to flooding and strained sewer systems.

The onslaught of precipitation came three weeks after the city and region were whalloped by another storm system, which led to thousands of claims across the province, said Ron de Pruis, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s national director of consumer and industry relations.

He said the first step for property owners is to check their insurance policies to see what is covered and contact insurers “right away,” adding that more than 80 per cent of people with policies in Alberta have insurance for overland flooding and sewer backups.

“Insurance companies work with a number of remediation contractors that have expertise in doing the necessary work for water remediation,” de Pruis told CTV News Edmonton. “It’s not something you want to try to tackle yourself, only because if you’re not doing it properly and not drying things out correctly, you can have long-term issues like mould and mildew growth in your property.”

de Pruis said a few basic steps for any property owner can go a long way to help reduce the amount of water that could flow into their buildings:

• Ensure downspouts are pointed away from the foundation, so water drains away from the house and not beside it;
• Slope the soil grading around the building away from the foundation so water doesn’t collect beside it and end up in the basement;
• Check the sump pump to make sure it’s working by testing it or by calling a professional to do it;
• If one does have water in the basement, they should move valuables to the main floor and use plastic bins to store items so they don’t get wet.

He said the average repair bill for a water-damaged basement of a home is about $40,000-$50,000.

“Cleanup really entails, and depending on the level of finish in your basement, if you have a fully finished basement with carpet and drywall,” de Pruis said. “It’s not only the cleanup, but you might have to be removing the carpet and underlay, cutting out some drywall and baseboards, and then you have to dry it out. Once everything’s dried out, then you have the entire rebuild, so you have floor coverings, cabinets or other items that are damaged, such as drywall, paint and baseboards. You might even have to get your appliances, like your furnace and hot water, checked or potentially replaced.”

He said the cost of adding insurance for basement damage to one’s premium could be a few hundred dollars more per year.

“You should be able to find coverage that you need at a price you can afford, because the alternative is paying for all of the damages out of pocket, if or when, in some circumstances, you’re going to have flood damage,” he said.

Thompson said the Community of Christ church has a backup space available this coming Sunday if the sanctuary isn’t yet cleaned up and ready for services, although they have reduced the number of gatherings over the summer.

“This may not end up affecting us a great deal, except moving our services from the sanctuary into our fellowship hall upstairs,” he said. “We would certainly look forward to having restoration work begin here as soon as possible.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson