Roofing repair after Wilma

[miamicuse]

After Wilma came through my barrel tiled roof were badly damaged. Some of the tiles on the edges were broken, most of the ridge tiles were lifted and moved. Many rows of tiles were lifted out of place, originally they were cememted to the tar paper with nlobs of concrete cement underneath, now the cement and concrete tiles are separated and moved. I can see the lighter color of the tiles that used to be under the adjacent tiles.

Now the insurance adjuster came through and only calculated the material and labor to replace those tiles that were actually cracked and broken. They did not include any provisions for reinstalling the displaced tiles. Do they expect the loose tiles to be just left there "sitting" on the tar paper? I have a section of vinyl fences that got blown off about 60 linear feet. I recovered most of the pieces and started to put them back myself about 50% done. But some of the pieces I can't put back myself and the fence post are all out of alignment with the fence gate saging and hardware missing. Their repair estimate was 2 men for 2 days at $19.95 per hour.

For this reason their calculation came just under my deductable of $10,000. Is this typical? Should I appeal or just eat the cost, if I appeal and they increase the cost and end up having to pay me, they might drop me next year. Between a rock and a hard place.

MC

[Joseph Meehan]

What exactly does your policy say. That will be the primary answer to your question. Have you had your own roofing estimate?

I will have to assume that there is some sort of typo here. 2 men 2 days, 24 hours per day would be less than $1,000. Or did you meant that both the roof and fence came to $10,000?

This one sounds like you are toast. You have the deductible and unless you have reliable evidence that the cost is going to be more than $10,000 you are out of luck.

I would not worry about them dropping you. They may just do that anyway and if they would, you don't want them for your insurance company anyway. You would be self insured if you are afraid to make a claim.

[m Ransley]

The proper way to install tiles is copper or stainless nails through the hole, not caulk, or cement, your original install was bad, and any future high wind will affect it.

But only your policy can say what is covered.

[miamicuse]

Sorry I was not more clear.

The roofing repair estimate was based on repairing only the truly cracked and broken tiles any anything "loose" was not included. There is nothing specific in the policy (I just read this) about this other than the word "damage" I guess depending on how you interpret it. However I believe they need to include the cost of reattaching the loose tiles.

The adjuster included for the fence repair two men two days for putting the fence back together (but nothing about adjusting the alignment of the posts and sagging gates).

My deductable is $10,000 (it's typical in south Florida) and it's hard to get windstorm insurance.

The total repair estimate came to about $4800 less than half my deductible.

I have called roofers to come by to give me their estimate, I have called about 50 roofers so far, the best guess I was given was someone may come by to take a look in about six weeks, that was about a month ago. Wilma did a lot of damage and I have heard roofers backed up more than a year in some cases.

MC

[dadiOH]

When freezeing/thawing isn't a consideration, tiles can be laid in a partial or full mortar bed with or without nails. My mortar laid tile roof has been through four strong hurricanes without problem. And there are no nail holes in the sheathing.

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[Steve B.]

That is the way they do it down here in FL. We don't have the freezing conditions to deal with so the mortar bed holds up longer than the tiles do.

To the OP... Your insurance should put your property back to the condition it was in before the storm. If you have tiles that were broken loose and moved there is no way they are going to be secure for the future "afternoon storms" and I would also expect the underlying materials to have been damaged by the moving tiles.

Were it my roof I would be appealing.

Steve B.

[m Ransley]

Mortar deteriorates faster than tile or nails, just because thats the way alot do it doesnt mean its right, wind is another reason to use the nail holes, with nails.