water damageHi everyone, Melissa, head trainer at Optimum Condition here. I know it’s been a while since anyone has heard from me, and the truth is that I got wrapped up in getting our house back together after my hubby and I had a flood.

Altogether it took about 3 months to get things back in order and I thought what I learned may be worth sharing since I’ve encountered at least 4 other people that strangely enough happened to also have a flood.

One thing I discovered was how much money could be saved by acting as my own contractor, which is perfectly legal. It also helped that I have a lot of friends in the construction field and we did a lot of work ourselves. The other, and not so great, was the fact that the original emergency services company/ contractor that was acting on behalf of my insurance company, was really taking me for a ride.

Turns out this is pretty common in the industry, the emergency services are the guys that come out to dry up the water, but it turns out it’s often in their best interest to do a crap job so they can then come back with the excuse that it didn’t work, only so that they can take on the construction part of the job that follows.

That way, they are double paid, and you, as the consumer, is being led to believe that they are doing their job, when in actuality, they are just running up the clock since they are paid to leave the fans (which are quite expensive) running 24 hrs a day and in my case,  ran for 11 days total! In reality, mold sets in after 4 days if things aren’t dry, and there was no way it was going to get dry since they didn’t even open up the walls or pull the cabinets.

Now keep in mind, this is the first time I’ve gone through anything like this, so I didn’t know what to look for until I asked some friends that worked in in the flood industry.

Anyway, if anyone feels they’re getting screwed by their homeowners insurance, feel free to give me a call & I’ll be happy to tell you what I know as well as direct you to the guy that helped me and ended up saving me $5,ooo. This money I was then able to put towards a garage remodel that was started before the flood. In the end, it really was a blessing in disguise, surprisingly. But while you’re forced to live in hotels in the mean time, it was a little hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope this helps someone out there.

Your friendly health & fitness expert,
Melissa
(619) 252-4993