Thursday, August 2, 2012
insurance is a waste of time in Australia
Areas of damage are:-
Foundations to all of the below areas
Main middle Bed room doors jamming. Wall delaminating and mold growth
Eastern bedroom Wall needs to be bought back to square and reattached. mold growth
Western bedroom Wall needs to be reconnected to house. Door wont close. mold growth
Lounge room The chimney needs to be removed and replaced. Mold growth
Kitchen Floor needs to be leveled new carpet and vinyl floor coverings. Mold growth
Screen door jamming.
Bath room New door in toilet or remove the mold and repaint.
Areas that need attention are:-
1 Bathroom Shower recess has spongy, The suspended floor of the shower floor needs to be repacked so does the bathroom floor
2 The kitchen The floor here has mushroomed. The flooring needs to be removed and the joists need to be straightened and the floor replaced.
3 Western bedroom Concrete damage to concrete floor under carpet (large crack). This needs a new slab on the ground with under slab waterproofing.
4 Eastern bedroom The eastern wall needs to be stabilized. This wall needs to be removed and placed back on the slab sacrificing about 100mm from the room interior. This would give more needed slope to the roof.
5 Lounge room The floor has mushroomed Here the floor coverings need to be removed and the bearers straightened and the floor replaced
The electric hot water heater needs to be replaced as it went under water in the flood covering the electrical equipment. The solar preheater on the roof does not have a electrical connection and has suffered no damage at all from flood or storm. .
All areas need mold removed and painted.
Internal walls need to be removed and replaced and the frames need to be steam cleaned.
Areas of foundation movement are
Bedrooms on the east and west sides
kitchen floor
lounge east mainly chimney and west wall
Back verandah piece broken away causing a trip hazard
Southern wall of west bedroom
East bedroom west wall and east wall
West bedroom south wall, west wall.
Lounge room west and east walls
Drainage concerns
The ground has a natural grade of 1:3 approximately and the water freely drains away, there is clay and alluvial soils which dried out over a long time due to drought and cracking occurred. The foundations are made of steel brick and packed with fibro. Concrete is used as well as wooden supports.
Renovations and maintenance
The house was renovated in period of drought with new wall cladding new bathroom.
A new roof placed on the rear of the property(north side) by Tommy Wells the local plumber.
The house was electrically rewired with the latest in earth leakage equipment. There was a steel support placed under the floor in the kitchen in this time as well
Work done since the flood
Cleaning of sheds and the removal of the tenants goods that were left behind when they fled the flood.
This totaled four days or Forty hours work
Grass cutting has been done to reduce the water in the ground.
One of the carpets in the eastern bedroom has been partially removed.
Some cleaning of the interior and some timber put in place to stop the rats coming in.
Truck was used as well
In conclusion
Due to the long dry period the ground cracked and opened up. There was one crack that went down 18 feet the length of a steel pipe and this didn't touch the bottom. Two and a half tones of blue metal was poured into the crack and was not able to feel the bottom of the crack.
When the flood came the cracks closed up and things were well for twelve months and a second flood saturated the ground again.
During both floods the river changed position and removed huge amounts of vegetation.
The concrete foundation on the west side has twisted away from the house or the house moved in relationship to the concrete, floor joists expanded and the floor mushroomed.
Scope of works
The best way to fix all the problems would be to raise the house This would remove any concerns of drainage problems and renew all the foundations This would allow the walls to settle back into there correct place. The floors would need to be straightened. New chimneys would have to be made and the house would have to be dried out and interior cladding removed and or replaced and painted. The studs would have to be steam cleaned to remove mold as after seventy two hours the water is considered to be black water (sewage) mixed with floating objects.
The roof would have to be removed and sarking place all over and the roof refitted. All work would have to be done to Australian standards as stated by the NRMA's engineer.
The other option would be to renew the house.
This is the engineers report from NRMA.
The following is the inaccuracies of the report.page2 1.2 states the water reached the floor of the building.Channel10's news report of the 4 march shows the water at the floor level at 10mters The flood went to 10.5 meters
Where it is stated about the wall in the lounge room being powder coated (page 3) it is actual fact corrugated iron from 1925, Having been on the church hall roof until renovations several years ago. I purchased the iron from the contractors. This wall has been painted with enamel based paint.
page2 1.3 It states the house was built in 1890's which at the time I believed it to be which I told the NRMA. As the property has circular saw cut timbers this indicates building date closer to 1920.
page2 Internal states the mold to be preexisting. How does one tell the age of mold after a month from the date of the flood?
The other floors to the sanded lounge room,? what does this mean
Internal floors and walls The walls to the original house remain in good shape!
Out buildings there is no apparent damage to the buildings. What is mud and the like not damage?
Construction.The extensions to the house are the east bedroom ,the west bedroom was an original structure and has been infilled and the bathroom and toilet are also additions.
Footings These are post in ground as was all buildings of this type. The bathroom and toilet have suspended concrete slabs on piers the bedrooms on the east and west have concrete on ground floors the middle bedroom has suspended timber floor.The house was built very soundly to the standards of the day. The Australian standards did not exist til the early 1990's some one hundred years from the possible date of building.
Most of the interior walls are clad with three ply timber sheets,several walls have asbestos. The ceilings are clad with three ply and the kitchen is covered with asbestos. fiber cement sheeting is used in the bathroom and toilet.
The door to the west bedroom does not close due to the movement of the house. It is also of interest that I made and swung this door. The rear gauze door is binding and if this was prexisting then there would be scrape marks to the verandah 's wooden floor which the report does not show.
The roof is tight with dints near the air conditioner where workers have dented the sheets during regular maintenance.
In conclusion the report is biased to show as little damage as possible to the house. There is inaccuracies to fact, and does not appear to be an independent report. In fact the report appears to be written on a brief from the NRMA or IAG insurance.
Being offered $8,152.05 for damage to my house and then making a second offer of over with carpets and lost rent is $12,940.85 less excess of 300 = $12,640.85
How the money is used I now have to give money to government bodies to repair the house. This amounts to two hundred dollars initially for development fees.
When the work starts I need to remove the interior lining and asbestos this will take up to say five thousand dollars and this doesn't include the transport and accommodation of the specialists workers from Sydney. This travel and accommodation will need say 4 workers time s four rooms at $80 /night say 3,2000 Then there is dumping of asbestos and other debris and say a conservative $2,000
When I get the check and wait the 10 days I will lose my pension for two weeks
List of work and cost and how money is spent
development fees $200
lining removal $5000
Rubbish disposal $2000
loss of pension $700
Accommodation $3,200
Phone calls and the like say $200
Total before work starts $11,300
Then there is the costs of three inspections at $180/visit this is $540.00
Paint costing $85 per 4lts and there will be approximately 80 ltrs to pain the interior of the house That's about $1700 for paint.
This leaves -$899.15 and we haven't touched the electrical foundations and the lining of the interior also the remedial building work which I will have to find.
I think I am being unreasonable in not accepting the offer of $12640.85!
The thing is they can work it out to the nearest 85 cents They are amazing......
