Minor disaster in the WisconsinCubMan Household

[VinceD]

Mike, prayers on the way from the Ozarks. I hope you get everything thawed and fixed easily and quickly.

[Rudi]

Mike:

Homeowners worst nightmare when travelling. I hope you can get it all repaired without too much difficulty. Bill has good advice.. watch the porcelain.. (+)

[Bigdog]

Mike - sorry for the late response but we have been gone all week-end. You and your family are in our thoughts. As the others have said - check with your homeowner's insurance.

[Corky's Cub]

Mike,

Here's prayers from Georgia for speedy cleanup and repair...have you figured out what happened? Household disasters are expensive and disruptive, I hope you get things back to normal quickly.

Corky

[Hengy]

The long and short of what happened is this:

My boiler has an electric ignition with a flame sensor. The sequence of operation is that the boiler pump kicks on, and the ignitor lights a pilot light. If the flame sensor senses flame, it proceeds to light the burner right next to the pilot burner. If there is still heat indicated after about 5 seconds, it proceeds to light the rest of the burners under the boiler and turns them up. If at any time in the cycle, the flame sensor detects no flame, it will shut the gas off, wait 3 seconds and go through the starting procedure again. There is a limit of 3 to the number of times it will cycle through the start up procedure during any given heat cycle. This is to prevent excessive emission of natural gas into the area of the boiler with the possibility of an explosion. After three tries, the boiler "locks out" and won't try to restart again...the pump continues to run, however. Until the power is cycled off, or the thermostat upstairs is shut down, the boiler will remain locked out.

Some malfunction occurred in the flame sensing circuit...either the master controller malfunctioned or the flame sensor is failing. When I got home on Sunday, the pump was running, but the flames weren't burning. At some point during the heating cycle, the flames went out and locked out. Since the thermostat was below the set point, there was never an opportunity to retry and get fire going. The kicker on this was that I had a heating company out the week to check things over on the furnace, and they said that everything was working well.

The other thing that I normally do, but did not do this time was to have a friend who lives locally come in and check the house over while we were gone. I figured that since the furnace was in good shape and just checked out, that we should be fine...NOOOO!!

My only savings grace in this whole thing is that I turned the water off to the house before I left. If I had left the water on, and had this problem, I fear that it could be a LOT worse...

Thanks for all the prayers, guys... one more hurdle today...meeting with the insurance company and plumber to see where we go from here... If we get the go ahead, it will be a LOAD off my mind. Pray that the meeting goes well!!

Mike

[Don McCombs]

Sounds like you are getting things back under control, Mike. I ALWAYS turn off the power to the well pump if we are going to be away overnight. Even if it is only going to be one night. I was standing in the kitchen one time when one of the supply lines to the kitchen sink faucet failed and started spraying water everywhere. How lucky was that?

[dirtyred]

sorry to hear of your troubles mike. When we got back home our septic tank was full. got to have it pumped out. Always seems to be something

[cowboy]

Sorry to hear that Mike

Do you have any backup heat? Hope it all get fixed quickly!

Billy

[Hengy]

Billy, no backup heat originally. Now, I am heating with space heaters (scary in its own rite).

Update...The adjuster and the plumber came out yesterday, and I think that we will be covered. The only concern I have is that we have a "cash value" homeowner's policy and not a "replacement value" policy. There is a big difference...especially if you have an old house. Cash value is a policy, that they will pay for the loss at whatever the item's condition was prior to the loss. For example, if you have a roof that was done with 20 year shingles, and they have been on 10 years and now are blown off, the insurance company will take the current cost of a roof with new materials and will "discount" it by half because half of the useful life was gone from the shingles.

In my case with the radiators being broken, the adjuster stated that to put a value on the loss, if we came up with pricing for brand new radiators, they would discount the amount that they would pay for by a formula based on the length of time that the radiators were in the house and the typical lifespan of the radiator. He stated that if the plumber would quote "used" parts to replace our radiators, the Insurance Company would not discount those because they consider it replacing like for like. This is the way we are having this quoted in order to minimize the potential discounts...

Check your policies... read them...know their limitations of coverage before you have a loss and are surprised by it.

Not out of the woods yet, but moving that way...

Mike in La Crosse, WI

[Corky's Cub]

Mike,

As soon as you get through this mess, you may want to consider changing to replacement value coverage. It will be more expensive, but not in comparison to the increase in potential value when claim time comes.

We're still thinking of you down in this neck of the woods...be careful with those space heaters!

Corky

[cowboy]

Mike

If you don't have them make sure you get a CO alarm. You are right wording on insurance claims is everything. Every time I go to the dentist it seems they have to reword the bill and send it back to get it covered. Good luck

Billy

[Lance Leitzel]

Mike I pray for things to return to normal for you. Lance

[beaconlight]

Mike How you coming along? Glad you got some sort of temp heat so there is no further damage. The temp heat may be paid by your insurance.

[Hengy]

Update for you all. We are moving forward slowly. I have gotten the estimates in line with the plumbers and am about to submit them. The only major issue... and it is MAJOR...is that we discovered un checked Asbestos in my crawlspace under the house wrapping the heating lines. While this doesn't pose a problem as it sits since it is in a sealed room and the asbestos is not getting into the living quarters, the plumbers will NOT go in that area to inspect the piping with asbestos in there. (can't say I blame them). I thought that this would sink us, but after an e-mail to the insurance adjuster, I was told that they will cover asbestos abatement if necessary for the repairs to the house from this damage. As near as I can figure they almost HAVE to remove the asbestos in order to inspect to know what my problem is...

SO... we are still on temporary heat for now... high electric and all... I hope to get somebody moving within the next week...

Mike in La Crosse, WI

[phildidit]

we will pray that the Lord will show you favor with the insurance and plumbers!!