Vintage Karting Forum

so i'm home relaxing can't work outside as it's raining like crazy and we've got 50+ mph winds going on.
my sweetie gets home and we were discussing who gets to sit in the big red chair.
 i was holding out as the most recent user there i get the big chair.
in the middle of this debate i hear a big THUD and the house shock a little.



it was the wind dropping a pretty big tree on the house.
why me??

so i called the insurance adjuster and took some pix.
here's a couple for your entertainment.

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(03-02-2018, 05:36 PM)David Luciani Wrote: [ -> ]so i'm home relaxing can't work outside as it's raining like crazy and we've got 50+ mph winds going on.
my sweetie gets home and we were discussing who gets to sit in the big red chair.
 i was holding out as the most recent user there i get the big chair.
in the middle of this debate i hear a big THUD and the house shock a little.



it was the wind dropping a pretty big tree on the house.
why me??

so i called the insurance adjuster and took some pix.
here's a couple for your entertainment.

Man, Big Dave. That sux. I hope you have good luck with the adjuster. Ted

Good luck with your claim. Mine from several years past was nearly identical resulted in a response of

"Sorry, falling trees aren't covered, that's an act of God."

Dave - been there, I feel your pain. Punctured the roof and made a mess in the living room from water damage. Unlike Chuck, mine was covered.
Hope everything goes well.

Good luck,,,main thing is you guys are OK...my daughter had one almost zackly like it a few years ago...unless you got ""Big Lew"": for insurance, it should be covered.....

gw

first we live on the coast and we're in the wind circle they make inland three miles.
it's mandatory that we buy wind coverage.
plus , my sweetie has worked in a law office doing lawsuits for going on thirty years.

one thing i never have to deal with is bad insurance companies.
she knows who routinely cheat their customers and those companies that cheat only a little.
so everything she has anything to do with insurance wise is over-covered.

i called our agent and told him we'd had a thud. 
his first worry was we were ok then is water getting in?

i told him roof was hurt bad but is reasonable intact and the rain has stopped.
so no visible water damage yet.
told him i'm not leaving it open so i'd need an adjuster by tomorrow morning.
he said he'd try to get one that fast.

asked what he'd need if they couldn't and he said good pix. 
so that's one of twenty pix so far.
he's since called and said a adjuster wasn't available till weekday and go ahead.

i told him tree guy was on his way and i'd be scheduling him asap.
he ok'd that plan.
my tree guy showed up and he'll be by tomorrow morning weather permitting.
with any luck we'll have it off the house and tarped pretty quick.
you don't wanna know what that little operation is gonna cost.

the insurance adjuster will ok it as it's below regional pricing.
it's way less than anybody else would've paid for same time frames.
occasionally it's useful to be a contractor that pays his subs the minute they're done and often in cash.

the rest i'm gonna fix asap.
i cancelled work this weekend.
 it was easy, baby sit a sound board gig, only about 12 hrs total , no big loss money wise.

so things will hopefully keep moving right along.
all i can say is the adjuster better hurry over
i already have a square or so of the right color shingle to do a temporary repair.

 i'm not famous for waiting for the insurance company.
the pix will keep going so any damage or work will be documented anyway.
if they whine i'll just remind them of the dangers of mold getting established in a house.

(03-02-2018, 09:38 PM)David Luciani Wrote: [ -> ]first we live on the coast and we're in the wind circle they make inland three miles.
it's mandatory that we buy wind coverage.
plus , my sweetie has worked in a law office doing lawsuits for going on thirty years.

one thing i never have to deal with is bad insurance companies.
she knows who routinely cheat their customers and those companies that cheat only a little.
so everything she has anything to do with insurance wise is over-covered.

i called our agent and told him we'd had a thud. 
his first worry was we were ok then is water getting in?

i told him roof was hurt bad but is reasonable intact and the rain has stopped.
so no visible water damage yet.
told him i'm not leaving it open so i'd need an adjuster by tomorrow morning.
he said he'd try to get one that fast.

asked what he'd need if they couldn't and he said good pix. 
so that's one of twenty pix so far.
he's since called and said a adjuster wasn't available till weekday and go ahead.

i told him tree guy was on his way and i'd be scheduling him asap.
he ok'd that plan.
my tree guy showed up and he'll be by tomorrow morning weather permitting.
with any luck we'll have it off the house and tarped pretty quick.
you don't wanna know what that little operation is gonna cost.

the insurance adjuster will ok it as it's below regional pricing.
it's way less than anybody else would've paid for same time frames.
occasionally it's useful to be a contractor that pays his subs the minute they're done and often in cash.

the rest i'm gonna fix asap.
i cancelled work this weekend.
 it was easy, baby sit a sound board gig, only about 12 hrs total , no big loss money wise.

so things will hopefully keep moving right along.
all i can say is the adjuster better hurry over
i already have a square or so of the right color shingle to do a temporary repair.

 i'm not famous for waiting for the insurance company.
the pix will keep going so any damage or work will be documented anyway.
if they whine i'll just remind them of the dangers of mold getting established in a house.

 
Strong house!

well house is fairly strong.
it didn't hurt that the tree was polite and landed on the strongest part of any house.
a little higher and it would've busted a bunch of trusses and maybe spread the outer walls.

tree is gone took about seven hours , five guys (me included) a skid steer on wheels and a little bucket loader.

the first put back we did had a underrated rope which popped pretty loud. 
the pull back rope hit me but more concerning were was the shiv (big pully to civilians) headed??
it is about ten pounds of stainless steel.
luckily it went about ten feet from me .
it would've been like catching a cannon ball if i was in it's way.

we reset the shiv with a 7/8" rope and removed some more tree before trying again.
went well after that no extra damage from tree crew except there's mud where grass used to be but that's an easy fix.
tarped off the roof and will be arguing with insurer soon or getting a big sack of cash to fix damage and pay tree crew.
will post pix later when tree guy sends them to me.

Not Again!

yep this house has had horrible luck with trees.
not surprising as over half were overgrown and not really strong trees.


when we bought the house first thing we did was remove three huge white pines as the were next to garage and shed like a dog in the spring.
those were 2.5' trunks 80' tall real wind monsters , they cost alot to get gone.
but would've destroyed the house if they got blown over.
replaced them with four aborvity and put a twisted blue spruce on front corner of garage that's a comfortable 35' now.
for those three i argued with my sweetie for three years before she agreed to removal after the neighbors complained.
i told my sweetie swamp maple have short life span and she should plan on removing some of them too.
she didn't believe me even though i was an arborist early on for around 8 years of my young life.
i did real rope climbing and pruning and take downs no whimpy bucket trucks  
arborculture is a young mans game and i got outta it early.

so instead in "her yard" "her trees" have been falling pretty regular.

swamp maple in back behind garage fell in 2004 , no property damage.
eventually i cleaned up that area and made a big kitchen garden.

swamp maple front fell in street 2007 took out neighborhood power.
that was replaced with a weeping cherry and an purple leaved ornimental forget what it is.

few years ago during hurricane lost 150' red oak 80' red oak and a 70' hemlock.
two years ago lost another hemlock high winds
those just opened up sun for my garden so i planted grass.
then this one was a nice 140' hickory.
i've been watching it in wind storms and was having it topped this spring. 
thinking maybe a jap dogwood or nice aplle tree to replace it.

a big part of the problem is we're on high ground with in a mile long island sound.
those trees are in a big dip and had grown stupidly tall to get in the sun.
that's usually ok as long as theres lots of other trees around to break the wind force up.
even though it's the backside the wind gets pretty insane way more than i'm used to seeing.

last few years the couple hurricanes we've had have carved a "wind alley" through the neighborhood trees all around us.
very bad for tall trees and unfortunately we are right in the middle of the alley .

the  few big tall trees we have left are now scheduled to be worked on.
gonna cost a bunch but i'm tired of the cleanups every year.
funnily my sweetie is no longer arguing with me about my "insane" tree predictions.



plus, i'm happy now i spent weeks of spare time moving the retainer walls away from the house. 
we were able to get in back with a small machine this time to clean up.