The warm weather means all that ice and snow will melt, and will find a way into foundations and basements. Today we offer some Expert Advice on The Big Thaw, and how you can prepare your clients to stop the damage before it turns into an expensive claim.
Video transcript below:
Reporter: Your clients may not believe it, but it is going to get warmer, eventually and that means all that ice and snow will melt and will find a way into foundations and basements. Today we offer some expert advice on the big thaw and how you can prepare your clients to stop the damage before it turns into an expensive claim.
Alex Walker, Claims Relationship Director for RSA Insurance has seen the damage that ice damming and water penetration can do to a home, damage that is easily preventable.
Alex Walker, Director, Claims Relations, RSA Insurance
Alex Walker: With the extremely cold winter that we’ve seen almost all throughout Canada, most of us are looking forward to a nice warm spring. Unfortunately with that we do have the extreme changes in temperature where you’ve got a freezing cold outside and a thaw coming, there is the potential for a lot of water damage. Typically this time of year when the snow is starting to melt or there is a heavy rainfall, we potentially can see about 25% of our claims being related to that water damage. There is some important advice that brokers can give their customers to help prevent claims and mitigate them when they actually are happening.
One of the things that brokers can do is they can give advice to their customers about ice damming. As you can see there is a little bit of snow on that roof over there. But when there is a large accumulation of snow and ice on the roof and then all of a sudden there is a thaw, that ice will melt, turn to water and has the potential to cause damage inside the house. Now I am not advocating that brokers should tell people to get up on their roofs and start to clean it off. But if you need to, hire a professional to remove that, because when it does melt, the water will get inside the shingles and if there is a freeze cycle again it will lift them and then when there is another thaw, there is a potential for that water to come into that house and cause a lot of damage.
An important suggestion that brokers can give their clients to prevent water damage from happening is when you have an accumulation of snow on the ground, make sure that you are shovelling it and moving it away from the house, because if there is a thaw in a rain storm, all that snow that’s packed up around the house can lead to a large accumulation of water. That water can then run down against the side foundation of the house and could possibly cause a seepage issue. A simple suggestion that brokers can make for their clients is to have an extension for your drain spout to draw water away from the house.
We are in a finished basement now that has seen some damage from a recent water damage claim. One of the important things that brokers can suggest to their customers to prevent damage is doing some basic preventative maintenance and doing things like checking your sump pump to make sure that it’s working on a regular basis. With the extreme cold there is the potential for that freezed thaw and water to come in during a rainstorm, but brokers should caution their customers that it isn’t just the rain outside and the thawing of the snow that can cause water damage. There is the potential for damage in a customer’s house at any given time. We see things like water escaping from a hot water tank, from appliances like your dish washers or your ice making fridge, you can also have water discharging from a toilet, all of these things can cause potentially large amounts of damage inside your customers’ houses. And another simple suggestion, that brokers can give their customers is to install a water monitor alarm. If the customer isn’t able to afford an expensive system there are cheaper alternatives out there which you can buy at almost any hardware store that will detect water when it’s present on the floor or in a house.
An independent insurance broker is an important, trusted, financial advisor for people. They are there to help ensure that the somebody has the right coverage, at the right price and the right product of insurance for their home needs. We are all looking forward to hopefully a warm and dry spring, but there is some important advice that a broker can give the customers to make sure that if there is a water damage claim, that it’s minimised or hopefully even prevented.
