« Back to Home

Insurance Reimbursement For Foundation Repair

Posted on

When the ground your home sits on moves, so can your foundation – sometimes leading to costly repairs. Because all kinds of factors can cause damage to your home's foundation, it's important to understand the different types of problems that may occur. You also need to know under what circumstances your home insurance policy will help cover the cost of foundation repairs.

Understanding What Happens

The soil expansion that occurs with the seasons can push up your home's foundation. Clay soils in particular expand when they get wet and shrink as they dry, which can damage foundation walls and concrete slab foundations. This damage in turn can cause structural distress to your home's framing.

Soil underneath the foundation can also erode, causing the foundation to sink. But if you don't make repairs once you discover a problem, you may eventually have problems such as cracks in your interior walls, windows, and door frames. When left to settle more over time, your home can incur more serious structural damage.

Generally, damage to home foundations caused by earthquakes, flood waters, and sinkholes is covered only if you buy separate policies that provide coverage for earth movement, ground cover collapse, and water damage from flood waters overflowing from streams, rivers, lakes, and dam failure.

Knowing What Your Home Insurance Policy Covers

Although standard home insurance policies often exclude coverage for foundation repair, if damage occurs as the result of a covered peril or soil movement caused by a sudden and unexpected event, such as a burst water pipe or broken sewer line, your policy may cover the cost of repairs. However, if damage is caused by old sewer and water supply lines or an overworked municipal drainage system, repairs may be covered only if you have a special endorsement for that particular event. That's because home insurers tend to associate coverage and loss with circumstances described as "sudden and accidental" and not as "gradual deterioration over time."

Taking Steps to Prevent Damage and Out-of-Pocket Expenses

There are measures you can take to minimize the risk of potential damage and the amount of money you may have to pay for repairs out of your own pocket if shifts in your home's foundation occur.

  • Regularly inspect the concrete slab or foundation walls for cracks in the brick or mortar. Repair even hairline cracks immediately.

  • Routinely check your home's plumbing system for leaks. Broken pipes can lead to interior flooding and cracks in the foundation.

  • Install proper drainage. Poor drainage leads to excess moisture in the soil around and beneath your home – a condition that causes the soil to expand and lift your foundation. In addition to rain gutters and downspouts to direct water away from your home, the ground should also slope away from your home so that water doesn't puddle near the foundation.

  • Control soil erosion. Plant turf grass or ornamental grasses or use concrete pavers or landscape timbers to keep soil from washing away from the foundation, especially if the ground slopes away from your home.

  • Reinforce the foundation. Hiring a licensed contractor to install an underpinning system beneath the area of your home where the foundation is settling provides support and helps keep settlement from continuing.

  • Buy add-ons. Include endorsements to your insurance policy to cover damage from perils specifically excluded in your standard policy – particularly those for which the location of your home puts it at high risk for conditions that cause foundation damage.

Whatever perils your home insurance policy covers, the insurer expects you to take measures to maintain your home's foundation in good condition and protect it against preventable damage in order for you to be compensated for your losses. For more information, visit sites like http://www.olynorthwest.com.


Share