Water Damage vs. Flood Damage

When people talk about water damage and flood damage, they often believe that these two are interchangeable. What they might not know is that water and flood damage are actually different from the other. This mistake is often realized by people too late when they try to file a water damage claim for flooding and find out that flooding is a different thing altogether.

What Is the Difference Between Water Damage and Flood Damage

It is actually easy to differentiate flood damage from water damage. All you need to remember is when a home suffers from flood damage, it is usually one of many homes that suffer from the same problem. When your home suffers from water damage, your home is the only one that has such an issue.

Flood damage also stems from one of the following causes:

• Overflowing tidal waters or inland waters, like rivers and creeks
• Sudden accumulation of runoff water from one source, such as mountains and hills
• Mudflow from deforested mountains and hills

When flooding happens, it helps for you to have flood damage coverage on your insurance since water damage does not cover any repairs and restoration that is done due to floods. Before any flooding occurs, you should check your insurance policy for this coverage. If you live in a flood-prone area, you should have the additional coverage added to your policy.

Similarities Between Water Damage and Flood Damage

While considered different from one another, these two are not without their similarities. They can both wreak havoc on a home by submerging your belongings, causing structural damage, and making you lose important items that are irreplaceable. The cleanup process for both is also similar and the steps you need to take to ensure that your claims will be honored by your insurance company are also generally the same.

To ensure that the claims for your water damaged or flood-damaged home is processed by your insurance company, you need to follow these steps:

• Take pictures and videos of the damage
• Make a list of the damaged items in your home
• Contact your insurance company
• Contact a restoration company
• Wait for your insurance adjuster to inspect your home
• Clean your home after the insurance adjuster has assessed it
• Have your home restored and repaired after your insurance claim has been processed

Whether your home is damaged by a burst pipe, toilet or sewage overflow, water heater leak, or because of deluge from a storm, the company to call for help in these situations is Midwest Remediation in the Greater Indianapolis Area. We can take care of any and all restoration needs from water damage and flooding. Contact us at (317) 826-0940 and our team will effectively handle your water and flood damage restoration for you.