After the flood, putting your home back together DIY.

Over the holidays we took the family up to Denver to show the kids some snow. After being there for only a night, we got a call from our insurance agent telling us the hose to the washing machine had broke and our entire house was under water. Evidently the pipe had run for what we estimate 12 hours full blast before the neighbor had discovered the problem. No thanks to the way the house was built, the water ran from one end of the house to the other leaving about 3 sqr feet of the house that did not get wet. The recovery company found that the water had 'wicked' up the walls as high as 15" in some areas.

After speaking with the insurance company and the recommended contractors, we were not all that pleased at their proposed repairs. Much of the repairs seemed like a decision to make the cheapest possible repair to get the house back to normal even though it was not the right thing to do.. especially in the area of the drywall. Also, all of the contractors wanted to do repairs that made absolutely no sense at all (such as paint ceilings that had just been painted months before). They all seemed to want to do the repairs that they could charge the most for, and didn't want to do the proper repairs on the things that really were damaged. After taking it all in and weighing our options, my wife and I decided we could do this ourselves, not so much to save money, but to do it the correct way and have our house better than before.

This site is our story of recovering our home. I hope that if nothing else it gives you the courage/reassurance that you can do these projects on your own, to your own liking.

If you should have any questions or comments, please ask fhirsch@fredhirsch.com