Hurricane assistance for our friend MikeinFLA

What an impact has a hurricane on the life of people.
After the hurricane there are so many things you have pay attention to get it fixed.

Hope you get the classroom from your wife fixed before the lessons start.

Good luck Mike with all what need to be fixed.

Glad to hear you getting back to a sense of of normal.  Very cool story about the guy who used to live there!

Be sure to get a quote from the former tenant. I bet he'd cut you a deal (as much as he can at least). There aren't any real deals to be had after such an event since they know they can get top dollar.

As far as ceiling sheet rock it's no different than a wall aside from needing 2 people. Texturing it to match is another story but you can at least save the money by hanging it yourself. It's probably easiest for a novice to remove a full sheet rather than try to cut out only what was damaged. Once you locate the ceiling joists, find the screws with a magnet, but cut along all the seams first. Get a pro to come in later at your convenience to texture it.

By the way, the biggest bummer about the storm is the stuff I lost that can't be replaced. Mainly pictures I had at my desk. Pictures of my kids and pictures they drew. My avatar to the left was an old picture of me. All my old pictures I had at work are ruined. Luckily I scanned most of the old photos so I have digital copies but it made me sad to see old pics of me and my brothers ruined.

Still patiently waiting on a roofer. I did find one that will do all the work on the outside and the inside but they are from out of state and I really want to wait on someone local. If I have issues in the future it is going to be hard to get someone from out of the area to fix anything.

Out of curiosity what are they bidding? I wish I was in a position like I was for Katrina so I could just head on down there to help.

So far pretty sky-high. I had one emailed to me yesterday for $14000 for shingles and NO inside work. Another was $15000 for a metal roof, no inside work. His other quote was $10000 for shingles, no inside work. One from Texas gave me a reasonable quote for $11500 for shingles and all inside work. That one is a bit tempting as my insurance money would cover it but they may find more once they remove the shingles and sheet rock. And since they are from out of town I don't know much about them but they are liscensed in Florida.

I have been in touch with 2 local companies via e-mail but no quotes yet but I have heard they are less than the out of town quotes even for metal. I really want metal as it would give me peace of mind but it seems to be sky high and I don't want to go in debt for a roof. Insurance only covers what I already have (3 tab shingles) but i am willing to pay for for laminated shingles or metal if the price is right. the one for 11.5 is for laminated/architechural shingles and I don't think that is bad at all. I did forward the quote to insurance and they said "sure, if you want use them and they will supplement for anything else they find" (which is what all the roofers tell me - they will supplement with insurance but I am not sure if this includes signing over benefits -- I have been told not to sign over any benefits). They have given me 2 weeks to sign the deal so I am going to wait until the last minute. Honestly I haven't even prayed about it yet. I need to but i haven't.

One local guy says he can do a metal roof for around $10000 and save me some money by not tearing off the old roof and putting metal over the shingles. I really don't know what to do as I haven't heard back from him at all, only the first time I talked to him when i told him how many squares I had (that also did not include inside work but the inside work is the cheapest of all work to be done because there really isn't a whole lot and we don't have mold).

One out of town guy came out, was very professional and even did an infrared scan of the house to find mold. He didn't say he found any so I assume there is none there. My wife watched him the whole time and said the scanner never changed colors and he said it would if mold was found.... Not to mention I KNOW what mold smells like now because it is in my office at work. It is an overwhelming BAD smell. Not like "dead animal" smell but it is just as bad, plus it lingers with you for a few minutes when you leave the area. the problem is that he didn't get me a price. He just said "we work off your insurance sheet" and he never specified architectural or metal roof.

I am going to hold out for a bit if I can for one of the local people. One of them I called had voicemail that said "we are not taking calls, please email us and we will get to you within two weeks. Send us your insurance information and we will look over it". I sent it and they replied the next day but only to indicate my insurance info was received.

Don't know how big your roof is, but I'd guess those quotes are about twice what they would be normally? Of course, I expect the materials are priced at a premium as well with such high demand. From the pics, I'd guess your roof has no valleys, just the one ridge along the center of the house. I certainly couldn't help in 2 weeks though - I thought maybe I could take a week off at Christmas. Prayer sounds like a good idea!  

Around 1900 sq feet, A frame, an easy job. Just talked to someone here at work and he has 2200 sq feet and the local company I emailed contacted him his quote for metal was about $7500. Much better than $15K! So I will wait on them, he said it took him about 2 weeks to hear from them and that sounds about right. So I will wait on them. They are not doing any inside work but the inside is the least of my worries as there are no leaks with the tarps and the sheetrock looks to be OK for the most part in the ceiling. Just a few brown stains that KILZ should take care of. Heard from the shed people yesterday and they will be out the week after Thanksgiving to repair the shed and then have someone come and put it back on the blocks.

As for turkey day if it were up to me I would skip it but the wife and girls want it so I ended up finding a turkey pre-cooked from Publix. All we gotta do is warm it up and I will pick it up the day before.

Sweet. $7500 seems reasonable for metal given the circumstances assuming they know what they are doing. They should since it's easier than shingles.