That’s Going to Leave a Mark

Summer time. Time to Grill. Here’s what public adjusters see on a daily basis… people have their grill or their fire pit, just a little too close to the house. 

Look here, we’ve got a typical gas grill, set up not too far away from a vinyl-sided house, the grill gets too hot, chicken catches fire, flare-ups, just too much heat, left it on, set it to cleaning, you name it, it gets too hot for the siding. 

It gets too hot for the siding and it causes damage like that.

It’s simple. People look at it and go, “That’s going to leave a mark!” 

They blame whoever lit the grill or whoever put the food on the grill… you name it. Ultimately, it becomes a family problem, but it’s a covered loss. 

If the homeowner has an HO3 sort of policy or similar, you would have coverage for this. Now, what does that include? 

We’re not sure. Depends…

Is the siding available? Is it repairable? Depending on the state you live in, what we call matching statutes, kind of regulate how much siding is due based on the claim. 

Both insurance adjusters and public adjusters need to know the walls that are damaged, and get replaced. So, in other words, it could be greater than that, generally not less than that. But ultimately, this is still an insurance claim for thousands of dollars. 

DID YOU KNOW?

Siding is easily melted. It doesn’t take a large amount of temperature. A little over 150 degrees will start to melt siding. 

So, a fire pit that’s too close, some of those gas fire tables, fire architectural pieces, even I’ve seen the electric fire heat, the electric radiant heaters too close facing the wrong direction or down, have done the same. 

But with today’s supply chain issues, materials are harder and harder to get and they’re limiting the number of products made. So, your claim is all based on those factors. 

So, depending on the amount of the melt, if it actually caught fire, there actually may be smoke involved. And we also have to put the property back generally to code, which may include some insulation, some air barrier stuff, but long story short, it’s actually covered loss, it can be substantial. 

But please don’t beat yourself up too much… just tenderize that meat, don’t tenderize the spouse that was doing the cooking. 

I’m the Adjuster, again, HO3 Policy, if it’s not excluded, it’s covered.