A sad day on the farm

[ovrszd]

Sorry to hear of your problems. Wish I had some magic words to throw your way but I do not.

Thanks for taking time to update us. We're with you in spirit and thought.

 

[Williy]

I hope that your getting back to normal. Fires and what
th;ey can do is beyond words.!

You couldn't pay me to get state farm insurance! I was
stationed in Italy for approx 3 1/5 years came back to the
states to get insurance for our car. We had insurance for
our car over 3 years while driving in Italy. We went to state
farm insurance office and they told us we would have had
insurance for our car for 2 years and I said we had insurance
for over 3 years in Italy he said that didn't count! Needless to
say I have never had state farm insurance of any kind. My
co-worker had state farm insurance and when he went to
renew his policy they said that his policy was cancelled two
months ago but they never told him about it. About state farm
insurance you never know if you will be covered or whey wil
just drop you and you will know no idea until you try to renew!

willy

 

[ovrszd]

I hope that your getting back to normal. Fires and what
th;ey can do is beyond words.!

You couldn't pay me to get state farm insurance! I was
stationed in Italy for approx 3 1/5 years came back to the
states to get insurance for our car. We had insurance for
our car over 3 years while driving in Italy. We went to state
farm insurance office and they told us we would have had
insurance for our car for 2 years and I said we had insurance
for over 3 years in Italy he said that didn't count! Needless to
say I have never had state farm insurance of any kind. My
co-worker had state farm insurance and when he went to
renew his policy they said that his policy was cancelled two
months ago but they never told him about it. About state farm
insurance you never know if you will be covered or whey wil
just drop you and you will know no idea until you try to renew!

willy

I just moved my property insurance to State Farm. Now you give me pause. I'll approach this with more diligence. Any suggestions to the questions I should ask to verify validity of the company?

 

[Aussiebushman]

Sincere regrets for your loss. I understand very well - had a trimaran that I had built stripped and torched - no insurance

Chin up! you will recover in time

Alan

 

[mx842]

So far USAA has been very good in helping me deal with this fire claim. It has been a little slow over the past couple weeks because they are overwhelmed with frozen pipe claims from that last big cold snap. It didn't matter me much because I have been so busy with clean up. It's the dang mortgage co. that's the real pain. My wife calls them some times three times a day hoping this squeeky wheel will get greased a little quicker. so far all she has gotten is excuses and run around. Hopefully they will get tired of her in a little bit and send our check back.

I've spent the past few days with a oxy/acet torch cutting up large pieces making them small enough to throw in my tralier. Man, this new dump trailer I bought is reall nice, I have cut my scrap runs in half and that has helped a lot. I wanted to get a 14' trailer but that would have meant that I would have also bought a heavier truck. My F150 will pull it fairly well but it don't like it much when I load it up good. Anyway it a whole lot better that what I was using and I have wanted a dump trailer for some time now.

I spent the past 2 days working on that connex trying to get it cut up and out of the way. I have all the sides and roof cut up and all that is left is the floor. I have given up on the guys with the excavator to show up and decided to get it out myself. Once I get all the cut up pieces out of the way I'm going to try and pull the rest out of there with my pickup truck. I think if I can get it to move a little more I will be able to move it, I'll just have to wait a see what happens when I try again tomorrow. If I can get that out of the way then I can start getting ready to pour concrete.

I've been kicking around the idea of just pouring another 4" on top of what I already have in the ground. For the most part the concrete came out fairly well but there are a lot of places that were burned out and nothing but a big hole left. I could probably fix it but I have to add 6" all the way around any way. I wish now I had poured the pad first then built the barn on top of it rather than the way I did. It's going to cost a fair bit more but I will have a lot better floor when it's over.

 

[turbo36]

Some of you may remember what I went through building my pole barn that turned into my giant man cave. It was my place away from home that I spent many hours in playing with all my toys. I had all my most sacred things that I had gathered over my life time. All my machines, two lathes, my mill, all of the tooling, my Bickford 21" Super Service, 2 more drill presses. Three welders, Dynasty 300, millermatic 252 and an older miller AC/DC buzz box and all the stuff that went along with my welding shop. I never realized how much stuff I had in that building until I started going through the rubble. I never thought about how much in dollars I had laying around. In just different clamps and vices I have found over $7,000.00 in the rubble. It hasn't been too hard to find things because I had everything in there own spaces, plumbing, electrical, AC, hydraulic stuff, test equipment, welding equipment and consumables all had their own little spot in the shop.

One of the hardest things I have had to deal with was all my civil war relics, my native american artifact, bottle collection and my fossil collection. it's hard to lose stuff I have spent a lifetime collecting but all my books for the different habbits, my research papers and recording books that took more time to do than the actural collecting itself.

Everything was gone in less than 2 hours from the time it started to when there was nothing else to burn. In the end all that is left is the siding and roof metal and what's few 6x6 post that are still standing. One of the firemen that was here told me that in 20 years of fire fighting this was the hottest fire he had ever been to. That huge trolly beam system I built and was so proud of now looks like a big pertzel still hanging from it's upright support beams. Anything aluminum or copper was turned to liquid, every where you look there are piles of melted lead, aluminum and cooper parts that were once motors, tools or anything else that was made of these metals.

After a little over a month I have finally gotten the go ahead from the insurance co to start clean up and that will be a giant under taking in itself. I have enough insurance to cover most of the contence except my historical items but The way insurance work it you only get a certain percent of the amount of what it would cost to bebuild the the house itself. I already know there is not enough in that part to cover the cost of what I had so I'll have to do all the clean up just like I built it to begin with by myself. It probably will take the better part of a couple months to get it all cleaned up so I can start over.

Wow, you have a tough road ahead of you. I wish you well.

You comments about your insurance experience should be a wake up call to anyone that is reading this. Basically, if you do not have an auxiliary building on a separate schedule, as well as your high cost items on a separate schedule then a loss value becomes a percentage of the insured house value.
I have a number of properties that I insure, including a commercial building, and I drive my agent crazy every year with a “ hypothetical scenario” loss question list. Since I learned that there are so many exceptions, I started to carry a rider that covers any loss ( to the amount I determined) not covered by the basic policy. Pretty expensive, but I think it’s worth it in my opinion.

 

[Williy]

I can only tell you what I know about state farm.
I can tell you this much you couldn't pay me to get
state farm insurance for any thing! But that's MHO
I am with Texas Farm Bureau can't ask for any better
company. If you have damage to your if you can't
make it into the office they will come to your home.
The best thing to do before you purchase insurance is
to ask your neighbors

willy

 

[mx842]

I just moved my property insurance to State Farm. Now you give me pause. I'll approach this with more diligence. Any suggestions to the questions I should ask to verify validity of the company?

Richard, the only input I could add to this is State Farm like most insurance companies are trying to sell you a product and will tell you a lot of stuff just to get the deal. Things change though when you read the fine print. They will tell you a lot of stuff but there is a lot of stuff they don't tell you.
Another thing is most people call for insurance they are looking for the best price they can get and with insurance as with most anything else you buy that may not be a good thing. Most people that buy insurance don't ever have a problem. I know I did have State Farm for 15 years and never used it until that hurricane blew my roof off. I had a tree limb sticking in my roof and about 1/5 of the shingles had been blown off. When the adjuster came out all he said they would do is patch where the limb went through and replace the shingles that were blown off. I asked him; Do you know how that would look? He said it doesn't matter, that's cosmetic and State Farm does not cover cosmetic damage. I politely asked him to get the!#*^ off my property and went in the house. I got on the phone to State Farm and talked to my agent just to see if that's the way it was going to be. At first he didn't have an answer and he would get back to me then I told him don't worry about it just call this number and talk to them about it. That was my lawyers number and even then it took them over a month to decide they would pay for a new roof. And as I said awhile back, by then they had to also pay for most of floor covering on the first floor and two room up stairs.
I never thought about anything ever happening and when I was talking to them about insurance All I asked for was insurance and they never mentioned rider policies or anything else they just sold me insurance. And that's how it is with most people that go out looking for insurance.
You at this point should already know what can happen and what questions to ask. Now that don't mean everything will be peaches and cream if something does happen because some of these insurance companies have a section of really fine print they can fall back on.
When shopping anything that is expensive like insurance, it's a good idea to check reviews and do a little research on what it is you are about to buy. Here is a little sample of what I came up with: State Farm Auto Insurance 2022 Reviews | ConsumerAffairs

 

[mx842]

Well I am finally getting somewhere. This whole affair has driven me almost over the cliff. Before I did go off I decided to take a couple days and forget about this whole mess. My oldest son, myself and a few friends hunted the last two days of rabbit hunting season. My, my what a couple days in the woods with friends will do for an exploding head. WE killed a few rabbits, drank some beer after the hunts and sat around until after dark just talking, kidding and joking one another about who was the best shot, and the who was the worst along with just about anything else you could ever jab the guy or gal next to you with. I really needed that because I missed most of deer season and that after the hunt time is the most important part of the hunt.

When I got back I found out that the finance company could not take it any longer and sent our check back just to get my wife off their backs. That wife of mine is like an old snapping turtle when she sets her mind to it. She will latch on and not let up until something breaks........don't ask me how I know.
She stayed on them people from morning til night calling them 3, sometimes 4 or 5 times a day until they couldn't stand it any more. When I got home she handed me the check stub as she had already went to the bank. I asker her how did you manage that, she just said this squeeky wheel finally wore them down.
There was a minor detail that threw a kink in the plan though, because they would only turn over $5,000.00 when 3 days had passed and the rest would be available in 15 days. At leaste I have the money somewhere and can now order my building. Now all I have to do is get the concrete man on the job so we can get started.

I mainly put up this theard to, maybe bring to the attention of many here as to what can happen and how maybe the best way to deal with it. The main thing is to not get excited and never give up. I'll have to admit I was almost at the end of the tunnel, but then there was light and things are looking brighter. Thanks to all you guys that have put up with me over this past few weeks you have been a great help in helping me deal with this.

 

[mx842]

Well I haven't been back in awhile I've been really busy but I guess it's time for an update. I got my flool poured finally and that went ok all exceot the follr developed several cracks that I really don't like but it's nothing I can do about it now.
About a week after it was poured the guy's came by to start my new building and it was slow for a few days because of the rains we had. they pulled out for a week or so to finish another job they had and Wed. this week thay came back and went to work. There is only two guys working at this right now but boy do they get it done. In just two and a half days and they are already putting up siding. They have to put siding on the two sides before they can start on the two wings off both sides. They er a month now, I don't know what's up with that.say they will be completely done by the middle of next week.
Here are a couple of pics of the progress. And, I haven't heard from the insurance company for over a month now and I don't know what's up with that. the first one is wed morning, the second is thursday and the third one is friday. I haven't had the chance to go out there this morning but I'll post another one at the end of the day today.

 

[YanmarFever]

Mx, nice shop, We are getting ready to do one ourselves, it will look a lot like yours.
I have 19 trucks of fill coming in and to be leveled. Its a steel building just like yours but 36 x 120.
I will post pictures as we go along, Im still in the permit process.
Keep it up with the pictures!!

 

[mx842]

Mx, nice shop, We are getting ready to do one ourselves, it will look a lot like yours.
I have 19 trucks of fill coming in and to be leveled. Its a steel building just like yours but 36 x 120.
I will post pictures as we go along, Im still in the permit process.
Keep it up with the pictures!!

Man that sounds like a killa shop you will have. Who did you get your building from? I used Quicken Steel, they are based out of Georgia. I don't think I could have better. Their buildings are way over engineered it seems to me. It's really is nice now days for a company to do exactly what you want and deliver in a timely mannor. I told them exactly what I wanted and how it was to be laid out and so far not a thing I wanted was overlooked. These buildings are designed so closely that in the end there is less than a wheel barrow full of scrap is left over. They even changed on site where a couple of the doors were on the drawings and put them in different places after I looked at it in real time and decided a few feet one way or another would be better. So far everything has fit like a glove and no adjustments other than the ones I changed has had to be done.
I commented on how strong the materials were in this building and he told me a story about one they put up in Texas. There was a big hurricane that hit the area and everything for a 1/2 mile around was leveled and he said there was only one little piece of trim that was blown loose from that building.
These were at the end of the day yesterday.

 

[YanmarFever]

Mx, our building came from Steel Building Systems, also out of Georgia.
We went with them because we already owned one of their buildings behind our home and its built like a tank.
It looks just like the one you have there, but with 3' insulation on the walls and ceiling. I just finished installing 2- 8 bladed fans inside to move the air around cause it gets hot here.
Our walk-in doors open out in case of hurricanes, and with 3 roll-up doors.
I will post pictures as soon as we start the building.

 

[mx842]

Mx, our building came from Steel Building Systems, also out of Georgia.
We went with them because we already owned one of their buildings behind our home and its built like a tank.
It looks just like the one you have there, but with 3' insulation on the walls and ceiling. I just finished installing 2- 8 bladed fans inside to move the air around cause it gets hot here.
Our walk-in doors open out in case of hurricanes, and with 3 roll-up doors.
I will post pictures as soon as we start the building.

Is that Tracy Nesmith you are dealing with?
I'm going with spray insulation and roll up doors on mine. I thought about building my own doors like I did on my other building. I made those with two panels that swung out with a locking device in the center. I made them out of 2" box tube and had two inches of foam insulation in-between. They worked really well but when I decided that I was going to have someone else put this building up why bother with building my own doors. Hopefully they will be all done this week.

 

[YanmarFever]

Sorry, his name was Rick Mathis, from Steel Building Systems.
My neighbor has a sprayed insulation building, I really didn't care for it, I liked the regular insulation one better, but to each their own..
Our dog ripped some of it down for me,(how nice) he got locked it there and flipped out I guess, cause he also chewed up the seat cover on my mini truck!

 

[mx842]

Sorry, his name was Rick Mathis, from Steel Building Systems.
My neighbor has a sprayed insulation building, I really didn't care for it, I liked the regular insulation one better, but to each their own..
Our dog ripped some of it down for me,(how nice) he got locked it there and flipped out I guess, cause he also chewed up the seat cover on my mini truck!

What are you calling regular insulation? Is that the vinyl backed stuff or the bubble wrap. There was some confusion when we got to that part I was thinking the vinyl backed stuff but got that bubble wrap stuff. All that is, is basically a vapor barrier very little if any R value and it wont last but 4 or 5 years before it starts to come apart. The vinyl backed stuff does give some insulation value but it's not something that will last long term before it starts to come away from the wall. I know of 4 different shops that used it and it looked nice when it was first put up but 4 or 5 years down the road not so much.
I like the spray foam because of the way it seals any cracks that didn't get sealed in the construction process. Actually no insulation is for ever and I'm wondering what will happen to the foam if it get's any UV exposure. I'm going to sheet the walls up to 10' so no worries there but how about the rest.

 

[YanmarFever]

Ours is the white vinyl backed insulation, its 4 yrs old and it looks great still.
I had the same insulation in a 36 x72 building we did back in 2004 and it still looks good too. We always get light colored buildings, they don't get as hot
so its easier on the insulation.