I'm sorry that happened! It's a mess to deal with. I'm located north of Metro Detroit. Last August, thousands of homes in several cities were flooded. We're nowhere near the great lakes - or even the small lakes. It was a "100 year" rain that the various cities drainage systems couldn't keep up with. Within 15 minutes, basements were filling with water. In some cases, the water was high enough that it was pouring out the basement windows.
I live in a neighborhood with homes that range from $200,000 - 500,000. The area that was hit hardest has many homes worth $500,000+. The basements in many homes have tens of thousands of dollars in finishes. Home theaters, work out spaces, etc. Of course, even if you were using the basement primarily for storage it was a disaster. I was seven months pregnant and all of our baby gear was destroyed among so many other things :-( We had about 10k in damages, overall.
The cities in this region are old and so are the sewage lines. They couldn't handle the amount of water. But it doesn't matter what the age of the home is. A few years back, an old elementary school was torn down two blocks from my house. All new construction was put in on the property- beautiful homes in the 500K range. They flooded just like the homes built in the 20's and 30's - and the cost to repair damage was much higher. So you can't avoid this type of problem by buying a new home or an expensive home.
Because this is not a flood zone, very few people had insurance. Here's a tip for anyone reading this thread. It turns out that there is a very specific rider called the Sewage Backup rider that is the only type of insurance that protects against this type of flooding. It costs around $50 per year, for us. We have it now! However, we can only get the rider on our primary residence. We closed on a property a mile away yesterday and are very sorry we can't get the rider. My husbands grandmother has lived here for 70 years - this has never happened before. So I recommend the rider even if it seems impossible that you'll flood.
Here's another important tip - CLEAN UP THOROUGHLY! We very evidently had raw sewage that had back flowed into the house. Everything it touched was trash. First, remove everything from the basement and throw it away. We did our own tear down. We lined the path out of the house with dropcloths and wore protective gear. The quote for someone else to do the removal was $5K. Scavengers (people) were picking this disgusting garbage, so we used spray paint on the trash to prevent someone from buying brand new sewage infested baby swings off ebay. It was bizarre - the whole street was lined with mountains of trash. Garbage pickup was running 7 days a week.
Next, every surface needs to be cleaned with soap and water and then bleach. We used a professional cleaning crew ($2K). There was some debate among neighbors about the need for a crew, but at least some people who did not, now have mold problems.
Air scrubbers need to run in the house - the big industrial ones. You also need industrial fans. Again, some people skipped this step and are now seeing mold or foundation damage.
Don't run the HVAC (if you still have one) until all of these steps are completed or you may have mold spores in your duct work and throughout the house. Before turning your heat or air on, have your ducts professionally cleaned.
We have looked at a couple of houses this spring that were DIY cleaning jobs and there are random patches of mold throughout the house. They skipped cleaning the ducts.
One more tip - check to see if FEMA can help out. FEMA came through this region and we had money in our bank account within hours of our appointment. Only $1200 - but every bit helps.
We're early in our real estate investing careers, so I don't have a lot of expertise. But I know water back up damage inside and out. I hope this info helps someone out!
