Sump pump outages and failures are a common cause of water damage to floors in a home or building. Outages and failures typically occur during periods of heavy rain or snow melt when areas with high water tables are prone to flooding. These failures can be the result of an aging pump, but owners of newer sump pumps should also take some steps to ensure their sump pump doesn’t stop or malfunction.
We recommend a battery backup for all sump pumps, since they can fail due to power loss. Sump pumps need electricity to function, and power outages are common during heavy rain and storms. A battery backup can help ensure your sump pump continues running even during power outages.
Sump pump failures and backups are rarely covered by standard homeowners insurance policies. Typically, you need an additional add-on, or endorsement, on your homeowners policy to cover sump pump failure and backup, and there is usually a limit to the amount of coverage available for water losses due to sump pump backups and failures. We recommend that you contact your insurance agent to inquire about this coverage.
If you do experience floor or any water damage due to a sump pump failure or backup, it’s best to contact a professional water damage mitigation company like Claria. We can evaluate the extent of the water damage in the home and help you determine what the next best steps are. We will also work with you and your insurance agent to give you the facts in terms of estimated damages, so that in conjunction with your agent, you can determine if it makes sense to file a claim on your homeowners policy.