Glossary

This applies across all four perils: water, fire and smoke, mold, and biohazard.

• Actual cash value — Replacement cost less depreciation — what the item was worth in its used condition at the time of the loss.
• Additional living expense — Coverage that pays the increase in your living costs while your home is uninhabitable after a covered loss.
• Assignment of benefits — A document that transfers your rights under the insurance claim to a contractor, who can then bill and negotiate with your insurer directly.
• Bloodborne pathogens — Infectious microorganisms in human blood and other potentially infectious material. Occupational exposure is governed by a federal OSHA standard.
• Category 1 water — Water originating from a sanitary source that does not pose substantial risk from dermal, ingestion or inhalation exposure.
• Category 2 water — Water carrying significant contamination with the potential to cause discomfort or sickness.
• Category 3 water — Grossly contaminated water that can contain pathogenic, toxigenic or other harmful agents.
• Flood — In insurance, rising external water. Excluded from standard homeowners policies and covered separately through NFIP or private flood insurance.
• Hygrometer — An instrument that measures relative humidity, used with a moisture meter to prove a structure is actually drying.
• Mitigation — The emergency phase that stops the loss getting worse — extraction, drying, removal of unsalvageable material. Not the same as repair, and often paid separately.
• Mold — Fungal growth that develops on damp materials indoors.
• Mold sublimit — A separate, much lower cap that applies to mold remediation regardless of the dwelling limit, and is frequently excluded entirely when the mold results from long-term neglect.
• Ozone treatment — A professional deodorization process performed only in unoccupied structures. Ozone is a lung irritant and is hazardous in occupied spaces.
• Protein residue — A nearly invisible, varnish-like residue from evaporated organic matter, producing severe odor out of proportion to visible damage.
• Psychrometry — The measurement of air and moisture that decides whether a drying plan will actually work — temperature, relative humidity and the amount of water the air is already carrying.
• Repair and rebuild — The second phase that puts the building back — a separate scope, a separate estimate and often a separate contractor from mitigation.
• Replacement cost value — What it costs to replace the item with a new one of like kind and quality, usually paid in two instalments with the depreciation released after the work is done.
• Smoke damage — Damage from smoke residue and odor, which can occur with no fire damage at all.
• Water damage — Damage caused by water entering a building or escaping from a building system.