Search

Every answered question, water category, smoke residue type and coverage term. The index runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.

• Water
• Fire & smoke
• Mold
• Biohazard

If you are not sure what to search for #Link to this section

Most questions after a property loss come down to three distinctions, and searching for the right one gets you a much better answer than describing the damage.

• Water is named by category. Category 1 is clean supply water; Category 2 is significantly contaminated; Category 3 is grossly contaminated, such as sewage or water that entered from outside. The category decides what gets dried and what gets removed, and it degrades with time.
• Smoke is named by residue type. Dry smoke, wet smoke, protein residue and fuel-oil soot clean differently, and which one you have depends on what burned.
• Coverage is named by peril, and for water, by whether it came from inside the building or outside it. Flood means external water and is excluded; a burst pipe is internal water and is generally covered.

If none of that matches what happened, the answered questions hub is grouped by what people actually ask, and the first hour covers what to do before any of it matters.