I am in the middle of a large loss fire claim. My sentiments pretty much echo juliatallmadge's (wish I could reach her to find out how it all turned out). Mine was a high-end single family residential rental. The renter was at fault, so not only do I have the experience of dealing with my own insurance company (State Farm), I will be getting experience dealing with the renter's TWO insurance companies (one is for the general renter's policy and the other is for a general liability umbrella policy). All I can say is, it has almost been one year and the house is still standing unoccupied and untouched. The inside of the home was completely smoked out and partially structurally damaged. Only now is the claim being subrogated by my insurance company, which has paid to term limits, to the tenant's insurance company. As juliatallmadge stated, it looks like the tenant's insurance companies will try to micro-negotiate everything, so I am in the process of shopping attorneys. Since the fire was the fault of the tenant's, I deserve to be compensated for my loss. But I get the distinct feeling at this stage this will not happen without legal representation and quite possibly a legal battle that may go all the way to court. I will know more as this situation unfolds in the next 2-6 months. I can only say that State Farm has been wonderful. But be very certain to read your policy thoroughly, because even your claims adjuster can make big mistakes that you might catch. We caught a 90K mistake in our favor. Also, DO NOT make the very common mistake of being underinsured. If we had not been underinsured, we would already be started on the construction while waiting for the tenant's insurance companies to settle with us. Take pictures and videos of EVERYTHING. Open your drawers and cabinets and shoot pictures. Shoot every single feature in your house. And then store those someplace safe outside of your own home. Also, because I saw it happen, keep your computer backed up on a hard drive and store it outside of your home or in a fire/flood proof vault, as well. In my opinion, $1,200 a year for homeowner's insurance is chump change. I was paying more than that and was still underinsured.

Try rubbing with a rag dampened with paint thinner. If that does not work, the next step is finding out what kind of finish is on the furniture. Shellac can be disolved by using alcohol(denatured). Try rubbing arounjd a less obvious part with a rag dampened with it. Look at the rag if it is not obviously affecting the finish. You may see dirt and no finish. Lacquer thinner is next(more expensive so last). Same technique. Both shellac and lacquer can be added to existing like finishes and blended.

Lascatx, sounds like you had the same type of leak/flood we experienced, except in my case there was nobody home so the water gushed unimpeded through the house for 18 hours! And Bonnie, our situation is very similar to yours; we also called ServPro immediately and they were at the house within an hour or so--on a Sunday afternoon! They did an amazing job drying things out and actually had all the flooring off within about 36 hours of the flood to completely dry out the underfloor and avoid mold which is a HUGE issue as you can imagine in Miami FL. Like your MIL's house they placed large fans, dehumidifiers etc. and checked on a daily basis to ensure the moisture levels were low. We also reported the damage immediately on Monday morning and the insurance adjuster told us the same thing, that ServPro was exactly the right choice. As for an update, the day before Thanksgiving after almost daily email inquiries for weeks I finally got the paperwork saying the claim was approved, along with a statement of loss I had to sign and notarize to process the payment. I sent that in earlier this week and was notified yesterday the payment will be processed (hopefully meaning a check issued!) within 10-14 business days. Based on that I told my contractor we can get started. I picked up floor tile samples yesterday, focusing on in stock materials because his floor guys will start work December 10th. Even if I don't have payment in hand, everything seems legally in order so I am comfortable moving forward. Once the work is done I can get the house on the rental market again although I hope things aren't too slow during the holidays.

Environova in Falmouth, or similar turnkey operation, should be able to give you an accurate figure on replacement cost. To replace any large/mature plantings that you lost may be very costly. But, particularly if the government entity you hold responsible ultimately foots the bill, it an be done. As John D described, it’s done all the time. If you look at the company’s website, you will see large mechanized equipment moving large mature specimens. If you think your project is too “small“ for them to be interested, ask what dollar amount would make them interested. That would be your replacement cost - the amount it would take to “make you whole”. Do not beat yourself up trying to come up with ”how much do I claim.” Let an expert company capable of completing the work prepare a written estimate, with the understanding that it be be awarded the contract once the responsible entity agrees to pay the full amount necessary to restore your property to it’s prior condition. What happened to you is very bad. Bad NS DOT. But do you believe you have a winnable legal case? Does Houzz have a Legal forum? Are any no/low cost legal resources available in the province?