One Roof Leak, Two Insurance Policies, and a Full Condo Rebuild in Duxbury
Project Snapshot
A Roof Leak That Took Over an Entire Condo
A roof leak, in theory, sounds manageable. You find it, you fix it, you move on. But when water gets through a roof and into a condominium unit, the story gets a lot more complicated – fast.
That’s exactly what happened at this Bay Farm condominium in Duxbury, MA. By the time our team at RestoreNow was brought in to handle the water damage restoration, the unit had lost flooring in every room, had drywall cut open along the base of the walls in multiple spaces, and the homeowner was trying to make sense of two separate insurance policies at the same time.
“The before and after tell the story well on their own. But there’s a lot that happened between those two points – and that’s the part worth walking through.”
What We Were Actually Working With
The before photos show stripped subfloor, open wall cavities, and drying equipment running throughout the unit. What they don’t capture is how much had already happened beneath the surface before mitigation was even called in.
Water from the roof leak had spread across the entire condo. The subfloor in the living areas, the bedroom, and the kitchen corridor was stained and saturated – moisture had been present long enough to soak all the way through. Everything came out, including carpet in the bedroom and the existing flooring throughout the rest of the unit, right down to bare concrete and plywood.
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Flooring
All flooring removed across every room down to subfloor
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Drywall
Flood cuts made along base of walls throughout the unit
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Moisture
Saturation spread unit-wide, requiring full structural drying
🔍 Why You See the Walls Cut Open
Flood cuts are a standard mitigation step where a section of drywall, typically 12 to 16 inches up from the floor, is removed to expose the wall cavity and let drying equipment work from the inside out. It looks rough, but skipping it traps moisture inside the framing – which leads to mold down the line. Not a shortcut worth taking.
Our trusted mitigation partners ran air movers and dehumidifiers throughout the unit to bring moisture levels down to an acceptable range. We stayed closely involved through that phase to confirm the structure was genuinely dry before our reconstruction team picked up any tools. That handoff matters – skipping it is how finished work fails early.
If you’ve found water damage and aren’t sure what to do first, start here: what to do first after finding water damage in your home.
The Rebuild: A Room-by-Room Restoration
Once the structure was confirmed dry, our property reconstruction team took over. This was a full-unit rebuild – not a targeted patch job. Every room touched, every finish replaced.
Full Scope of Work
A note on permits
Reconstruction work that touches electrical systems or significant interior finishes typically requires permits in Massachusetts. Skipping that step might save time upfront, but it creates real complications at resale. Every inspection on this project was passed before we called the job done.
Navigating Two Insurance Policies at Once
Condo water damage claims have a layer of complexity that single-family homeowners don’t typically deal with – and it shows up most clearly when a claim gets filed.
Most condo owners carry a personal HO-6 policy covering the interior of their unit. The condo association maintains a separate master policy covering the building structure. When a roof leak causes damage inside a unit, both policies may apply – and figuring out which one covers what isn’t always obvious. According to the Insurance Information Institute, coverage between these two policies often overlaps in some areas and creates gaps in others. A lot of condo owners don’t find that out until they’re already in the middle of a claim.
⚠️ The Challenge
Initial insurance estimates didn’t fully account for everything that actually needed to be repaired, and sorting out which policy covered which portion added delays.
✅ What We Did
We worked closely with the public adjuster to document the full scope, identify the discrepancies, and submit supplemental documentation to address them – making sure the scope matched what the repairs actually required.
We can’t negotiate directly with insurance carriers. What we can do is make sure our scope of work is thorough, accurate, and impossible to overlook. For more on how water damage coverage typically works in Massachusetts: does homeowners insurance cover water damage in South Shore MA.
