For soon to be 50 years Brit Gill has lived under the same roof, in the same beautiful modernist house in Stavanger. During this time, Brit – a lively lady and a retired technical illustrator – has had several craftspeople repairing damages inside the home she designed herself in 1975. One of them has been Lene Sørø. A young lady with a pierced nose and chin who works at H&M Malerservice in Stavanger and who was recently awarded the title of Norway's friendliest painter.
Lene has painted Brit’s walls, cabinets and ceilings so many times, she is basically a family member and trusted with the keys to Brit’s white two-floor house on a little green hill.
– Oh, yes, I have been here before, laughs Lene, as she walks into the kitchen in full painter outfit, and sits down to grab a cup of coffee.
Because how many times has Brit had insurance damage on her hands?
Five!
The first thing that happened was a bathtub running over on the second floor. It resulted in something looking like Niagara Falls, rushing down to the first floor.
– All the walls were moist, at least one meter up and everything needed replacing and repainting, Brit says.
Years later, a defective water heater exploded. And recently, an American refrigerator suddenly caught fire – and then, there was this one summer in 2012 when Brit came home from a holiday. Walking into the living room she was met by a big surprise at the corner of the padded ceiling.
– It was bending its way down like draped curtains, just above the fireplace, says Brit.
Being a mid-century modernist house, the roof was obviously flat, but the actual problem was the outside roof drainage system stuffed with leaves and branches from all the west coast weather. After several days of heavy rain the indoor ceiling buckled under the weight of the sudden pond on the roof. The water was left to find its own way down to earth, and quickly did.
– The situation needed a rapid solution, says Brit.
But then someone discovered a so-called “pink elephant”.
“The client will be able to receive a quick, professional and smooth job without all the waiting.”
When someone at Håndverksgruppen talks about a pink elephant, they mean something in the way of “an unforeseen problem in a room or house that comes as a surprise to the team who are going to rescue the home from its current crisis”.
The “elephant” arrives suddenly and without warning. Sometimes in the form of a parrot. Imagine arriving ready to paint only to find a real life caged bird that needs to be taken care of and removed, before any surface treatment can start.
Nobody told you it was there.
Or maybe works of art worth thousands of euros that must be taken down and stored. This kind of surprise delaying the time schedule for when the customer can expect to move back home, is typical of insurance cases. And it always threatens to leave homeowners in the dark about when they can move back home or get back to normal. Insurance claims need a team with a certain routine. It needs people who routinely deal with the unexpected “pink elephants”.
– That is why having national agreements with insurance companies is so great for HG. Other than always having stabile business rolling in, because damages will happen everywhere all the time, we also become very professional in handling these types of cases, and will therefore spot the pink elephant quickly, and do something about it, so the client will be able to receive a quick, professional and smooth job without waiting extra days or even months, says insurance manager at H&M Malerservice, Elisabeth Endresen.
In Brits' case, she did not have to move out, but they did find a huge nest of wasps inside the roof after removing the damaged parts. Due to severe allergies a single sting would threaten Brits life. The wasps needed to go. Fast! This discovery was a classic “pink elephant” and obviously had an effect on the time schedule and the progress. But it was dealt with quickly.
– The whole team which is needed in order to put a home back in shape after an accident, knows what to do, when to do it, how to do it, what tools to use and how to communicate with the client. All thanks to the national agreements we have with insurance companies all over the country, says Elisabeth.
The nest was taken out, the water drained, the roof dried, a new roof put back and two sparkling new layers of paint was given the new flat living room ceiling in the end.