Flood.
Rising water is excluded from every standard home, condo, and renters policy. This is the separate policy that pays when water arrives at ground level.
One request, shopped across 60+ carriers by a licensed agent.
About three minutes. No obligation.
What it is
What is flood insurance?
Flood insurance covers the one thing every homeowners policy refuses to: water rising from outside the house. If water falls from the sky and comes in through a storm-damaged roof, homeowners handles it. If the same water arrives at ground level, this is the only policy that pays.
Most flood policies in the United States come from the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal program run by FEMA and sold through agents and participating carriers. The policy defines a flood precisely: a general condition of water inundating land that is normally dry, from overflowing rivers or tides, rapid rainfall runoff, or mudflow, affecting your property and at least one other, or two or more acres. That definition matters, because water that fails it, a burst pipe, a backed-up sewer on a dry day, is not a flood and belongs to a different policy.
A flood policy is really two coverages chosen separately: one for the building and one for your belongings, each with its own limit and its own deductible. Skipping the contents side is the most common regret we see after a claim. There is also a growing private flood market that can offer higher limits, replacement-cost contents, temporary living expenses, and shorter waiting periods than the federal program. We quote both where they are available and tell you plainly which one fits.
Who usually carries it
- Homeowners with a federally backed mortgage in a high-risk zone, where the lender requires it.
- Owners outside the mapped high-risk zones, where a large share of flood claims actually happen.
- Anyone at the bottom of a hill, near a creek, or on a street that ponds in a hard rain.
- Owners of finished basements, who need the basement limitation explained before the water arrives.
- Ground-floor and garden-level renters, who can buy contents-only coverage.
- Coastal and riverside owners, whose window to buy closes once the storm has a name.
Coverage
What flood coverage handles.
The building
The structure and what is built into it, foundation walls, electrical and plumbing systems, drywall, built-in cabinets, installed carpet. The federal form pays replacement cost only on a primary residence insured near its rebuild cost, and we check which side of that line you are on.
Your belongings
Contents coverage is a separate election with its own limit and deductible, settled at depreciated value under the federal form. Skipping it is the most common regret we see after a claim.
Essential equipment, even in a basement
Furnaces, water heaters, sump pumps, well tanks, fuel tanks, and electrical panels are covered even below ground level, the carve-out inside the basement limitation.
Cleanup, tear-out, and debris removal
The demolition every flood claim starts with: cutting out soaked drywall and insulation, pulling ruined flooring, and hauling away what the water carried in.
Steps you take to protect the house
A modest allowance for sandbags, pumps, and moving your belongings out of harm's way when flooding is imminent. The policy rewards acting before the water arrives, and so do we.
A detached garage
A slice of building coverage extends to a detached garage used as a garage. Any other outbuilding, shed, or guest cottage needs its own flood policy.
Exclusions: read these first
What it does not cover.
Every policy has edges. Knowing them now is the difference between a covered claim and a surprise.
Finished basements
Below the lowest elevated floor, the federal policy covers structure and machinery but not finished walls, floors, or anything stored down there. If your basement is finished, we need to talk before the water does.
Somewhere to live in the meantime
The federal policy pays nothing toward a hotel or rental while the house is repaired. Some private flood policies add it back, which is a main reason we quote both markets.
Everything outside the building's walls
Decks, patios, fences, pools, wells, septic systems, and landscaping are excluded, even though they are usually the flood's first casualties.
Water that does not meet the definition of a flood
A burst pipe or a dry-day sewer backup is not a flood, no matter the depth. Those belong to your homeowners policy and its water backup endorsement.
Your cars
A flooded vehicle is an auto claim, payable only if the car carries comprehensive coverage. Worth checking before storm season rather than after.
Where carriers differ
The federal form is standardized. Private flood policies are not, and their limits, waiting periods, and living-expense coverage all move by carrier. We read the specific form before you buy and show you the trade in writing.
The creek that had never come up before
A week of rain upstream, and the creek two streets over crests on a Tuesday night. By morning there is knee-high water sitting in the first floor of a house whose owners bought flood insurance three years earlier, mostly because their agent kept bringing it up.
How the coverage responds: building coverage pays the tear-out and replacement of the drywall, insulation, flooring, doors, and baseboards, plus the furnace and water heater that drowned in the crawlspace, minus the building deductible. Contents coverage pays for the sofa, the rugs, and the washer and dryer, settled at depreciated value under the federal form, a term the owners knew going in because it was explained at quote time rather than discovered at claim time. The neighbors with only a homeowners policy recovered nothing at all: same water, same street, no flood policy. Their first floor came back out of savings, on whatever timeline savings allowed, and that difference is why this page exists.
An illustrative example, not a real claim. Actual coverage depends on the policy issued.
What moves the price
We don’t quote prices on a website. Anyone who does is guessing. These are the factors underwriters actually weigh.
- Elevation: how high the lowest floor sits relative to expected flood levels at the address. The federal program now rates house by house, not just zone by zone.
- Foundation type (slab, crawlspace, basement, or elevated on piers) and whether the mechanical equipment sits above the first floor.
- Distance to the nearest water and the kind of flooding it produces: coastal surge, river overflow, or rainfall that pools where it lands.
- What it would cost to rebuild the structure at local labor and material prices.
- The building and contents limits you choose, and the separate deductible on each.
- Prior flood claims at the address, which follow the property, not just the owner.
- Community-level mitigation: towns that invest in flood management earn program discounts that pass through to your premium.
Credits that can move this price
The factors above push the price up. These are the named credits that pull it back. Which ones exist, and what they’re worth, varies by carrier and state. We check every one that could apply before we quote.
- Community Rating System discount: your town's floodplain work earns a percentage off every federal policy in it
- Engineered flood openings (vents) in crawlspaces and enclosed foundations
- Machinery and equipment elevated above the first floor
- Credit for elevating the structure itself above expected flood levels
- An elevation certificate documenting the house sits higher than the rating assumed
- First-year discounts for properties newly mapped into a high-risk zone, phased in over time
Questions
Flood, asked and answered.
Reviewed by a licensed property & casualty agent · Updated July 2026
Pairs with
Coverage that usually travels together.
- 01HomeownersCovers the house, everything in it, and your legal responsibility to others. One policy for the largest thing you own.Explore →
- 02CondoYour association's master policy stops somewhere inside your unit. An HO-6 covers everything from that line in.Explore →
- 03RentersCovers what the landlord's policy never will: your belongings, your liability, and somewhere to stay after a loss.Explore →
What happens next
A licensed agent reads it
Your request goes to a person, not a queue, the same business day.
We shop the carriers
We quote it across the markets that actually write this line and compare what comes back.
You decide
Options side by side, in plain English. Nothing is bound until you confirm it in writing.
Rather do the whole thing by phone? Call (917) 246-7038.
Carrier count reflects current appointments. Availability varies by state and line.
Start here
Let's price your flood coverage.
Tell us what you need. We shop it across 60+ carriers. You pick, and nothing is in force until it's confirmed in writing.
About three minutes. No obligation.
