The little shed by the house got broken into a few months ago, all the good tools are at the farm and in the truck, but they still got some stuff. In an effort to be less of a goober, I've started carrying some insurance on the farm and shop. The insurance company is wanting an inventory list of the tools and pretty much anything else in the shop. So if I were broken into, I'll have a list of what was there, rather than not be able to find tool for months. So I took part of today, laid out the tool from the knack gang box and from the upper part of the Matco rollaround on the shop floor. Took picture of them all showing condition, model number and serial number. So now tonight I'll set up a file with all that info and indexed to the price of the tool. Anybody done this? Just the tools out of these two toolboxes probably took up 200sq ft of shop floor all laid out, and I'm not excited to actually know how much I've spent on these tools over the years. And this is just a fraction of the stuff running around.......
I did that years ago when I built my shop and they wanted the same info. I haven't updated it in years and I've added a lot of stuff. I'm sure it's over six figures now....scary thought!
That's probably a good idea I just never seem to have the time, I do take occasional pics of various tools when were using them just to have a record of what ours looks like ever since we had a ts420 stolen off the back of the flatbed.
And I'm also supposed to make a list of all the trucks, trailers, tractors, welders, heavy equipment etc. Even junk iron gets expensive fast....
I recently had my 10 year old lincoln 14v grease gun stolen out of my truck. Kinda sad I had it for so long and I just dont like loosing anything but it is what it is. I had 2 fresh batterys in that box too... karma will catch up sonner or later I say
Its a good idea in THEORY.. but when you file a claim for loss, they give you depreciation value & not a penny more.. UNLESS.. your policy is written as REPLACEMENT COST.. which costs a heckuva lot more..
A video is a good way to record everything. A insurance adjuster that was once a coffee shop regular told us many times to walk around and video everything in genera that you own. The video is proof of ownership to the insurances companies. The inside of the house also. If you are ever unfortunate enough to be destroyed by fire you will miss listing half your stuff until its to late. A video is a great prompt.
I had started inventories years ago but failed to keep up with adds and deletes so need to get off my butt to do so. Inherited a Boatload of tools from F.I.L. estate and added a lot of my own newer stuff across the years. Our homeowners policy is a replacement policy not just a pay for it so if gets stolen they pay to buy new or purchasable replacements.
I took pictures of my shop after we got hit twice last summer. I did not miss my portaband until I went to use it several months later. Insurance replaced the stuff I listed (less deductible) just not the stuff I did not notice until it was too late. Pictures of the toolbox followed by each drawer. Same with the cupboards and shelves. Took lots of pictures. Digital cameras are great for that. Cam
I also took digital pictures with my camera phone, just walked around the shop taking pictures of the tools, welder torch etc. Every drawer of the tool boxes. It helped a lot with recovery when they broke in a couple months later. I found the guys. and got back 90% of my stuff, but the pictures were proof of ownership. I would recommend pictures of the serial #s of all power tools. They get entered into a database with the local pawnshops, and can help find your stuff if it gets pawned. I didn't make a claim for what was left that I didn't get back, I didn't want the claim, and the resulting raise in rates. Its always a guessing game in how much you have, vs how much you want to insure that you have, vs how much the banker thinks you have, and how much uncle sam thinks what you have is worth.
I like the video idea, but I think pictures will be more searchable/indexable to each tool. Adding all the stuff up from the two pictures came to around 15k, kinda scary considering that's not a whole lot of tools....... Lots more to go and then even more outside equipment to catalog......
It does my heart good, knowing CR. OP got most of his stuff back.. BUT.. does anyone have any stories about the ins. co screwing them over on the money paid out vs replacement costs?? When the wife wrecked her car, {her fault} I had receipts for the new "window visors" I JUST put on the car & she JUST filled the tank up w/ gas & had the receipt.. they said, we'll just chock that up.. it doesn't REALLY add anything to the "bottom line".. 100 bucks is 100 bucks, in MY opinion..
My snap on guy told me a story about a guy getting into it with his insurance company for his snap on tools that were stolen. They wanted to pay him depreciated value on the tools. the argument was how does some that is guaranteed forever deprciate? It has the same value indefinitely as at anytime it can be replaced with a new 1. They drug it out for some time and eventually paid to replace all his tools at current pricing... We had a theft within the past year. They broke into a conex box and loaded one of our tri axles up... took the truck and quite a bit from the box.... multiple water pumps 3000 ft of discharge hose, pipe clamps, new tires, and wheels, etc. The truck was recovered empty and had been crashed into a dumpster. 5000 in damages to the truck and about 30-40k in stolen equipment. We ended up paying for everything out of pocket so our rates wouldn't go up... The best part was the insurance company sent someone down to interview us to see if it was an inside job...
I've seen the depreciation issue before. What I found was that if you can find the stuff in pawn shops or tool liquidation places for less than retail some people will try to go that route. Craftsman stuff is good for that. I tried the videos on my stuff a bunch of years ago and found that it does make it hard to search for things when the pictures are somewhere in the middle of the video. I've gotten to like the digital photos with the date stamps on them now days. Take the photo and when you put it in the computer file you can name the location where the tools come from. Say like, top box bottom pull out drawer and so on.
Isn't this all silly, we spend all kinds of $ on insurance, and then none of us will use it, because we're afraid of being dropped, or rates going up.........
I was thinking the same thing.