It's complicated. I'm a builder, so when the insurance company asked me to estimate what it would cost to rebuild my house, I estimated three times the purchase price, mainly because it's so funky and so full of character that I knew the framing would be endless, and then the sheet rock, the finish work, yadda, yadda. I ended up with a 14,000 deductible. I was okay with that, being a builder. Figured I'd be the one to fix it anyways. After a couple years I began questioning the wisdom of my estimate and lowered the replacement cost considerably (they quit inspecting my house after that); but it's a game of roulette homeowners play with insurers and the house (meaning the insurance company) always wins. Home insurance doesn't cover flood damage. Flood damage, last I heard, doesn't cover damage to mechanicals in cellars (that's separate coverage). The ways they wiggle out of paying out should be effing illegal.