Bathroom flooded my kitchen (clean water) what now?

[fartlek]

The flexible hose feeding the hot water tap in the bathroom (which is directly above the kitchen) burst yesterday and I couldn't find the stopcock. There was water pouring through the spot sockets and the plasterboard joins onto the kitchen which is ikea units with wood flooring. It was literally a waterfall for about 1/2 hr until my saintly handyman neighbour found the valve on the pavement outside to turn off the water.

My question is what do we do now? The laminate in the bathroom is ruined but it wasn't in good shape anyway. The kitchen has me worried though. It's a 30s terrace with a small space under the subfloor for pipes, will that be full of murky water? We have a lowered ceiling in the kitchen and it worries me that there will be damp and mould in these spaces if we don't strip it all back. It doesn't look too bad at the moment, the edges of the floor are a bit raised and the cupboard interiors have swelled but you wouldn't know otherwise. I'm worried that our insurer (and my husband) will just do the cosmetic work and not address anything under the surface. Should I be?

Oh yeah, I'm also worried about the electrics. It was redone about 10 years ago but we've had enough problems for me to think it was a shoddy job. The sockets in the wall that I thought hadn't been affected (haven't tried worst wall yet) buzzed when I switched them on and one of the spots went out suddenly when the lights came back on. The emergency plumbers we got in weren't concerned about the electrics so dh thinks it's fine.

My other small secret wish is that this could be a good opportunity to sort out our badly laid out kitchen and add counter space and a dishwasher. If we get an insurance claim approved would the insurer do the work themselves or just cut a cheque?

Sorry, lots of questions. Any advice greatly received!

[fartlek]

This might be better in property/diy, not sure how to move it though.

[mybrainhurtsalot]

Not personal experience, but when a friend had a leaking pipe under the floorboards she had industrial strength dehumidifiers to dry the place out before the work started on replacing all the floors & kitchen. Only lower cabinets were covered by the insurance IIRC so she had to put in extra money herself. She had minor layout changes.

Can the insurance company not advise on the options?

Another friend was severely flooded and their insurance co had to get them a short term let while the house was totally redone. Again they put extra money in to do additional work at the same time and that was not a problem at all.

Good luck getting it sorted out!

[IonaMumsnet]

Afternoon all. We're going to move this to Property/DIY at the OP's request. Good luck with it OP. There's no emoticon for [towels] so have some instead.

[fartlek]

Thank you! Wine was opened at the crack of 5.
We have an insurance person coming on Monday so we'll see. I think I have to agree with dh what we'd ideally like so that we can request extras as an option.
The bathroom floor is bumpy and peeling but tbh the kitchen doesn't look too bad. This is probably a blessing but my worry is that all the damage is hidden. DH has just informed me the washing machine isn't working now too.
It's heartening to hear that others have been allowed to do additional improvements at the same time as the repair.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

This happened at my parents house. Old tap pipe burst and flooded the kitchen, hallway and living room. The insurance company were fantastic. They arranged all the repairs, wrote off everything electrical and gave my mum a list of new stuff she could order as replacements. She ended up with a brand new cooker, dishwasher, etc. They even took the carpets away to see if they could be salvaged. The only problem was dehumidifiers running constantly for about six months to make sure everything was dried out.