Major house flood. What next?

[ourbathroomflooded]

We had work done on our bathroom one week ago, it was completely refit.

I was sitting in the bath and had been for about 15 minutes yesterday evening when I heard an almighty bang, soon followed by gushing of water. Water was escaping at a ridiculous rate from a pipe within the built-in under sink cupboard. Within minutes the bathroom was flooded in ankle deep water.

We have only owned the house for 3 months and in my sheer panic I had no idea where to find the stop tap. It wasn’t under any of the obvious kitchen cupboards where you would expect it to be. DH knew but he was at work at the time and couldn’t get hold of him. By the time I’d figured it out and turned off water had probably been flowing for 10 minutes.

The kitchen is directly below the bathroom so water was streaming through the ceiling lights and also resulted in the kitchen being ankle deep in water. DH, myself and my parents managed to mop most of it up last night but there are water marks on the ceiling and we’re all concerned about the impact to the kitchen cupboards and if they will swell with water damage. The first metre or so of the carpet adjacent to the kitchen and the landing carpet adjacent to the bathroom are also saturated with water.

The plumber / property solutions company was checkatrade registered and had great reviews but it’s glaringly obvious that this happened because they did not seal two pipes together - pretty crucial mistake. I don’t think it was triggered by the bath and was basically waiting to happen, I suppose fortunate in a way that we were in and awake to deal with it.

We are currently staying with my parents who are helping us to sort it out. What are the next steps now? I’m hoping it will go through the company’s insurance but not sure where we stand as he finished the work last Monday.
We have building and contents insurance of course but not sure when the right time is to contact them or if we should try to get the company to claim and put it right. If we need new carpets and the kitchen being redone, it’s not going to be quick.

I’m 37 weeks pregnant and with high BP so this is the last thing we needed by all accounts. I have no idea of time scales (surely this won’t be quick?) and panicking about living with family temporarily with a newborn, as it’s not what we imagined at all.

Sorry if this is a garbled post. If anyone has any reassurance, similar experience or suggestions I would be really grateful. Even just calm logic which I don’t seem to have right now!

Thank you :)

It sounds like all the water found its way out of the bathroom floor / kitchen ceiling space into the kitchen through the gap around the lights, it doesn't sound like there will be any hanging around up there, but any board, maybe plywood, under your bathroom floor covering might be damp. Does the kitchen have a concrete floor? My concern would be dampness in that. Can you take the floor covering up and have a look? Those are the kind of things that take a long time to dry.

Have they measured the damp with a meter? What about the kitchen units , the plinths, skirting and doors will absorb moisture and warp and swell, potentially the veneer on the units could peel as they dry out. Any ceiling light fittings in the kitchen may now be safe and need replacing. The ceiling boards may need to dry out and crack as they do, It feels as if you have gone from describing inches of water collecting in both rooms to a small trickle dripping through.

Thanks everyone for the really helpful and detailed comments, I have read them all & it’s all really helping

Water was pouring through the light fittings in the ceiling. Nowhere else. We’ve checked the top of the kitchen units and they’re totally dry. Floor is lino and feels to be dry but has lifted so will obviously need replacing.

The main concerns we have is any water that may be sitting between the bathroom floor (also lino) and the kitchen ceiling. The plaster looks fine and isn’t bowing but some water marks are around the lights and a couple of others too.

Carpet on landing is saturated so has been peeled up, will need a new one laying and new insulation too.

That’s the extent of it. I might have been dramatic calling it a major flood. There was enough water to cover the kitchen floor and seep into the lounge carpet, but only by about half a foot.

Call the insurance company asap. Get industrial dehumidifiers in ASAP to prevent mould/damp for the baby from forming. The insurance company can then go after the contractor, if they wish to do so. If they do not react quickly enough, put it in writing, notify claims, get your own humidifiers in, take photos of the meter readings and check your terms and conditions. They should normally have to cover the extra electricity costs.

Mould can form under the Lino in the kitchen and the bathroom. I would be pulling it up to dry it out and just have it refit again later.

please get the claim raised with your insurance, pay the excess and tell them you want it back off the plumber

water gets absolutely everywhere and you won’t know the full impact til the insurance company rip everything back

a friend had a small leak that completely warped all the kitchen cabinets, even the ones nowhere the leak

This happened to my mum. She hired a project manager.

She was out of her house for six months. They tried to put her in a B&B at first but she rejected that and she went into a holiday rental on the river and treated it like a bit of a holiday.

She got a new kitchen and flooring and all sorts but the disruption was huge. At the end there were cleaners in there for about week as there was so much dust.

You need to lift the upstairs floor to check what has happened below, expose it and dry it out. Tbh what you describe now should not require you to move out as long as you can access a loo and wash. Dm lost her lounge ceiling, room was covered in vermiculite insulation which had absorbed the water and weighed down the plasterboard ceiling, and water damage. It needed a wall stripped back and dried out then complete reinstatement of the ceiling and decor but remained living there. The insurance company provided a dehumidifier , paid the electricity to run it and issued a drying out certificate. There was no mould but it did smell damp while it dried.

The kitchen floor is being refit. I’m concerned about the bathroom but nobody else seems to be.

Everything is fully functional in the house. I think it felt a lot worse this morning before we’d had chance to go and look again. Nothing seems damaged beyond repair apart from the kitchen flooring which has lifted. There are watermarks by the spotlights in the kitchen but again we have pulled them out to dry.

What was the upstairs floor? If you are having it relayed lifting a panel or a few boards is not going to be an issue to check. How old is the property?

I don’t want to be shortsighted and of course would rather it fixed fully. Spoken to insurance and they have said we can get it fixed first ourselves without raising a claim and then contact them down the line if there are any further issues.

In any event the soonest the insurance would send someone is Friday, which we could’ve been underway with fixing before then. Is a dehumidifier essential? We’ve had the heating blasting out and the plumbers brought along what looks like a heat unit for the kitchen. It feels mostly dry but I can smell damp plaster. I of course don’t want a mouldy house but equally can’t move out for 3 months for a 10 minute leak, surely?

It’s vinyl tiled with floor boards underneath. 1950s property.

In that case you should lift the floor as it won't dry out easily under vinyl.

I wouldnt say a dehumidifier is vital at this stage going from our experience .We had a pipe split and it didn't cause anywhere near the mess yours has, it was still bad. We had to have all the plaster taken off the wall adjoining the bathroom - the dehumidifier alone couldn't do it - we had to get rid of the very wet plaster.
Also make a note of your electricity meter readings as our insurance also paid the excessive amount needed to run the dehumidifiers.

Thank you

dehumidifier is 100% essential

If your kitchen ceiling is plasterboarded, OP, you can literally cut a few holes in it to aerate and dry out the space between the floors. Keep the pieces you cut and any half decent decorator will be able to patch them back in invisibly. I was in tears looking at the big, ragged holes in the wall which were made to access the leaking pipe in our kitchen. The decorator had it sorted in no time, to the extent that as soon as he’d finished I couldn’t tell you where the holes had been.

We had a house fire which rendered our house unlivable for ten months. Insurance as pp have said. But be prepared-hopefully yours will be better but we had to source our own alternative accommodation (family of 6 plus animals, not easy) and then argue with them over living expenses etc. so my advice is obvious but important, document everything, and keep all receipts for spending caused by the flood, from sandwiches to accommodation and everything in between.

Seems strange your insurance company have said if you don’t fix it properly yourself ring them back up and they'll come out and fix the mistakes and any long term damage that might have been caused

theres a lot of rubbish and conflicting advice on here. Please go through your insurance now to save yourself long term issues