...to ask for your help with a household emergency

[Winchestermom35]

we bought our first house last year & are slowly getting to grips with home ownership.

We are rubbish at even basic diy so learning as we go.

We put a load of washing on & set the dishwasher going before heading on a 3 hour walk with friends this afternoon. Came back to a huge pool of water in our kitchen. This has seeped through to the living room carpet in the next room which is still wet now 😣

Turns out the waste pipe was loose & the connection broke so the washing machine & dishwasher basically emptied onto the kitchen floor.

We’ve mopped the water up but half the living room carpet is still sopping wet & we think there’s water sitting on the concrete under the Lino.

Can anyone tell us what to do? We’re insured for accidental damage at least but still clueless. I feel like I need an adultier adult 😂

The kitchen cabinets will be on legs , the wooded kick boards at the front / bottom is just for show and to stop things disappearing under the cabinets.
The kickboards may be ok once they have dried out but if you can move them so you can get to the water that will of seeped under them.
Make sure you have not got any electrical appliances with their cables trailing in the water and that the fridge / freezers motor did not get wet.

If insured, I’d rip up the carpets and replace them.

Oh, and make sure you clean the DW filter after every wash, clean the WM one regularly, scrape off all plates before washing up or putting them into the DW and never, never, never let hot fat go down the sink.

We had a pipe burst years ago and flood everywhere. We let the insurance company sort it out. They supplied dehumidifiers, replaced everything that was damaged, supplied workmen, replaced damaged electrical items that had been on the floor so fridge, freezer, dishwasher, etc with brand new ones, the works. Why would you bother trying to sort it out yourself when they do everything for you?

Whack the heating up, put towels down on wet carpet and walk on them to soak up as much as you can, keep doing this with dry towels until you can soak up no more. If water has got under Lino it suggests it’s not stuck down so try lifting it, if it comes up easily soak up what you can with any dry towels you have left! It’s highly unlikely to damage your kitchen units, they cope with a soaking, just not for a prolonged period but a couple of hours this afternoon should not be a problem. Getting the rooms heated will help a great deal. Good luck!

We didn’t eat the towels don’t worry 😉

Sadly I can’t contact my dad. My friends dad would probably drive down so wouldn’t want to bother him. I get it though. This is a proper what would my dad do scenario 😂 you wouldn’t think we’re in our thirties
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Would prefer not to bother the insurance. Also, pretty sure there’s no underlay under the carpets given how they feel underfoot. It’s a fairly small living room & like I said, we were looking at replacing in the short term anyway.

Good to know gamerwidow about the plastic stilts. We should be ok on that front. While it was a huge pool it was fairly shallow.

Lots of good advice here.

If you don't want to go through insurance. I would try the water vac, but if the carpet is on it's last legs, just get rid, you could buy a cheap rug until you get a new carpet.

You can take up the lino carefully so it doesn't rip and let it all dry out, fairly easy to relay. Just watch some how to YouTube videos. Most of my diy has be done well after watching YouTube.

As someone said, most kitchen cupboards have "kick boards" at the bottom which you can detach (plastic clips on the legs of the cabinets) while the floor dries out. You will need to buy adhesive to put the lino back and some mastic to re do the edges.

Best advice here is do not leave any appliance unattended. They do cause a lot of fires.

Good luck.

Wet and dry vacuum to prevent further damage. You can rent them from various places

Insurance, seriously

The rise in your insurance premium will be less than the cost of new carpet. They will replace your carpet that you were planning to replace anyway. This scenario is exactly what insurance is for. What's making you not want to bother them?

Do people really never leave appliances on unattended??? if I stayed in every time I put the washing machine, dishwasher or dryer on, I would literally never leave the house!!!
Like.... Ever...

@Crossfitgirl

No never. It really is dangerous.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33124925

I think we’ve learned our lesson about leaving things running 🤦‍♀️

We’ve soaked up what we can in the lounge & will pick up some dehumidifiers ASAP.

Electrical items should be ok as didn’t look like either the dishwasher & washing machine were sat in standing water. Did I mention our dream house has an uneven kitchen floor? 🤔 maybe that’s why it all headed to the living room 😖
I’ve managed to get some towels dried so will lay them down in the living room overnight to help & see if my other half can pull off the kick boards.

I don't either after few floods

At least I wouldn't be in the house...

On a serious note though. Did not know this! Well now I'm a bit worried.

I work full time and have loads of other out of work commitments. Staying in for the duration of the appliance cycles every time is just not do-able at all!

I'm interested to see how many people do this, or CAN do this. Maybe if you're retired or don't work full time /have tons of washing. May start another thread.

Go to your local Screwfix first thing tomorrow morning and get one of these. It's very good.

Crossfitgirl - DH and i both work full time with a 4 yr old DD , no dishwasher but in terms of making sure nothing running while we're out.

Most normal clothes are worn.one, twice max, so not heavily soiled. They go in on a 30 degree.wash which takes 1 hr. During the winter we put that on while having dinner then into the tumble dryer and done by 8.30pm ish. During the summer it goes on first thing in the morning and out on the line about 7am before the school run.

Towels/sheets are done at the weekend during winter when they have to go in the tumble.dryer as the cycles are longer. During the summer we wash them in the evening and then out on the line first thing in the morning.

Everything always gets an extra spin cycle (15 mins) as it massively reduces drying time.

Sorry if you already answered this, but did you connect both appliances yourselves when you moved or did the removals company or a plumber do it?

If you did it yourselves then forget claiming on insurance, most probably.

It sounds like you have decided against it, but this is where an insurance company can help.

We had issues with the water tank in the loft pouring water out. The insurers had a clean up company there the next day to remove the soaked things (loft insulation, some carpets) and they provided serious dehumidifiers and fans to start drying things out. They sent their electrician to check things and change some fittings. They paid for redecoration and carpets (and for the extra electricity use by running big dehumidifiers).

The increase in premiums wasn't much at all. The cost of all the above would have been a lot if we were paying for it. And it got it sorted.

Wouldn't bother with insurance. Carpet - Soak up excess with towels, borrow carpet washer and then ventilate rooms fully until dry.
Lino - pull it up, dry floor with towels or mop, buy new lino and put down. If it is a small piece then the lino won't cost much at all. Lino is very easy to lay.

Notthefordtype it was a differing part of the connections that had come loose than the part we connected if that makes sense. Either way we’d like to avoid insurance if possible.

Kick boards are off & cabinets are on stilts.

How much we thought was under the Lino appears to have reduced. I’ve got fresh towels down on the wet sections of the living room carpet & Going to look at dehumidifiers/wet dry vacuum in the morning & see how we get on. like I said no apparent underlay in the living room & we weren’t keeping it too much longer.

While the premiums themselves might not go up too much, there’s a fairly big excess in water damage so if damage is minimal probably not worth bothering the insurance.

It won’t be worth going via insurance

Water damage has several layers of excess maybe£1000 or so but worth checking

Snao