Help! Flooded bathroom what do I do?

[Frusty]

Someone left a tap running in our bathroom tonight. The sink is small and doesn’t drain fast. By the time we realised the bathroom floor (vinyl) was covered in water and the landing (carpet over wood) was wet too. We’ve dried the vinyl and have a fan heater on next to the carpet. Downstairs water has been dripping from a joint in the plaster, and a couple of feet away though a light fitting.
I’ve reached a fair age without having a clue what to do next - the ceiling doesn’t seem to be coming in at least. Do we get a plumber? An electrician? Mop it up and hope for the best?
Advice greatly appreciated!

Turn the electricity off to the lights near the leak. There should be a switch on your switch board to turn the ground floor lights off. Then I would mop up and let it dry out and reassess in the morning

Do you have house insurance? Water can do a lot of damage so might be best to have it assessed via insurance.

I did something very similar and they brought in huge de-humidifiers and also repainted basically the whole of our open plan downstairs as there was an area of staining.

Thanks both.
We have insurance but as this isn’t a leak but an overflow I don’t think we would be covered
There is only one light affected (in our utility room) and I’m guessing the water chooses a place with a hole in order to run down.
Would it be a plumber we call out or someone else?
It’s a new bathroom so I really don’t want it ripped out.

Most insurance covers this sort of thing.
It is commonly referred to as an escape of water. I would call them first thing.

Doesn't sound like you need a plumber as it doesn't sound like a plumbing fault. Sounds more like an electrician to check safety and potential repairs to flooring, plaster and decoration. The insurers will send someone to assess. For tonight turn the electrics off to the relecant electrics at the fuse board.

Yeah I would get an electrician to do a test. It could easy short out the whole electrics in the house otherwise.

Have been looking through insurance documents. It mentions escape of water (in terms of the excess for this) but has another bit that says “We don’t cover - loss or damage caused by water overflowing from sinks, wash basins, bidets, showers and baths as a result of taps being left on in your home”.
Just as well the ceiling hasn’t fallen in or we’d be screwed. I probably shouldn’t speak too soon though...

Could it be under Accidental Damage - if you have it as an extra

Do you have accidental damage cover

Hello, if it’s an extra I won’t have it. Have never made a claim on house insurance in at least 20 years so won’t have put down any extras. Obviously wish I had now!
I’ve found the switch in the fuse board for the downstairs light and have turned it off for now.
I wonder what an electrician actually does to check it’s safe? Hoping he/she doesn’t have to take the ceiling off to check!
Thanks again for all the advice. Going to bed now and hoping it’s all miraculously dry in the morning.

As long as the water can escape, It will dry and everything will be fine. Just don’t turn on the lights downstairs for couple of days.

Please turn off the electric fan heater near the wet carpet. That could be very dangerous. The best thing for wet carpet is to try to soak up as much water as possible - walking on towels over it works well. If the carpets are wool then using heat to dry them can make them shrink.

poke a hole through the ceiling with a skewer where you think there might be water lying. It will drain through the hole into your bucket. The sooner the water is gone the less damage it will do.

You can use filler on small skewer holes much more easily than renewing a ceiling that has fallen down.

Remove the bath panel and the flooring vinyl to allow the floor to dry.

Lift a few floorboards if you can. This may be easiest under the bath or where plumbers have previously cut it.

Thanks - wowfudge it’s off now, previous owners put carpets down pretty sure they aren’t wool, will go for the towels this evening.
If anyone other than pigletjohn was asking me to poke holes in my ceiling I wouldn’t do it! Will give it a try. I don’t think the water is coming directly from the bathroom - the floor was covered in cement when the room was done up, there don’t seem to be any sites for the water to get through - but it has flowed onto the landing which is carpet over wood. We could take a board up to look inside, I think. And, getting the slow draining basin sorted is top of my list when I get in from work!!
Thank you all for advice. Wish there was an easy way to see if the electrics are fine.

It will either work, short out the fuse or not work!

Once dry it should be safe to use

I like your gung ho approach! The light was still working even with water dripping down it (before we turned it off) so fingers crossed!
Instead of shouting “wash your hands!” at the dc I will be hoping that they don’t touch the tap!

LOL - years of experience

Depends if there’s condensation left in the fitting - if any

We had similar but the water came via the light - it just blew the circuit board but once dry was fine