Should i claim for water damage..........??

F_Bear

Mods, ive placed this in the flood thread aswell. unsure if you ment the floods as in 2007??

Should i claim for water damage..........??
hey, i have a 3bed semi and was decorating the upsatirs bedroom. i took off the radiator to paint and in doin so distured the pipe near the value causing a tiny leak. i fixed it by tightening up the value joint.

the next day i went to work for and was phoned by the wife saying it was leaking. badly. she turned the water off but not before the heating tank, 5 gallons?, had empited into the house. water came through the living room ceiling underneath.

a plumber friend come round and tightened the value proplery and re-fitted the radiator, now all ok. im left with 2 L shaped brown stains on the living room ceiling. ive got a dehumidifier on and the ceiling hasnt 'bowed' or anything and the stains arent soft to touch.

im planing on letting it dry and painting it, first with oil undercoat then emulsion. if this is the worse of it im happy and lesson learned. although ive been told they could be lasting damage, electrics, damp etc and i should claim??

im a honest guy and dont want to claim for the sake of it but could they be lasting damage? and also how would i be fixed for it been my fault in taking the radiator off? although i have accidental damage on both my buildings and contenets and have never claimed

any help would be appreciated. thank.

ormus

get the job priced up first.
it maybe that itll cost less than your excess. (or not a lot more).

excess is typically 100-250 quid.

F_Bear

thanks for the reply.

on the 'surface' all the job consists of is repainting the ceiling that i'll do myself. i was getting a new carpet for the rooom that flooded anyway.

im more concerned about what could be lurking under the surface and would the insurance look into it?

ormus

its very unlikely that 5 gallons of water has done any major damage.
water finds its own level or is soaked up by plaster etc.
that amount wont have damaged the joists etc... they will dry out PDQ.

bobthedambuilder

If the ceiling hasn't bowed and the plaster still feels hard, it's unlikely any lasting damage has been done. Give it time to dry out fully. You can use an oil undercoat (you can thin it down with white spirit if it's a bit thick), or you can get a job-specific primer/sealer (sometimes called a stain killer). Put one coat of that on the affected area and a good bit beyond, then allow to dry and repaint the ceiling with emulsion.

F_Bear

thanks for all the advice. its drying well and will paint over when done.

and note to self: dont take radiators off in the future!

AdmiralX

F_Bear wrote: »

Mods, ive placed this in the flood thread aswell. unsure if you ment the floods as in 2007??

Should i claim for water damage..........??
hey, i have a 3bed semi and was decorating the upsatirs bedroom. i took off the radiator to paint and in doin so distured the pipe near the value causing a tiny leak. i fixed it by tightening up the value joint.

the next day i went to work for and was phoned by the wife saying it was leaking. badly. she turned the water off but not before the heating tank, 5 gallons?, had empited into the house. water came through the living room ceiling underneath.

a plumber friend come round and tightened the value proplery and re-fitted the radiator, now all ok. im left with 2 L shaped brown stains on the living room ceiling. ive got a dehumidifier on and the ceiling hasnt 'bowed' or anything and the stains arent soft to touch.

im planing on letting it dry and painting it, first with oil undercoat then emulsion. if this is the worse of it im happy and lesson learned. although ive been told they could be lasting damage, electrics, damp etc and i should claim??

im a honest guy and dont want to claim for the sake of it but could they be lasting damage? and also how would i be fixed for it been my fault in taking the radiator off? although i have accidental damage on both my buildings and contenets and have never claimed

any help would be appreciated. thank.

You should, that is what the insurance is for. They would ask if the leak is fixed, and it is. Redecorating the ceiling of a lounge costs as it is a big room so probably is worth.

bobthedambuilder

AdmiralX wrote: »

You should, that is what the insurance is for. They would ask if the leak is fixed, and it is. Redecorating the ceiling of a lounge costs as it is a big room so probably is worth.

It would cost me about £5 worth of paint and maybe 2 hours of my time. Not exactly insurance claim fodder is it? Of course if you were to bring in a decorator I'm sure the numbers would go up and make it worthy of a claim, but the OP sounds as if he's capable of doing this himself.

2 downsides with involving the insurance:
1. There's probably an excess so it'd cost you more than doing it yourself.
2. Normally, claims = increased premium next time round.

markcooper006

as this is damage caused due to maintenance issue, there are more chances of claim being rejected. also i don't this is a severe damage as it was very small amount of water.

ashleypride

markcooper006 wrote: »

as this is damage caused due to maintenance issue, there are more chances of claim being rejected. also i don't this is a severe damage as it was very small amount of water.

Yeah, most policies exclude accidental buildings damage on their standard policies.