Claiming after a pipe burst - what should happen?

steelercaz13

Hi guys

Though this is my first post, I've been reading the forums here for about 12 months - partly thanks to you guys I have a great mobile phone deal, cheap gym membership and pretty cheap utiliity bills!!

But back to the point...

We have been modernising our upstairs bathroom for about 12 months, determined to get it absolutely perfect. We finally finished a few weeks ago. However, yesterday we had a pipe burst behind the sink. Luckily I was at home, and it can't have been happening for more than an hour, but my word was it dramatic!

We have a combi boiler, so upstairs it was spraying high pressure hot water across the bathroom. You step down into our bathroom from the landing, and the water was a good 4inches deep. I managed to fit the pipes back together, and turned off the water at the stopcock.

Unfortunately it had already attacked the kitchen downstairs (which is what I initially heard) - it was a couple of centimetres deep in there, and there were streams pouring down all 4 walls, out of a light switch, out of the extractor fan above the hob, gushing out of the light fitting and pooling on the worktops. It all drained away pretty quickly once I'd stopped the flow, and now I'm trying to work out what will happen.

The assessor is here this afternoon, and i want to make sure we don't get a raw deal. I thought they'd just leave it to dry out and repaint the kitchen. However, my boyfriend feels that because the water will have got behind the kiitchen cupboards they'll need to rip them out and replace, re-plaster the walls (there's quite a few cracks where the dampest bits are) and take up the laminate flooring which is separating slightly. Inside one of the cupboards there's a damp patch and the wood is slightly bumpy.

Also, above the door between the kitchen and the dining room the water has soaked through and there was a damp patch around 2ft square above the door, which has now faded but the wall paper is all bumpy and slightly peeling. There is also a slight damp patch on the ceiling of the dining room.

So my quesiton is, for people who have been through this kind of thing before, or for anyone on the building trade, what should we expect / what should they do? I'm worried if they don't change the cupboards they might start to rot behind as they'll not dry out easily?

Sorry for long message, it's just neither of us have ever clained on any kind of insurance, never mind home insurance, so don't know what to expect / insist on.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

mattymoo

Expect to be passed on to a firm called Munters. They provide large drier units to take the moisture out of the building fabric. The units will need to run constantly for 2-3 weeks (Munters give you money to cover the extra leccy). Once this is done, they can then start to assess the level of damage. Kitchen units probably will need to be replaced and some minor works to replace plaster / defective light fittings.

All takes time I'm afraid because there is no point doing a cosmetic skim if the walls are still holding water like a sponge.

Astaroth

Yup, pump out the water (if necessary), dry everything out and then assess the damage.

Who had done the plumbing work? Yourselves or a company?

steelercaz13

A plumbing company did it. He said he's never come across anything like it - one of those quick fit connectors burst, and whilst he's had them go before, it's always been when he's first fitted them and turned the water back on - not 6 months later...

He came back down yesterday and replaced it with another connector, leaving the one that burst here should the insurance assessor want to see it. He says if he hadn't fitted it right it would've gone straight away, but he has insurance to cover him should our insurance company blame him.

There are damp patches all over the walls, but no more actual water left, either standing or running. It all seems to have soeaked into the ground... The insurance company are sending a drying company out this afternoon to assess if it needs drying equipment. I've just found that the water has also ran into the microwave, so unplugged it.

All I'm worried about is them fobbing us off, just painting the walls instead of replastering them, leaving the cupboards there, and then us having problems with damp / mould / rotting down the line... :-(

Astaroth

If you did then the claim would have to be reopened and the extra work done and everything repainted again (so long run more expensive for the insurer plus reputational damage).

Contrary to popular believe insurers do not avoid doing what is necessary and they get experts in to decide what is necessary... unfortunately urban myth etc makes some policyholders think they know better than builders etc on what needs doing.

moonrakerz

If you have heaters and dehumidifiers to dry out your house, you will find the house becomes very hot and noisy. You should be able to claim for your eating your main meal of the day out of the house. We tried all the local pubs that we hadn't been to before !

amboy

We got hold of a copy of the work schedule from the loss adjuster given by the contracter.

We had to pull them up all the time as they had priced for reboarding ceilings, removing rads to decorate etc and never attempted to do any of those as the work was actually carried out by other small firms.

courtjester

It's quite amazing how awful water damage seems when the water is still pouring through, but how little damage it can sometimes cause - providing the drying process is thorough.

Generally, electrical wiring will be OK unless very old. Plasterboard ceilings may bow or they may not - decorations are normally left stained so would expect as a minimum that the painting will need doing again - wall plaster depends on age and condition, if it was good to start with it should survivie OK. You probably outght to get appliances such as the microwave checked out properly before re-using.

Kitchen cupboards may or may not start to deteriorate - there is a good chance that if the water was stopped quickly that only surface damage has occurred - chipboard units can delaminate after a period due to expansion of the material, but you would expect to see this within a week or so if its going to happen.

The key is ventilation - make sure you open up as much of the affected area as possible so that any residual water can dry naturally. Dehumidifiers may eb needed if there was excessive saturation but from what you describe this may prove unneeded - the specialists surveying will eb able to advise.

The laminate flooring may be beyond help once this starts to expand and distort so you may have to replace. The problem is the damp trapped under the floor (usually concrete) makes the laminate worse, don't remove this until the surveyors have inspected, but it probably needs taking up to allow the floor to dry.

Because you can't always see the way things work with water damage, you don't have to regard the claim as closed once the main areas are rectified - the insurers will re-open the case for a further claim if there is hidden damage not dealt with initially which becomes evident later.