Flood & Water Damage Repairs

Where the Water Came from Matters

The first question on any water claim is the source, because it decides both how the property has to be treated and how the insurer will look at it.

Clean water — a burst pipe, a failed hot water cylinder, an overflowing bath, a washing machine hose. Unpleasant but straightforward: if we get to it quickly, a lot can be dried in place rather than replaced.

Storm ingress — water coming in through a failed roof, a blocked gutter, or under a door during heavy rain. Usually carries dirt and debris, and often means there is a second repair to do on whatever let it in.

Contaminated water — sewage, drain backflow, or floodwater that has come across the ground. This one is not a drying job. Porous materials that have been in contact with it come out, full stop, and the area needs sanitising before anything goes back.

What the Work Usually Involves

• Stopping the source — isolating the water, and temporary repairs to whatever let it in
• Extraction of standing water
• Moisture readings through floors, walls and cavities to find where it actually went
• Strip-out of carpet, underlay, saturated linings and wet insulation
• Drying with dehumidifiers and air movers, monitored until readings come back to normal
• Treating any mould that has already started
• Repairs to plumbing, roofing or cladding that caused it
• Replacement linings, insulation, flooring, joinery and decorating
• Final clean and handover

Why We Do Not Skip the Drying

Because water travels. It runs along the top plate, down inside the wall cavity and under the flooring, and the wet patch on the ceiling is often nowhere near where the water actually got in. Closing a wall up over damp framing means the job comes back — usually as mould, usually in about six months.

We take moisture readings before we start, monitor them while the driers are running, and record when the readings come back to normal. That record is also what an insurer wants to see.

A Word About Gradual Damage

Most policies cover sudden events, not slow ones. A pipe that bursts is generally covered; a shower that has been leaking quietly into the floor for three years generally is not, even though the damage looks similar once the tiles come up.

We are not the ones who decide that — your insurer is. But we will tell you honestly what we are looking at when we assess it, so you are not surprised later. If it looks like a gradual damage issue, we will say so.