Flood

[Electric_Andy]

Hi all. We've had a flood. Downstairs shower was overflowing with rainwater from the drain on the flat roof. Eventually got it fixed through BG homecare via Dynorod. However, the neighboring bedroom is totally soaked.

My question is, will it all dry out and be usable or is it new floorboards, underlay and carpet time?

 

[fossyant]

Quite often it will dry out. Get a dehumidifier. What about ceiling ?

 

[Electric_Andy]

We've had 2 dehumidifiers on it for the last 24 hours. It's slowly drying out but still sopping at the far end. Ceiling is fine, it leaked up through the shower, filled up the shower tray which then overflowed into the bedroom

 

[Electric_Andy]

Guess will have to wait and see if it smells damp when dried out ?

 

[si_c]

If it's very wet then it's probably worth getting a wet vac on it - a dehumidifier will reduce humidity and mean it dries out quicker but they won't work quickly if there is a lot of water standing in the carpet.

Nip to screwfix and get one from there something like this - https://www.screwfix.com/p/233kh.

 

[Jameshow]

Put something nice into the flood water too. Pine fresh detergent comes to mind, stop it smelling whilst you clean it out?

 

[Electric_Andy]

Put something nice into the flood water too. Pine fresh detergent comes to mind, stop it smelling whilst you clean it out?

Good idea but too late now. It's the carpet and underlay that are wet.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Carpet and underlay finally seems to be drying out and not smelling so bad. We'll probably dry it out thoroughly and re-lay the flooring and hope it's ok. If we encounter any problems down the line, like smells or broken floor boards then at least we'll know what it is!

 

[si_c]

Carpet and underlay finally seems to be drying out and not smelling so bad. We'll probably dry it out thoroughly and re-lay the flooring and hope it's ok. If we encounter any problems down the line, like smells or broken floor boards then at least we'll know what it is!

Try putting some baking soda on the carpet when it's dry, leave it to sit for 24 hours before cleaning, can help to remove the smell from the carpet. Failing that could be worth hiring a carpet cleaner.

What type of underlay do you have? PU or some kind of wool/felt?

 

[Ian H]

You should be okay eventually if it's clean water. Touch wood.

 

[presta]

Don't you have insurance? Don't they organise a contractor who knows the ropes?

 

[Electric_Andy]

Don't you have insurance? Don't they organise a contractor who knows the ropes?

We have insurance but don't want to claim unless it's all ruined. A claim would mean we pay more for the next 5 years and in today's insurance climate it's bad enough already! Did the contractors know the ropes? No. It was a complete farce. BG used dynorod who sent a plumber. The plumber left, and said it's a drainage issue. The drainage guy came, left and said it's a plumbing issue. The plumbers returned and found a sponge down in the pipe that the precious owners had stuffed down to stop water coming up. I told them that was not the issue, or at least was not the main cause. They insisted that was job done and signed off the job having "tested" it and also lied about replacing a pipe with a larger diameter one which they didn't do. We took no remedial action because we were told it was fixed. So it rained again and flooded worse thanbthe first time. Eventually we got the drainage guys back who knew what they were doing. Realized that the flat roof drainage had been piped to the Grey water outlet, which was clogged. They cleared it and that's job done. BG has said they are not responsible so we are not entitled to any compensation

 

[rockyroller]

wall boards ...

 

[Electric_Andy]

Just updating this in case it is relevant to anyone in the future.

After the flood (which was clean rain water), we peeled back the carpet and underlay to try and "hang" all of the wet material, whilst also exposing the floor boards. We placed 2 dehumidifiers in the room (which we had already), running day and night. In hindsight, we should have bought some of those mopping up sheets (scroofix do them); it would have got the worst of the water up more quickly. Or even bought a wet'n'dry vacuum, I think they can be had for £40 something.

Anyway, we must have emptied 30+ Litres out of the dehumidifiers over a 10-day period. Slowly, the boards, carpet and underlay started to dry out fully. Initially there was a smeall of damp, but when it was all dry it didn't smell at all. We left the underlay in place, and could in fact of used the old carpet but the teenager had painted the room and got paint all over it so we got a new carpet.

Everything is fine now - no smell or any indication that anything was wet.

Having the heating on 18 hours a day, and running the dehumidifiers, probably was a longer and expensive way of doing it.