Home insurance claim - burst pipe - advice needed please!

I had a burst pipe earlier this year. Water came through an overhanging celling which is outside luckily for me, and no asbestos involved, but the whole process was indeed, convoluted.

The overhanging ceiling was two, the original cement board and a false one made of plasterboard with a gap of about 6 inches. Insurance sent their own damage inspector out then they sent their preferred contractor out to quote for repairs.

I would have preferred to have the ceiling replaced with one properly insulated one but alas no, they could only quote to replace what was there. I had two local contractors quote for replacing both ceilings and my preferred solution. Obviously the second being cheaper. However both local contractors were way over the quote of the insurance's contractor and that's all the insurer would agree to pay so that's what got done.

They even admitted that they don't make any money out of doing insurance work, it's basically used to keep their builders in work and done at cost.
 
:mad:

The asbestos removal company* came last week, encapsulated & removed the asbestos (which turned out to be a single intact/undamaged tile propped up against the wall), ripped up the floor, took off all the skirtings in the kitchen, hallway, one in the living room, and installed a big dehumidifier and several fans pointed at the brickwork behind the skirting.

Great I thought - at least we're now making some progress. While they were here, I asked what they thought would need removing/replacing, and they said basically all the floor level cabinets which had gotten wet and were swollen, I also asked them to check the appliances which they said they would.

Fast forward to today, and we've had a call with the insurance company to discuss the next steps, and they're under the impression that it's just the floor and skirtings which need reinstating - they've had no further report from the restoration company to say anything about anything else.

No further info for our builder to go on - they basically just said, get them to quote for anything damaged - with photos - and send it over.

Also confirmed that if they can't replace the damaged items with matching ones, then it's a 50% contribution for any matching items not damaged, e.g. units, tiles (of which several were damaged when removing the skirtings), etc., and I will extremely impressed if they manage to find anything which matches! So basically we're going to be stuck with the choice of mismatched wall units and tiles dotted around the room, or having to find ££££ to replace the rest.

Starting to get a bit fed up now to be honest, obviously there's going to be some disruption, and these things take time, but it would be nice if they'd actually talk to each other, as we're being left with very little information, and what we get drip-fed seems to be conflicting. My other half is really ****** off as we're now stuck with bare concrete/old tiles in half the downstairs, and no clue as to what's going to happen or timescales



*actually the same guys from the same water leak restoration company as before, so quite why it took a month to sort I don't know!
 
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We had a huge claim in our old ground floor flat - my son had turned the kitchen tap on full (I had the hose connected, to wash the car). The hose connector slipped off, spraying the tap full-blast over the worktops and down the back of every. single. appliance :eek:

Fridge-freezer (huge, stainless American style side-by-side), washing machine & tumble dryer, dishwasher & coffee machine (Sage)...

Insurer's claims manager tried fobbing us off with the bare minimum, cheapest white goods and some Nespresso pod machine, despite the New for Old/Like for Like terms in our policy. It took 9 months of arguing and the Ombudsman to force a settlement we could accept...

It's beyond frustrating when you pay extra for a decent policy, but they quibble over every penny. And the next year's premium was ridiculous.
 
Yeah, the "matching sets" cover (or lack thereof) has been a bit of an eye opener - I thought that applied to things like suites of furniture, and other discrete items, but apparently also includes kitchen cabinets, tiles etc!
 
Yeah as soon as theres moisture in chipboard or MDF that's it goosed.

I'd assume all of the plinths would've been affected that's not really a massive cost but the cabinets would normally be raised on the plastic feet.

Have you actually inspected the cabinets? They shoudl be pretty easy to slide out and replace
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Yeah as soon as theres moisture in chipboard or MDF that's it goosed.

I'd assume all of the plinths would've been affected that's not really a massive cost but the cabinets would normally be raised on the plastic feet.

Have you actually inspected the cabinets? They shoudl be pretty easy to slide out and replace
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Yeah, all the plinths are gone, they were ruined. No plastic feet on the cabinets, they are standing on the end panels - they all look like this (some worse than others):

OOlBITZ.png
 
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Ayebsoona s any water gets into that it's knackered :(

If its over a few years old (lack of plastic feets) then I doubt you'd be able to replace in sections and have it match.

Owt else been said by ins co?
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Ayebsoona s any water gets into that it's knackered :(
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Yup, seems a ridiculous thing to make a kitchen out of, especially with unsealed ends like that! (I guess that's why modern ones are on the plastic feet!)

~Divine~Wind~ said:
If its over a few years old (lack of plastic feets) then I doubt you'd be able to replace in sections and have it match.

Owt else been said by ins co?
Click to expand...

Nope, not heard anything else, they're waiting for us to ask them to send their builders round, or to provide quotes from our own builder.

After discussing with the OH we decided we'd rather use our own and pay extra to have some changes made, but actually finding someone to come out and quote is proving challenging :(
 
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TBH I have seen far worse than that in the past and people happily carrying on as normal.
Normally water leaks from under sink or water based appliances.
New kickboards on the front and you would be non the wiser whats behind.
Once dried out will functionally be little different to they were before.

The problem is end panels if you have them as obviously they are harder to hide.
(Although you can use stuff like skirting)

It sounds like you were not ready to replace the kitchen, I would give some thought to taking the money, doing a simple touch up job (new kick boards etc) and saving for a new kitchen when it suits you.

Surprised you haven't pulled all that builders rubbish from under there, all that will be storing moisture as well.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
TBH I have seen far worse than that in the past and people happily carrying on as normal.
Normally water leaks from under sink or water based appliances.
New kickboards on the front and you would be non the wiser whats behind.
Once dried out will functionally be little different to they were before.

The problem is end panels if you have them as obviously they are harder to hide.
(Although you can use stuff like skirting)

It sounds like you were not ready to replace the kitchen, I would give some thought to taking the money, doing a simple touch up job (new kick boards etc) and saving for a new kitchen when it suits you.
Click to expand...

That's certainly something we've considered - obviously depending on how much they actually end up paying out then we might not have much choice. We'd need to at least replace a couple of the end panels which have been damaged when removing the kick boards, plus some of the internal shelves which are swollen and bowing, drawers & worktop around the sink, which have quite a bit of mould on them.

Levelling compound on the floor needs removing and replacing as well before any new flooring can go in; it's cracking and coming loose as it's drying out.

Hallway & Living room need plaster repair & repainting where the skirting has been removed.

That's all stuff I can do myself, but at what point is it easier just to replace the lot than fitting odd bits here and there which don't quite match and need a bit of "bodging" to fit? Also not sure I have the energy for it, since I spent several months doing it all 18 months ago and was hoping to take a break from constant DIY before moving onto another project!

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Surprised you haven't pulled all that builders rubbish from under there, all that will be storing moisture as well.
Click to expand...

It's an older photo, we were told to leave it until the asbestos test/removal had been done
 
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Yeah if you'd rather with all the hassle do summit different im sure you can ask for simply cash in Leiue of repair like you can with cars.
Would need a concise list of what needs done and cost tho for them to come to an about.

Absolutely ludicrous that the asbestos was just a single tile stuffed under the units.
2 bin bags and a bit tape would've solved that.
 
3-4 Weeks seems optimistic do dry out. I had several undred litres of water back sypthon out of a fish tank, flooding my kitchen and hallway. Whole downstairs laminate was continuous so all had to be replaced, walls soaked a load. Up. I think the dehumidifiers were in for 12 weeks before it was dry enough to lay the new floor. It was a nightmare.

Thankfully the kitchen units were on plastic feet and the walls dried out ok, so just needed re-painting. Still cost over £8k total cost and that was about 10 years ago now
 
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Arrgh, why is it so hard to find a reliable builder?

We got the drying certificate just over a week ago - so ready to start reinstatement - and have been trying to get someone out to quote for the works, have a had a couple of builders agree to take a look, but then just not bother turning up at the agreed time.

Getting to the point we're just going to get the insurance to send their own builders out and put it back how it was - even if it's not exactly how we want it, it will save us a few ££ and at least then we'll have someone to shout at! :mad:
 
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