Water leak/Ceiling 'collapse'

SKILL

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SKILL

Soldato
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Melksham
So yesterday was an amazingly **** day :p

I was out all day, then after getting back and dossing around a bit it took me till 10pm ish before I noticed dripping from my kitchen ceiling, after some frantic messing around but ultimately achieving nothing I ended up calling a plumber, simple enough problem it's the flex pipe on the hot water tap for the bathroom sink, so he isolated it and will come around today to fix.

He suggested I 'drill' a hole through the kitchen ceiling to let the water out into a bucket, did that and it went from a stream to drips and over the next couple of hours the drips got further apart, all good.

Went to bed only to wake up to a noise at 3am, think initially it's in the bathroom but as I'm looking into there I hear a noise below, go downstairs to see a chunk of ceiling missing and a mess on the floor of the kitchen, oh fun.

Looks like it had been leaking a little bit for a long time, what's left of the ceiling (it's basically one panel gone, but of damage to some surrounding ones) seems secure but yeah, not what I wanted 1.5 months into a new house, I'm hoping the home insurance (and all the 'trimmings' I got with it) will cover it because I aint exactly cash rich at the moment :p
 
Just check out your excess and what it will likely do to your premium next year.

Replacing a sheet of plasterboard and painting is a day and half work and a small amount of materials. If that's all it is.
 
maccapacca said:
Just check out your excess and what it will likely do to your premium next year.

Replacing a sheet of plasterboard and painting is a day and half work and a small amount of materials. If that's all it is.
Click to expand...

Even ringing them and asking can go down as a no value claim which can increase premiums so research first.
 
Good point, so far I'm just down the plumbers fee which I think I could claim back if necessary, I went through Halifax and got the 'Home Emergency Cover' which may cover it.

I don't have any 'no claims bonus' on the buildings side if that makes any difference? I think I've got 2 years on the contents side and I pay the two seperately?

The ceiling itself looks to be plasterboard, currently very wet even some of the bits still up there, some form of paper/covering and then that 'artex' style pattern on top, which I don't care for and don't mind if there's a mismatch really so perhaps doing it myself is the way to go.

Guessing either way giving it a day or two, or more?, to dry out is the way to go?
 
A sheet of plasterboard shouldn't be any more than about £10.

If the hole is in the middle of a sheet, just cut a straight line either end across the width of the board and break the hole out to where the joints on either side are with the next board. Cut the new board to size, make sure to buy the same thickness as the type you have. Screw new board to ceiling joists with some short screws so as not to go right through joists. Tape the joints and then ideally skim over with some plaster skim the whole ceiling. The skimming is what will cost if you can't do it yourself.
 
Oh I think that Halifax emergency cover might cover the making good from such an event and I don't think it effects your no claims on the buildings / contents cover as we've had to use it ourselves a couple of times.
 
Thought I'd take a picture to show you guys,

Damaged Ceiling

It's a fairly sizeable hole really, and the damage to the surface at least spreads onto other boards, so likely to need multiple new sheets.

Which doesn't really change that much, as you say plasterboard is pretty cheap.

thenewoc, that's interesting to hear, definitely going to need to read up on that, if it doesn't affect no claims or anything it's a no brainer.
 
Your insurance will make a massive meal of it, they will need to test the artex first for asbestos, if found expect a full decontamination, strip out and replacement.

When you said new house I thought you meant New.
 
For context I had one small hall soaked ceiling and the quote to remove asbestos, repair and make good was in excess of £9,500, I know this as I got my own quote for £9,500 and they sent me a cheque and said sort it out yourself, god knows what their Contractor wanted.
 
Take down the old ceiling, put up a new boards. That bit can be done without any real expertise, it's just messy and awkward if you don't have a helper. Then either tape and fill or if you want a nicer finish pay a plasterer to skim it.


Alternatively get a plasterer or general builder to do the whole job, it won't be very expensive.

I'd never go through insurance for that.
 
There's definitely some kind of backing 'paper', I've taken a few pictures to try and show what it's like from an edge:

Front
Side-on
Back

On the insurance/diy/pay for it myself side of things, the reason insurance is semi-tempting is that as mentioned I've only just bought the place and it was a stretch so money is very tight and likely need to be buying a 'new' (cheap) car next month.

DIY is financially more doable but I already have a list of DIY to do that I'm failing to do in any kind of decent timescales.

Insurance seems the 'easy' way out possibly for getting it fixed properly/asap, but also not the best, still undecided.
 
Funny stuff artex Sometimes it comes off in sheets like that especially if it's been applied direct to paint. Sometimes it's thick sometimes it's paper thin it just depends on who and what applied it.

I wouldn't touch it till I knew what it was. It probably contains asbestos.
 
:eek: I really don't like that word :p

Been doing a bit of reading and does seem like it's worth getting tested, the bit that forms the structure is white (like Asbestos) rather than the pink-ish colour of plaster.
 
maccapacca said:
Just check out your excess and what it will likely do to your premium next year.

Replacing a sheet of plasterboard and painting is a day and half work and a small amount of materials. If that's all it is.
Click to expand...

And TBH, you don't even need to paint the board - just get it up to replace what has failed and worry about making it look pretty when you have the cash. It is something you could easily do with the help of a friend. 20 mins work possibly? If that?
 
maccapacca said:
Funny stuff artex Sometimes it comes off in sheets like that especially if it's been applied direct to paint. Sometimes it's thick sometimes it's paper thin it just depends on who and what applied it.

I wouldn't touch it till I knew what it was. It probably contains asbestos.
Click to expand...

Great advice. Why are these things never straightforward?
 
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